‘Me and Mr. Jones’ Is a First-Hand View of David Bowie’s Rise to Superstardom, in All Its Glory and Cruelty: Book Review
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Considering the vast number of books published every year about David Bowie — or, for that matter, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Prince — a new one had better have either fresh info or fresh insights.
Thankfully, Suzi Ronson’s “Me and Mr. Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars” delivers on both counts. Ronson, of course, is the wife of the late Mick Ronson, Bowie’s lead guitarist and primarily musical collaborator from the “Ziggy Stardust” years, a gifted and trained musician whose work is prominent on the singer’s albums from the era, as well as ones by Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople, Dana Gillespie and others.
She spent just a year in Bowie’s orbit, but it was close and intense: She first met Bowie’s wife at the time, Angie, while working in a hairdresser’s shop near the couple’s London-area home, gradually became friends and eventually, after months of vague promises, was asked by Bowie’s Svengali-esque manager, Tony Defries, to accompany the fast-rising star on tour as his wardrobe and hair specialist.
She was swept up into that whirlwind quickly, initially joining for British dates, then a long American tour and then, over just the first half of 1973, another American tour, two weeks in Japan, and two more British tours.
Read more on variety.com
