Tuesday 12th December
Whatever I was going to write about has been totally eclipsed (like the star he was) by the terrible news of the death of David Bowie. I haven’t felt this way since John Lennon was shot. David Bowie became the soundtrack to my life, especially during the turbulent Seventies when David amazed us all with his constant ch..ch..changes. I had loved Space Oddity in 1969 and was surprised he didn’t have a follow-up single. Then the Beatles broke up and it seemed as if an era was over. But David re-emerged with Hunky Dory and the brilliant Ziggy Stardust. And in many ways he took over the mantle of The Beatles themselves; he soaked up musical influences like a sponge, absorbed them into his own music and gave them back to us, enhanced and original and brilliant. After three albums as Ziggy, David surprised us all by decamping to America and recording the soulful Young Americans and the more abrasive Station to Station (incidentally Fame and Across the Universe were recorded with John Lennon). Then we were just as equally stunned by the Berlin Trilogy recorded with Brian Eno and full of weird instrumental tracks which I grew to love almost above all his records. Then came a more familiar sound with Scary Monsters, a slight pause before the incredible collaboration with Nile Rodgers that was Let’s Dance.
At this point he was untouchable but the next few records were a bit direction-less. He formed Tin Machine and again I wasn’t sure but grew to like them. Of late he has embraced Dance Music, Drum and Bass and even made a Sci-Fi Murder Mystery Album. He gave up touring a few years ago after a heart scare but re-emerged to everyone’s surprise a year ago with a new album The Next Day.
Of course it is all so obvious now; David knew he was dying and wanted to leave us with some of his best work. His latest album Blackstar was recorded late last year and amazingly was only released on Friday 8th January, his 69th Birthday. I have been watching it on you-tube, especially the songs Lazarus and Blackstar. He has made videos for these two which are amazing. In fact Lazarus begins with the lines “Look up here, I’m in Heaven.” Just as almost everything which Bowie touched – it is brilliant, what other star could have ever conceived his own epitaph.
