For those who don't own a copy of the original edition - and even for those who do - the first volume of Chris O'Leary's excellent song-by-song Bowie study is about to be published in a considerably revised and expanded version, as depicted above.
Based on posts in his blog Pushing Ahead of the Dame, Rebel Rebel originally appeared in 2015. I haven't yet read the refashioned tome but with ten years to amass more information, drawing on memoirs published after Bowie's death as well as the posthumous release of so many outtakes and demos, there will be a lot of new stuff to enjoy - and in addition to analysis of newly unearthed songs there has been an all-round revision.
On a more personal note I have hopes that the reworked Rebel Rebel will Right a Great Wrong. Pushing Ahead of the Dame allowed readers to add their comments to the posts and I was one of many who added their two penn'orth. When I sighted a copy of the book in Foyles in 2015, I turned eagerly to the acknowledgements only to feel a surge of Pooterish dismay.
Readers of Diary of a Nobody will remember that among the humiliations heaped upon its lowly hero Charles Pooter is a newspaper's response to his complaints about being omitted from a list of guests in attendance at a social event:
When my name is finally returned to me on July 8th (publication date) I have every expectation that I shall be filled with a creative zeal the likes of which none has never known before and shall immediately proceed to make rapid, almost startling, advances on my own project ...
Oh, and it could have been worse, namewise: Adrian Dexter's recent study of British musical films saw fit to give me an entirely new identity - not that I bother about such trifles.
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