Dave Thompson

Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell: The Dangerous Glitter of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed

Published by Backbeat Books

Jan 22, 2010 Web Exclusive By Joe Ragusa Bookmark and Share

While the glam rock era of the early 1970s could arguably be one of the most scrutinized, mimicked, analyzed and ultimately eviscerated scenes in books, media, and copycat bands in recent years, Dave Thompson manages to put a new spin on his examination of glam by primarily focusing on that essential period from 1970-1973 when the lives of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed—arguably the triptych of vitality in glam rock—neatly dovetailed to create a monumental shift in the face of rock music. Doing away with the subjects' early lives, the book follows the trio as they enter their creative heights, revealing how for a time their destinies seemed as impossibly intertwined as something out of a chapter in The Celestine Prophecy. It was a time when the artists were at their most outrageous, and their creative endeavors spawned works that would someday be legendary—surrounded by a supporting cast of deliciously depraved characters and with manager Tony Defries of MainMan playing the eye of their glitter hurricane.

Thompson has a talent for relating the story in a compelling, dramatic fashion that can at times evoke a novel. Unfortunately though, his awkward sentence structures can be convoluted and confusing, breaking the flow of an otherwise smooth story. But despite his occasional embellishments in minor details for the sake of dramatic effect, the larger story he tells seems closer to the truth than many of the other biographies on glam's participants. He skewers the typical tall tales and rumors around the trio that seem to pass as truth nowadays, leaving an admittedly tamer but more accurate portrait. And with many of the book's quotes obtained by the author himself over the years, Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell feels more like a labor of love instead of a pastiche of facts and quotes put together by an opportunist just looking to score on a well regarded music scene. (www.davethompsonbooks.com)

Author rating: 7/10

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Insurance
August 21st 2010
12:22pm

Doing away with the subjects’ early lives, the book follows the trio as they enter their creative heights,