David Bowie

[allegro]

I've never listened to a new piece of music with the understanding that it is has a fleeting and immediate force, and all of that hinges on the fact that Bowie was the musician that first made me really love music. The last thing he did was make music.

I had this experience that everybody is having with John Lennon's / Yoko Ono's "Double Fantasy" because they had JUST released it and then John Lennon was murdered at the age of 40. And here I was listening to this album with songs on it like "Starting Over" and songs about his wife or about his little boy and he'd released this glorious "come back" album, and then he was gunned down in front of his apartment and it was just so fucking senseless and you just felt so ... ripped off. And I just became consumed by grief. I mean, I couldn't stop crying for two weeks, I'd burst into tears at work and would have to go hide in the bathroom until it went away. And I don't think it was "just" about that, it was maybe because it was a cruel awakening to the reality of the world in which we are living? A man of peace and love shot in the head?

Then George Harrison died of cancer at 58 in 2001. Wtf.

I don't think that Bowie's death is making me feel AS overwhelmed by grief. I'm still kind of "surprised" by it, I see the headlines even this afternoon and go, "wait, what? Really?" it all seems so surreal. But it's not as brutal for me as Lennon's murder and listening to Double Fantasy, because Bowie is 69. It's not as "old" as he could have been but it's one year older than my grandfather was when he died of pancreatic cancer.

I think this plus the album is making me feel my own mortality and that of the people around me more than anything. Which I think may be Bowie's intention, actually.

It's weird, because on my birthday (same day as Bowie's) my husband and I were at dinner and I was talking with him about mortality, about how - especially once you get past middle age - you wake up and go HOLY SHIT and kind of do this "reverse math" and realize just how many years you MIGHT have left, if you're lucky. And it can scare the shit out of you. And it's given me some anxiety lately, until I start trying to focus more on some metaphysical thoughts or Buddhist thoughts or other "this can't ONLY be it" thoughts, like Plato's forms or the Matrix kinds of stuff, because mortality isn't only scary, it's pretty fucking boring and I just don't want to miss out.

And I think this album isn't just about Bowie's death; it's about my death, our death, everybody's death and even what happens later, and also about life and rebirth.

I had *just* listened to the other day and even posted it here in the music forum (Positive Music) and that is known to have 4 movements that are like a succession of life: life, death, rebirth and joy. The 2nd movement is so fucking powerful and it's been stuck in my head since this past weekend ( ) but NOW it's REALLY stuck in my head.

[artdeco]

From the telegraph: Eno also revealed that the pair had considered working together again. "About a year ago we started talking about Outside, the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that."

I would have loved that.

[howdidislipinto]

After fifty-plus years of work as an artist it would be rueful indeed to have the world count dying as one of your achievements. Please let's remember his work instead.

Totally understand where you and allegro are coming from. The way I see it though, the album and the video and all the other stuff are how he wanted US to see his death -- the fans, the public, whatever. The personal, brutal side of death, was something he wanted to keep to himself and his family and close friends -- as evidenced by his reclusiveness. But from my perspective, especially with how he told Visconti this was a last gift to us, the artistic experience is his sole commentary on how he wanted the public to see his death. And as a fan, I think that's beautiful, and something no one else (that I know of) has ever been able to achieve, and that's how I choose to see it. To me -- he made death his bitch. He owned it and turned it into something beautiful -- and yes, artistic. I like that.

[allegro]

But from my perspective, especially with how he told Visconti this was a last gift to us, the artistic experience is his sole commentary on how he wanted the public to see his death. And as a fan, I think that's beautiful, and something no one else (that I know of) has ever been able to achieve

I take it you've never read "Tuesdays with Morrie."

Remember, too, that the Biblical story of Lazarus is a story of resurrection.

[piggy]

I've been a fan since 1997, via our very own TR. Bowie's been special to me since 2001, when listening to my ex-best friend's vinyl copy of Changesonebowie got me through my first major depressive episode. "Rebel Rebel" for the win.

I was barely out of the womb when John Lennon died, now I know what the adults of 1980 must have felt like. When I saw him in the "Lazarus" video, I thought to myself that he might be dying. He just looked so... not right. I have teared up so many times today just at the sheer magnitude of his influence and presence in people's lives.

[Shadaloo]

The dancing chicks with oxygen tanks and Broadway love story stuff made me get up and leave at some point. Don't say I didn't warn ya. The COVER should have warned you enough, he looks like David Hasselhoff on Baywatch.

lol...I've been enough of a Bowie scholar to know what I was getting into when I picked up the damn thing. I warned myself, but did it anyway.

I initially just went in for the CDs, but finally settled in with the DVD tonight after like three months. I think I delayed watching it out of fear.

But I don't regret it for a second. He was having the time of his life up there, looked like. Some things worked, others didn't, but I think he'd want us to remember the silly moments as much as the serious. He excelled at them both, after all. He could sell anything.

[Your Name Here]

...................

[Jinsai]

and now, to cheer ourselves up a little bit...

[Baphomette]

I had this experience that everybody is having with John Lennon's / Yoko Ono's "Double Fantasy"...

You expressed this beautifully.

[Baphomette]

I'll join in @Jinsai
So bad, it's still bad.

[thevoid99]

I'll join in @Jinsai
So bad, it's still bad.

Family Guy. And we all let it happened. It's still a hilarious video.

[Substance242]

I still have in front of my eyes how I logged in here yesterday, new posts, and 3rd line from top was "RIP David Bowie".

Btw, my ★ order is still processing...

[elevenism]

for some reason, this was comforting to watch.
seeing him alive and happy, performing for a small audience, really helped take the edge off.

Also,
i've been ruminating on what David Bowie's biggest contribution to rock music was, and i think it was ART. He single-handedly elevated rock music to a true art form, and inspired his contemporaries and generations to come to do the same.
He even turned the subject of his own impending death into a work of art, fighting through cancer and heart attacks to release an album scattered with introspective and self referential lyrics. the meaning of which came suddenly and sharply into focus upon his death.

He lived his public life as a work of art. I would go so far as to say that, at least in terms of his public persona, HE was a work of art.

[fillow]

A little fun for a ch-ch-change

[andre78]

Never the death of an artist took me so hard as Bowie's. Felt so bad, made me want to cry. Just a few weeks ago I went to LA and felt myself obligated to take a pic of his Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Heard from it yesterday morning and couldn't event write something here. And today, reading people rave about him here, helped me feel better - it translated much and more of what I am feeling. Thanks ETS.

I'll take as he's retired, vanished. Felt good to know that he's gone peacefully. He will not dead as I continue to hear his voice and music every single day. For ever and ever.

Written while listening to "Absolute Beginners".

[elevenism]

@andre78 , i adore that song and have been covering it for years

[GulDukat]

Gave the new album a listen and it's great. Definitely one to check out.

[botley]

I think it's great that people are allowing the art to transmute their experience of this loss. If we view death as another transition on life's journey, as many religions do, then sure — death is something Bowie wore well, at least in public. But I don't want to get romantic about him as an icon, or lose sight of how hard and sad it is for his loved ones to see him go in the name of yet another art project. That's not what dying is, even when it helps to frame the work with context. Dying just sucks.

This isn't the "only uncool thing" he ever did, either, as a tweet I saw going around a lot yesterday said. He was complicated, and the guy could be fantastically cruel to people he considered 'beneath' him; particularly women, in his earlier years (if the stories that those close to him have remembered are true). He exploited his privileges with underage groupies — of course, like most rock stars tear-assing around LA in the Seventies did — but that doesn't excuse it or make it consensual for an older man to behave that way. Work of art he was not.

Champion for racial equality, for gender liberation, for fashion as self expression, for artistic fearlessness — yes, he was all of those. And an indelibly profound performer, whose presence I'll never forget as long as I live.

[allegro]

Yup, he absolutely was one of the guys screwing underage groupies back in the day, and it was common knowledge (and just plain common) back then (and something I didn't understand, the rock stars or the groupies) but I wonder why people are choosing the day after his death to circulate this; well, no I don't. As far as misogyny, I think that just came with the job and the majority of them were that way back then; it was part and parcel with their persona. And ego. A lot of them still have that persona, now (not mentioning names, snort). But, your point is good: Bowie's history was long, and he was no Angel. Sometimes he was just full of shit. Because he was a human artist.

Champion for racial equality, for gender liberation, for fashion as self expression, for artistic fearlessness — yes, he was all of those. And an indelibly profound performer, whose presence I'll never forget as long as I live.

This, exactly.

[perceptionnexus]

It's really hard to not hear Blackstar more as a eulogy now, and oddly enough in my experience it makes for a yet even more intriguing album. It really is fantastic.

Like many others, I haven't been this bothered by the death of a musician or celebrity in my life. It's so weird, really felt like I knew the man. It's so great to see the world celebrating his art so passionately right now. Hopefully many new Bowie fans being created as well, either young or old.

[GulDukat]

It's really hard to not hear Blackstar more as a eulogy now, and oddly enough in my experience it makes for a yet even more intriguing album. It really is fantastic.

Same for John Lennon's Double Fantasy and Nirvana's Unplugged.

[screwdriver]

Yup, he absolutely was one of the guys screwing underage groupies back in the day, and it was common knowledge (and just plain common) back then (and something I didn't understand, the rock stars or the groupies) but I wonder why people are choosing the day after his death to circulate this; well, no I don't. As far as misogyny, I think that just came with the job and the majority of them were that way back then; it was part and parcel with their persona. And ego. A lot of them still have that persona, now (not mentioning names, snort). But, your point is good: Bowie's history was long, and he was no Angel. Sometimes he was just full of shit. Because he was a human artist.


This, exactly.

the Rolling Stone interview with him and Burroughs from the 70s was making the rounds yesterday and I was struck by just how full of shit I found Bowie to be, and then I remembered -- who cares? the true artist has art that speaks for itself. I stopped reading the interview and cranked up Station to Station.

[elevenism]

people are awful in general. i don't mean that in a misanthropic, "humans are a cancer on the earth" kind of way, but if subjected to an intense level of scrutiny, of course we all have failings, some of us more so than others.
@botley , note that when i said that bowie was himself a work of art, i said in terms of his "persona." I was referring to the way he "portrayed himself." To me, he took the idea of fame itself and stylized it, as do his spiritual successors like Manson and Lady Gaga.

as far as things like who someone fucked, i try not to let these things stain my perception of an entertainer's work. it can be quite disillusioning, as i learned the hard way when peter steele tried to fuck my 16 year old girlfriend in 1996.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to deify ANYONE. But i DO romanticize him as an icon, while still bearing in mind that what i know of him is a carefully crafted enigmatic image.

That's what i meant when i said that his public persona was a work of art.

[botley]

"humans are a cancer on the earth"

The words to illustrate your point here could have been better chosen.

[elevenism]

The words to illustrate your point here could have been better chosen.

oh christ.
yeah, it didn't cross my mind.
or maybe it DID, subconsciously. i've been thinking about cancer a lot, as someone close to me is looking as though he's about to succumb to it.
then bowie dies and i'm remembering all the people i watched die from it in my five years as a cna. it fucking sucks.

[perceptionnexus]

It's frustrating when this kind of media attention comes about in the wake of someone's passing. I mean, he was BOWIE. But the guy in reality was a still a fallible human being who made mistakes like everyone else. I don't feel it's anyone's place to judge the man. If he was guilty of pedophilia back then (and not making justifications, but yes the 70s were a wayyyyyyyyy different era than today), I'm sure he reconciled those things long ago.

[allegro]

It's frustrating when this kind of media attention comes about in the wake of someone's passing. I mean, he was BOWIE. But the guy in reality was a still a fallible human being who made mistakes like everyone else. I don't feel it's anyone's place to judge the man. If he was guilty of pedophilia back then (and not making justifications, but yes the 70s were a wayyyyyyyyy different era than today), I'm sure he reconciled those things long ago.

Whooooooaaaaah ... Rock Stars having sex with willing 14-yr-old groupies in the 70s (whose PARENTS usually knew about it and seemingly ENDORSED this behavior, like "yeah, bring home the cash cow, girls") and where there was a NATIONAL MAGAZINE sold at grocery stores seemingly promoting this activity is NOT PEDOPHILIA (which is a predatory mental illness). I didn't understand it as a t'ween at the time (I was a weird intellectual not-at-all-sexual t'ween who thought boys had Kooties), my MOM was just talking with me remembering this stupid shit, too, it was just accepted as "normal" for whatever reason and today's society probably finds it as reprehensible now as I did as a t'ween back then, but ADULTS and other teens around my age found it totally acceptable so whatever. But, no, pedophilia is an altogether different thing. Just like Elvis moving a 14-yr-old Priscilla into Graceland with her parents' permission, although they were supposedly chaperoned at all times and didn't go, um, "all the way," Rock Stars with cash had a lot of pull with parents and teens. To this day, I cannot see the appeal of a teenager to a normal adult other than "because I can."

If any of you have seen Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," that is an absolutely spot-on portrayal of the reality of the 70s. Which, of course, is disgusting but it's too late to change history. Maybe we can learn from it, though. Don't put our idols too high up on pedestals.

[marodi]

I'll join in @Jinsai
So bad, it's still bad.

But it is awesomely bad! And it was recorded for Live Aid so it deserves good points for that.

I came across this yesterday. One of my favorite song (I have many of those) is Under Pressure and someone have posted the isolated vocals of it. You'll say that Bowie was upstaged by Mercury but who wouldn't be? He was Freddie Mercury, damn it!

And now I missed them both like crazy.

https://soundcloud.com/charlotte-a-c...sure-a-capella

[implanted_microchip]

W're all forgetting the better version of Dancing In the Street:

[Twiggy]

Sad, Sad news...
My mum called me from Australia to tell me the news while i was still asleep.
My mum was so upset I thought it was a family or friend who died.
I guess he was just always a part of our lifes, his music, film, art, everything about him seemed to strike a chord, you just got lost in his music and who he was...

I will never forget living with one of my best friends in London who would always put the Dancing In the Street video and David Bowie on LIVE AID 85 on all the time... It was like a ritual for us...