David Bowie died

January 11, 2016 • 6:30 am

I had no idea that David Bowie, the Chameleon of Music, had cancer, but he’d apparently been ill for 18 months. Sadly, he died from the disease yesterday at the young age of 69.  I just read a good piece in the New Yorker on his new album, but it didn’t mention he was sick.

The BBC has a nice obituary with pictures and videos; and the longer New York Times obit, with a slideshow, is here. The NYT also published a collection of tributes, ranging from Madonna to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I wasn’t a huge fan of his (I simply wasn’t aware of what he was doing), but he did record two songs that, to me, are classics: “Young Americans” and, especially, “Changes”. I’ll put them below. The best obituary, however, appeared today at the East Finchley tube station in London, tw**ted by Charlie Elliott:

https://twitter.com/charlienin/status/686471057801371648?s=03

“Changes”:

“Young Americans”:

If you liked Bowie, or have any favorite tunes, please weigh in below (try not to post YouTube videos, though!)

61 thoughts on “David Bowie died”

  1. Like you I was never a massive fan, but still had a (genuine, not metaphorical) tear in my eye when reading the news. And still do when typing this.

    Like Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones, even if you didn’t especially like his music, I guarantee that he had an enormous influence on at least some of the stuff that you do like.

    RIP indeed.

  2. Again, not a fan as such, but as a Brit in their mid-40s he was a massive part of our culture while I was growing up.

    A legitimate genius, and absolutely uncompromising in his approach.

    RIP

  3. Damn.

    He produced so much good music. He really was one of those few that shaped the music scene for decades. I’d be hard pressed to think of another artist with as many songs that I can sing along with nearly word for word, from Ziggy Stardust to Let’s Dance.

    My condolences to his friends, family & loved ones.

  4. Queen Bitch is my current favourite.

    Queen Bitch

    The guitarist in the video is Mick Ronson who died too young in 1993 and with whom David Bowie produced what in my opinion is the greatest rock album ever: Transformer.

    2. Yes. I love ALL the Bowie songs that appeared on The Life Aquatic… Queen Bitch, Life on Mars, Starman. And Sue Jorge’s Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs from that same movie are sublime (e.g. Sue Jorge/Starman, Sue George/Rock and Roll Suicide, Sue George/Five Years, and above all Sue George/Rebel Rebel).

      That movie is what turned me from someone who liked a couple of Bowie songs into an actual fan.

      Of course, there were a lot of songs I loved before then. Possibly my two favorite were:

      Space Oddity (Major Tom), and the version of the Queen song Pressure performed with Bowie, which is a truly excellent version of that song.

  5. Don’t believe in yourself
    Don’t deceive with belief
    Knowledge comes
    with death’s release

    I’m not a prophet
    or a stone age man
    Just a mortal
    with the potential of a superman
    I’m living on
    I’m tethered to the logic
    of Homo Sapien
    Can’t take my eyes
    from the great salvation
    Of bullshit faith

    David Bowie – Quicksand (Closest David comes to lyrical skepticism in my view) RIP x

    1. He wasn’t the greatest lyricist, but he had a few real gems. This is my favorite:

      They pulled in just behind the bridge
      He lays her down, he frowns
      Gee my life’s a funny thing, am I still too young?
      He kissed her then and there
      She took his ring, took his babies
      It took him minutes, took her nowhere
      Heaven knows, she’d have taken anything, yeah…

  6. My first concert, Bowie in Auckland 1983, one of the all time greats,
    Genre transcending genius.
    global warming just went up a few more degrees with the coolest dude on the planet gone 🙁

    1. Surely one of the worst song covers & most awful videos ever though, is to his credit – the duet with Jagger, Dancing in the Street from 1985…!!!

      1. is that the one with Jagger in the blue tracksuit in it? I might have suppressed it.

        1. YES! aaaaggghhh! Of course all for a good cause, but I think I would have paid to have them never do the video! 😉

    2. global warming just went up a few more degrees with the coolest dude on the planet gone 🙁

      This, exactly.

  7. I was never a huge fan of his but I liked some of his songs. My favourite is “Ashes to Ashes”. I also liked his film performances, particularly as a dying vampire in “The Hunger”. He died at the same age my father did, also after a struggle with cancer. Too young 🙁

    1. I was thinking about “The Hunger” as well. I haven’t seen it in years, but iirc, he was a good actor. I first watched “The Hunger” because of Peter Murphy’s appearance in the beginning, singing: “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. I think they were friends.

  8. I really liked Bowie’s music, especially as a teenager in the late 70s. I too am shocked by his death. He’s a huge loss to the music world.

  9. Ah, that’s what the comment in one of the earlier threads was about.
    Oh well, it wasn’t quick, so I hope he had good painkillers at least.

  10. Phenomenal talent! Ziggy stardust was an amazing song and a watershed album. Golden years and suffragette city stand out for me. And who can forget the song Fame written and performed in collaboration with John Lennon. Brilliant. RIP David Bowie.

    1. Suffragette City is an exhilarating, joyous, perfectly-formed three-minute pop song. That was the first Bowie song I heard that I actually liked. Brilliant.

    2. Yes my first thought in response to Jerry’s question was that you probably can’t think Bowie without:

      Suffragette City

      Ziggy Stardust

      Under Pressure (props too to Freddy Mercury)

      Space Oddity

      I won’t bother trying to be esoteric and say may fave was some B-side song only true fans would’ve heard of. The fact is, I would probably be able to sing along with many more songs than I could name, but if I go home and throw on a Bowie song or two to remember him by, it’ll be his more mainstream hits.

  11. This knocked me sideways as I had no idea he was ill, and he released an album fairly recently – he’s also one of those incredibly elegant stars who actually look better the older they get, who look healthier and younger than some people my age and younger… so this news is…shocking.

    His stuff never grabbed me as a teenager(although I loved Suffragette City) – I never liked the whole goofy Ziggy phase and the daft, overblown music it produced, but I have recently gotten into the mid seventies to early eighties Bowie: the Berlin trilogy, Statio-To-Station, etc. That was the most interesting period, with the thin white duke and Station-To-Station’s genius title track. I much preferred that chilly, streamlined magnificence to the cartoony early seventies stuff. It was only after that that he produced a clutch of utterly colossal songs – Changes, Heroes, Fame, etc.
    He also brought Iggy Pop back from the brink, basically writing most of Lust For Life(including Fall In Love With Me, which is one of the coolest sexiest songs either of them ever did) for him.
    The carping about never having written anything decent after the seventies is essentially true but irrelevant. Every truly great artist tails off at some point – I can’t think of an exception.

    Someone earlier in this comments section got it spot on – whatever you thought of him, whether you loved him or he left you cold, it’s impossible to deny that he was one of the true, true giants of rock and roll.

  12. Laughing Gnome – his undoubted greatest hit! 🙂

    I saw him in Tin Machine at the Dominion Tottenham Court Road in 1989 as my friend was a fan, but she did not like that phase of his. I queued from about 4am to get tickets! Over all though, he was not my cup of tea though he was influential on people I liked – DEVO. He was pretty good at ‘borrowing’ ideas & running with them, getting ahead of the crowd… eg http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/trynka-david-bowie-biography-review

  13. His 69th birthday was just last Friday, 8 January, and it was the day of the release of his last album, Blackstar.

    My favorite among his works is the Berlin Trilogy – the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger. For me, his two standout songs are Beauty and the Beast and Heroes.

  14. Ziggy Stardust was a classic and groundbreaker, a creative merger of rock and theatre.
    We’ve lost another musical genius.

  15. Big Bowie fan here. I too, was shocked; though I read that he’d been ill, I did not realize it was this serious. And with the new album just out, somehow it didn’t seem possible. My favorites would have to be “Man Who Sold the World” and “Modern Love.” Such a wonderful synthesis of the old and the new, the traditional and the nutty.

  16. I love Bowie. The Ziggy Stardust years are my favorites (the first side of that album is nearly perfect), but he produced great stuff throughout. Life of Mars is probably my all time favorite of his songs. If you don’t know it (or if you do), go listen to Life on Mars.

  18. The first album I bought was David Live in 1975, so it’s difficult to name a favourite Bowie song – I usually just recommend everything on Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust! Apart from those two completely awesome albums, there’s Time, Rebel Rebel (your face is a mess!), Fame, John I’m Only Dancing, Golden Years (gold, whop, whop, whop), Sound and Vision, Heroes (natch), Boys Keep Swinging, Ashes to Ashes, China Girl, As the World Falls Down, Absolute Beginners, Valentine’s Day, This Is Not America and don’t forget All the Young Dudes for Mott the Hoople and Lust for Life with Iggy Pop. He also did a pretty good job covering Wild is the Wind and who can forget The Little Drummer Boy with Bing!

  20. David Bowie also made some stellar contributions as an actor:

    the title role in director Nicolas Roeg’s incandescent “The Man Who Fell To Earth”,

    a World War II POW in Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima’s English-language “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,”

    and his terse, trenchantly underplayed Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation Of Christ.”

    1. Don’t forget The Hunger, The Prestige (playing Tesla no less) and of course Labyrinth.

    2. When I saw the GIF I mention at #28 below, I thought “That looks very like ‘Through a Scanner, Darkly‘, and THAT would have been an interesting film for Bowie to have made.”
      Probably some computer nerd could crank such a version out in a couple of weeks now. Another couple of weeks to mine his recorded speech to re-dub it.

  21. Sad news, like many I didn’t know that he was ill. Hard to be a teenager in England in the 70’s and miss his influence as well as a huge number of hits since. One of my favorite and rather more obscure tunes is Amsterdam recorded at the beeb in the late 60s (I think) just after the release of his eponymous first album

  22. To me, Bowie is the Miles Davis of his generation. Bowie moved seamlessly and credibly through so many pop/rock/??? styles.

    As a rock vocalist he had few peers, (who else could duet with Bing, Mick & Freddie?), as a producer he helped artists become their best.

    No matter what he did as a soloist, band member, guest artist or producer, it was always interesting, and it was always Bowie.

    The best line I read this morning was: If you feel sad today, remember this. The earth is 4.65 billion years old. Of all that time, you got to be here at the same time as David Bowie!

    I’m listening to LOW this morning. Warszawa is my favorite Bowie track.

  23. I’ve always liked “Space Oddity”. In fact, I named a cream Persian male cat after the character Major Tom. I think the song is a winner, and so was the cat, a grand champion at 9 months of age.

  24. The news stopped me in my tracks last night and my eyes instantly watered. I’m a “kind of fan,” really liking some of his songs growing up. But he was such a unique, vital and gracious figure.

    A couple years ago I attended a David Bowie exhibit comprising many of his costumes, artwork, writing, videos etc. It was really overwhelming just how much he had achieved, the fecundity of his artistic expression was really something.

    2. My friend put up a picture of him in Labyrinth and said in FB that this is how she will remember him.

  27. I am also sad to hear of his death. I cannot add more than what has been said here already.

  28. There’s an interesting GIF going around which contains 29 (I think) images of Bowie’s various styles over the decades.
    Various versions here.

  29. He was the consummate artist, creating a catalog of music ahead of its time. His legacy of innovation and musical artistry will live on and continue to inspire. RIP Mr. Bowie.

  30. Surprised how many here express a sentiment I would — not my favorite musician, but loads of respect. I liked a lot of his early music, but hated the phase in the early 80s where he was producing hit after hit. He actually said later that he also hated the music he was writing but “loved the money”. Soon went back to writing stuff I also didn’t like but found artistically ok (Tin Machine etc).

    I live around the corner from his old Berlin apartment and always think of him as I go by. (Better than thinking of Goebbels!) (Close by is the place where Goebbels gave an infamous speech. 25 years later it had turned into a concert venue and people like Hendriks and Zappa were performing on the same stage — incredible how times can change!)

    I was very touched by his recent song about Berlin, even though musically i don’t like it much. But the film clip and the sentiments are very moving — “walking the dead”.

    …And seeing as I’m a Neil Young fan, here’s Bowie covering a beautiful and under-appreciated song by Neil

  31. I was a LOT more aware of David Bowie as an actor than as a singer. My favorite movies, the sci-fi epic “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and the little-seen “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”. Also creditable “The Hunger” and “Labyrinth”.

    I remember seeing the film in which Julie Andrews plays a man “Victor Victoria” and thinking how much Andrews and Bowie looked alike.

    (Least fave Bowie work- his title song for the 1983 remake of the 40s horror classic “Cat People”.)

  32. I’m saddened to hear about his death. He’s etched into my childhood mind from the Labyrinth

    “Magic Dance”

    You remind me of the babe
    What babe? babe with the power
    What power? power of voodoo
    Who do? you do
    Do what? remind me of the babe

    I saw my baby, crying hard as babe could cry
    What could I do
    My baby’s love had gone
    And left my baby blue
    Nobody knew

    What kind of magic spell to use
    Slime and snails
    Or puppy dogs’ tails
    Thunder or lightning
    Then baby said
    Dance magic, dance . . .

  33. I named a d*g “Ziggy”, after the Bowie title, and that was always the best thing about the d*g–his name. Otherwise, he was a terrible animal, universally despised by people he bit, which was nearly everyone. Naturally, I adored him.

    With the passage of time and the acquaintance of other musicians and genres, David Bowie has drifted out of my awareness, except for a continued appreciation for his power to transcend labels. When I learned about Bowie’s death an hour ago, I was stunned to find myself weeping.

  36. A great multitalented musician has died 😢. As a German I have one favorite song (naturally): “Heroes” from the album of the same name.
    RIP, David Bowie!

  37. When I was younger I heard Space Oddity for the first time and loved it. I did not become a big fan of Bowie then.

    I was however a follower of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, and so was lead onto the ‘Berlin’ albums, which I think remain his best work.

    In the mid 1980s I saw him play live. Only one other musician has impressed me so much with a live show and that was Dizzy Gillespie. I was amazed how much energy, charisma and power Bowie was able to put into a performance.

    RIP Bowie. One of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.

  38. I’d suggest “Hunky Dory” was his best album. It was a commercial failure but there’s no weak track and a number of gems: “Life on Mars”, “Oh You Pretty Things”, “Changes”, “Kooks”. He’d struggled to follow up the success of “Space Oddity” (1969. Three albums were commercial failures before “Ziggy Stardust”(1972). It was regarded as a calculated attempt to become commercial after previous failures. His son, Duncan Jones – a successful film director, is a great credit to his dad. Many children of famous pop stars turn out badly. In the interviews I’ve heard Duncan seems like a modest and thoroughly decent person. Don’t know if the link will work but this was his last tweet.

    http://imgur.com/pzgSj3N

  39. first heard Bowie riding home from grandparents in the back seat of my parents sedan on KDKA. It was Space Oddity. I had no idea what it was and was all teary eyed over it. I knew I couldn’t ask my parents about it because they’d have no clue. Waited 10 years after that to find out what the song was and who sang it. No wonder I ended up a rather odd gal.

  40. Add me to the “not a big fan, but much respect for” crowd. What a talent to have lost! RIP, DB.

  41. I enjoyed Labyrinth as a child – but was never otherwise a fan. Nevertheless DB seems to have been a guy that everyone said was one of the best, so …

  43. Queen Bitch. From ‘Hunky Dory’. A tribute to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Features in the final scene and credits of ‘The Life Aquatic’ with Bill Murray. One of my favourites..

    I’m up on the eleventh floor and I’m watching the cruisers below
    He’s down on the street and he’s trying hard
    to pull sister Flo
    My heart’s in the basement, my weekend’s at an all time low

    ‘Cause she’s hoping to score so I can’t see her letting him go
    Walk out of her heart, Walk out of her mind

    She’s so swishy in her satin and tat
    In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat
    Oh God, I could do better than that

    She’s an old-time ambassador of sweet talking, night walking games
    And she’s known in the darkest clubs for pushing ahead of the dames
    If she says she can do it then she can do it,
    she don’t make false claims
    But she’s a Queen, and such are queens that your laughter is sucked in their brains
    Now she’s leading him on and she’ll lay him right down
    But it could have been me
    Yes, it could have been me
    Why didn’t I say,
    why didn’t I say, no, no, no

    She’s so swishy in her satin and tat
    In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat
    Oh God, I could do better than that

    So I lay down a while and I gaze at my hotel wall
    Oh the cot is so cold it don’t feel like no bed at all
    Yeah I lay down a while and I look at my hotel wall
    But he’s down on the street so I throw both his bags down the hall
    And I’m phoning a cab ’cause my stomach feels small
    There’s a taste in my mouth and it’s no taste at all

    It could have been me
    Oh yeah, it could have been me
    Why didn’t I say,
    Why didn’t I say, no, no, no

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