David Bowie, R.I.P.

(edited 1/19/16)

It's taken me a week or so to compose some brief thoughts on the death of David Bowie.  I intentionally used the word "death", in stead of softer euphemisms like "passing", although I'm not really sure that "passing" wouldn't be more appropriate.  I don't think I believe in reincarnation, but if anyone were to pull it off, it would be him.  His entire career is one reincarnation after another after all.  I always liked the songs I had heard in the 70's and 80's when I was a kid, but it wasn't until the 90's that I became a true fan, in part greatly due to the song above.

I am generally annoyed with how the press and most people usually handle an artist's death.  Having worked in a music store for years, it was inevitable that after someone died, you would get a run on albums that had been sitting on the shelf for years, and of course, many requests for the attention-span starved Greatest Hits collection.  It became so rote, that it would affect my inventory ordering; I would simply know to stock up as soon as I found out.  With the elitism of my twenties (which I will admit will shine through here again for a bit), it annoyed me because it seemed like people should pay attention to a great artist while they were still around to appreciate it, not after the fact and only through some sort of automaton-like response brought on by the popular zeitgeist.  "Why do you not already own this album," I would say in my head, or if I was feeling particularly arrogant, out loud.

One of the bigger personalities that left such a hole was Johnny Cash.  While not as changing as Bowie, he was certainly as influential, and he did have different eras of his sound.  Towards the end of his life, you could tell how fragile he was (I'm particularly talking about the American recordings); his music became more bare, more intimate.  After his wife died, even more so.  World-weariness creaked out of his soul and into his voice and music.  I mention this, because not only was Bowie a similarly large star, but to also point out the differences and similarities in their deaths and their art as reinterpreted by their deaths.

The main difference, is that for most (in fact almost all) people, Bowie's death was sudden and unanticipated.  He had been living quietly and privately for quite a while, in fact, before 2013's The Next Day, there had already been rumors of his illness and/or death.  In retrospect, it shouldn't have been a surprise at all.  What people are saying now, is that Blackstar was his goodbye note.  And they're not wrong, but the elitist 20-something in me is somehow annoyed by the way they are saying it I guess.  First of all, Blackstar isn't an album; it's seven songs, two of which were previously released on a three disc retrospective that came out last year (another clue?).  More importantly, people aren't talking about The Next Day as being reinterpreted by his death.  It's as if they have already forgotten that his goodbye note was already foreshadowed in 2013.  All the things that have been said about that album are more true now than they were then.  It is a swansong; a culmination of every facet of his earlier incarnations; it is his final character, that of David Bowie.

Now I'm not saying I had predicted his death.  No, I was just as shocked as anyone.  I just mean that his career was perfectly end-capped with this final album, and that because of this, he must have known then that there wasn't much time left.  But, there are two songs in particular on his last release that are causing people to talk about his farewell to us, and after having seen the videos he shot for them, I have to eat a bit of crow and admit that yes, these are his goodbye notes to us after all.  A final meta-character of David Bowie (after The Next Day), shedding it's skins and identities and floating off into the universe.  And if we are as lucky as we have been, reincarnation is true, and his next form will surprise us in a new way when it reveals itself (and no, it is NOT Kanye West; that's just ridiculous).





I only hope I can be a graceful when I go.  I am sad, yes, but I am also content.  I am satisfied with his body of work, and am not left wondering what he would have done next.  It is sad, but not tragic. And I believe that he left the world in a better state than when he arrived.

Good night, alien.  Hallo Spaceboy.

(Hallo) Spaceboy,
you're sleepy now
Your silhouette is so stationary
You're released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don't you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
It's confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you
Cover you

This chaos is killing me

So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
Bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
This chaos is killing me

And the chaos is calling me
Yeah bye bye love

This chaos is killing me

Yeah bye bye love
Bye bye love
Good time love
Be sweet sweet dove
Bye bye spaceboy
Bye bye love

Moondust will cover you