Personally, as Tolliver writes, while she sang about young love and boys, Gore knew as a teen that she was a lesbian. She didn’t dare to come out to her family, much less to her fans …

Three albums, 1977’s Low and Heroes, followed by Lodger in 1979, remain essential listening not only because the songs range from the instrumentally gothic “Warsawza” to the crowd-pleasing “Heroes,” but also because they anticipate the ’80s, when Bowie would reinvent himself once more as the poperatic singer of “Modern Love” and “Let’s Dance.”