It's hard to read David Bowie's "Stay" described as "blistering" after you've listened to metal. I don't doubt that the guitar parts of "Stay" are demanding or difficult, but they're just not that fast. And that's what I take "blistering" to mean when it's used to describe music.
Though, I think that that's the problem when it comes to writing about music. Unless you're writing for a group of people that have listened to the same things that you have. Music is just too subjective to write about with precision.
Thankfully, though, Seabrook's veered away from music writing over the last few pages. He's come at last to Bowie's moving to Berlin. In doing so he's started to get more into Bowie's character and personality at the time. Reading that Bowie's bandleader Carlos Alomar described him as "a pseudo-intellectual" (70) definitely puts a different spin on my listening to Bowie's stuff.
Not that it takes anything away from it, but rather, it forces me to consider just how creativity works.
Seabrook does mention that Bowie would always have books with him. Though from Seabrook's description Bowie rarely studied much in depth. Such a broad interest and his "near-constant desire to grow and change" (70) lead me to believe that Bowie's creative process involves aggregating information and putting it through his own personal filter.
If this process can make things like David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Diamond Dogs that's fine with me. Even if "blistering" isn't a great word to describe any of Bowie's work.
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