My heart just sank... Bowie was one of those artists that changes lives, including my own. Hard to believe his life force will no longer be with us.
Legendary artist and avid Karl Pilkington fan. I will be watching The Man Who Fell to Earth tonight . . . . RIP David.
^ His friend, Mr. Pop, for one. Nasty news to wake up to. Bursts a bubble that you didn't realize was in place.
Rough thing to wake up to on a Monday, especially since I've really been getting into 80's music lately. RIP.
I was very sad to hear about this this morning. When I turned on the news this morning, and they were talking about him, I had trouble registering what they were saying and actually just thought, no, it must be something about his just released album. I am honestly really feeling it. Really sad to hear about his passing. He was - and will forever be - a legend. A proper artist in every sense of the word. As musician and performer, he was a visionary and revolutionary. He didn't just raise the music of the time to new levels, he created his own levels. He refuted definition in all the best ways. For any person who's career spanned five decades, and was always of the highest calibre, his discerning critique of his own work and creativity is something many people could learn from. He never stopped challenging the industry or himself. Just when you thought your mind was blown, he had the capacity to reinvent himself again. Not just his music, but who he was and what he gave us, his ethic and social commentary; he brought something genuinely unique - and we are better for it. It is a great loss to this world, one which generations will feel. While I am happy to see Blackstar was released as a farewell ode to him, I am sad that it had to come this way. Farewell Starman, thank you so much for everything you have given this world. I hope your journey continues on to explore all the limits of imagination which you envisioned in your life.
I have not heard Blackstar yet but anyone looking for the latest "great" Bowie record should consider The Next Day Extra It's the version with all the bonus tracks and the DVD of videos that came out November of 2013. Some of the bonus tracks are by far my favorite.
As a young kid, I grew up listening to my dad play Bowie. As a lame teenager, obsessed with Trent Reznor's work and anything he was a part of, I found Bowie again via Earthling. As a grown man, today sucks. This video and the song's lyrics are pretty haunting:
And a little jammie from the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0szJp8sKzP0 The B-side of his sixth single, only his third as Bowie, from the year before his album debut. Always loved this song.
I was nearly incapacitated by this news yesterday... heartsick all day. I had been finally checking out Blackstar the day before, and really enjoying... and also enjoying the idea that he was only 69, and would likely be with us here for years to come. Bowie meant a lot to me- as he did for countless others globally, he influenced the way I thought about writing music, performance, costuming, make-up and, most importantly, was an exemplar of consciously-evolving, future-focused personhood. The way he embodied change points toward the potential we all have to do the same, and for society at large to evolve past the rigid constructs/roles that keep us stuck and isolated. It takes a big leap into vulnerability and an empathetic understanding that we're all pretty weird/that the human experience is deeply weird, to be so greatly successful in that. Living with stranger things, loving the alien... that has always felt right to me, and I'm guessing it does to most of you, too. To me it's particularly poignant that DB should leave us now, with the darkness of lizard-brained right-wing nationalist-nativist movements across the globe. In any case, as I was heartbroken with the shock and grief, I was also joyful that the man could have a conscious, artistic passage, and thankful for his parting gift of bringing us into that, a bit. I hadn't actually gotten to watch the Lazarus vid 'til last night. Fucking... wow. "Oh, I've got terminal cancer? Right, time to assemble a crack band and put together a ripping last work." The Onion nailed it... I love it when the Onion goes sweet: http://www.theonion.com/graphic/universe-honors-david-bowie-emotional-starlight-vi-52142
