David Bowie and the triumph, mystery and struggle of his third act

David Bowie and the triumph, mystery and struggle of his third act

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold February 3, 2026 Duration: 39:26

Bowie’s early years have been scrutinised repeatedly but people tend to speed through the last act, from the early ‘90s to his death in 2016. Alexander Larman’s ‘Lazarus: The Second Coming Of David Bowie’ looks at his resurrection and the mystery of his final days in Manhattan in attractively honest detail, a book that’s as fondly critical of his artistic decisions as it’s celebratory. Under discussion here …

 

… ‘David Bowie was a fictional invention and much of his life an act’

 

… how wrong so many album reviews turned out to be

 

… “he liked to be liked and he put a lot of effort into being liked”

 

… Eno, Tony Visconti, Nile Rodgers, Pet Shop Boys and his endless search for collaborators

 

… the Lucian Freud incident at the Dorchester

 

… Scott Walker’s taped message: “I see God in the window”

 

... “he trusted in the idea he was a genius”

 

… the sharp contrast been his public image and private life

 

… how his Lord’s Prayer at the Freddie Mercury tribute was a deliberate attempt to steal the show

 

… the piercing question Tin Machine were asked on ‘Wogan’

 

… and the struggle to find anything sincere in his interviews.

 

Order ‘Lazarus’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lazarus-Second-Coming-David-Bowie/dp/1917923449


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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