David Bowie, RIP
Just two day after releasing his latest album ★, David Bowie died Sunday January 10th at age 69 after an eighteen month battle with cancer. As a kid, Bowie was always on the radio. Those were such great songs (compiled on ChangesOneBowie), ones that I always wanted to sing along to, oh, and that guitar riff from Ziggy Stardust, it made me want to pick up a guitar and play! I remember the song he gave to Mott the Hoople, Little Drummer Boy with Bing Crosby on the TV, and the hype of the single Fame, the one he wrote with former Beatle John Lennon. As the years passed, so did records. Heroes was a favourite, but probably because of Robert Fripp's lead guitar, and of course, the song Joe The Lion. Never sure who Joe was, but I sure liked him. And Blackout. I worked at a record store when I was in high school, around the time of Scary Monsters. Amazing album and that amazing video Ashes to Ashes, and of course more Fripp. SHUT UP! I saw the Serious Moonlight tour in Germany in 1983. Earl Slick was playing guitar because Stevie Ray cost too much. A few years later, around the time of the Glass Spider tour, I was playing guitar. Of course, it was in an apartment to that album with Peter Frampton guested on, Never Let Me Down. Labyrinth was in there somewhere - wasn't that something - David Bowie and the Muppets? I am not an animal! After Tin Machine, I lost touch with him, momentarily regaining it with the Low Symphony and Earthling, but things then went dark. Bowie was afraid of Americans. He and I would only then revisit the past, usually when chancing upon a vinyl relic or Ryko reissue (with bonus tracks) just before it was destined for the shelf.
Of course, I was ready for the exhibit at the V&A when I took the family to the UK for that Easter weekend festival and a chance to show the girls who and what David Bowie Is. The Next Day was brilliantly unexpected and fresh: I bought it twice. Then he came to visit Chicago. Who knew?! Just before this Thanksgiving, news of a new album appeared, and then just before the new year, the video for Lazarus; my god, now the videos completely make sense.
RIP, Starman.
For the progressive listener, his The Man Who Sold the World is a vastly underrated album, again furthering that 1970 was indeed one of the most inventive years for rock music.
