Suzi Ronson (née Fussey) was no rock wife. True, she married a famous guitarist, but she didn't want to be defined by her man. "I see the life of a musician's girlfriend or wife laid out in front of me, and I know that's not where I want to be," she writes in the clear-sighted and demystifying Me and Mr. Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars.
Ronson was working at a London-area hair salon when a client started bragging about her son, who turned out to be David Bowie. Next thing Ronson knew, she was giving Bowie the spiky red mullet that helped define his Ziggy Stardust persona. In 1972, Ronson was hired to take charge of the band's hair, makeup, and costumes; she also joined the lads on tour ("My haircut is everywhere!"). After Bowie dissolved the band, she paired off with his now-a-free-agent guitarist, Mick Ronson, but without work, she felt like "the pathetic girlfriend, clinging on to my man, a position I never thought I'd find myself in."
Me and Mr. Jones is written in a present tense that often breathlessly recaptures the young Ronson's naïveté ("What will I say if David talks about Rimbaud, or Nietzsche?"). Although Ronson doesn't mention the day's feminist movement, the book's through line is her awareness of how the rock scene regarded women. Me and Mr. Jones is for Bowie aficionados but also for anyone interested in the unsung women who made classic-rock stars shine brighter. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer