David Bowie R.I.P

Sad

Blackstar was the first record he didn't appear on the sleeve.
Lyrics are about death, and dealing with his past and the legacy he leaves behind him

Awful, unexpected, but kind of makes sense somehow. Fuck. RIP.

Can't believe this. Had to scan multiple sources just to make sure it wasn't a hoax. :(

Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)

----------

I know something is very wrong
The pulse returns the prodigal sons
The blackout hearts, the flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes

damn, RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd5e1b_6YfE

Fucking cancer. Blackstar was his and ours last birthday preaent. Wouldn't be surprised if it was Euthanasia

I'm dying too/ i'm dying to

I noticed he was trending and I figured he'd just done a TV appearance or something to promote the album. Jesus.

Fuck. No way. I'll say more about this later when I've taken it all in. Right now I've gotta go and put "Lodger" on to my mp3 player for the journey to work today.

(Just turned on Skynews to hear Eamonn Hughes saying to a writer from Q magazine, "The important question of the day, is it Bowie or Bo-ie?" then, "... 'The Laughing Gnome', what was that all about?" I don't know, maybe he's in shock.)

(Now Eamonn Hughes asking Paul Gambaccini, "What about his acting, how serious was he about his acting?")

Just pulled "Five Years" up on YT and shared on FB...weeping.

... Eamonn Holmes that is... I'm losing it (xp)

SHOCKED!

Ah shit

RIP

genuinely emotional about this. sorry if i came off as flippant with the born 2wice embed. rest in peace to fucking david bowie.

Lool at me
I'm in heaven

FUCK

i am crying so much rn

RIP

RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMThz7eQ6K0

the fuck? damn

Fuck this shit

Absolutely gutted. RIP

Oh god such shocking news :(

rip starman

Grimmy just played a live-at-maida-vale version of "Ziggy Stardust" from 2002, good choice it could have come from any year.

Gambacini is now on gmtv, saying the same old

"What was he like as a person?"

Gambo carries on, ignoring the question, he obviously doesn't know.

(tbf, who does?)

RIP, eternal props for going all-out on the swansong, the guy loved to give his music no matter what

Yes, like Lou Reed in that respect.

https://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/images/medium/146-006-MIKE-ROCK.jpg

Keep going, Iggy!

(And Kenny)

Ned's post got me right in the ducts.

wow

don't quite know what to say. RIP.

we build up a sense of invulnerability in these rock gods...if they survived the 70s they'll live forever.

devastating especially since bowie was so vital until his very last moment

I feel like this was a very managed exit. Which is not surprising.

From his final single, Lazarus:

Look up here, I’m in heaven
I’ve got scars that can’t be seen
I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen
Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger
I’ve got nothing left to lose
I’m so high it makes my brain whirl
Dropped my cell phone down below

Ain’t that just like me

jeeez

fuck this fucking news

watching 'lazarus' and 'blackstar' clips, the recurring motif is a blindfold. wondering whether the cancer affected his sight. regardless of that, at least the man got to work his death into his art in the most beautiful way.

btw 'blackstar' is his best song in forever imo

Awfully sad, devastating news.

Listened to "Low" on the commute home, only thing I could do.

I just listened to Blackstar for the first time apparently around his time of death. What a haunting way to be introduced to that record. And it is one of his best in decades. RIP

......

RIP. Fuck!

Just woke up to this awful news. Coincidentally, "It's No Game" was in my head as I came across this in the paper. Painfully sad. What a huge loss.

this is so sad :'(

rip

When Michael Jackson died, news spread a lot slower. I remember seeing it on cable news. I remember texting friends who were going off to the shore for the weekend. People were shouting it from their cars well into the summer evening. The radio played all his hits. It was shocking, a media circus for days we all recall, and yet we all saw it coming. I never considered myself a fan, but he was the King of Pop, sure.

Bowie's death couldn't be more opposite. The news of Bowie's death swept across twitter so fast, too fast, this new album I didn't even get to listen to yet still in a cardboard box, in the middle of a nasty January night. No one is around. Everyone I'm talking to, we were the only ones in our homes awake. It is a painful delirium like the many sleepless nights I had when I was much younger, when the Ziggy Stardust record was the best company I had. RIP, David Bowie.

Hm. I thought it undercut Bowie's mythos often in that I watched it and felt nothing so much as wanting to kill him.

To love Bowie is to wish him dead as an influence, i.e. each man kills the thing he loves.

you say tomato etc

I'd put it in top five.

― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Sunday, January 8, 2023 1:15 PM

cosign

To love Bowie is to wish him dead as an influence, i.e. each man kills the thing he loves.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, January 8, 2023 7:08 PM

I don't understand

Today is Davey’s birthday, so…

I don't understand

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

He's such an influence I want to destroy it. You know -- like Sith apprentices do their masters, etc. And the thing with Bowie is that he encouraged independence and omnivorousness such that it's the natural step.

kill yr idols iirc

And your darlings too, while you’re at it, all of them.

I liked the movie as well. If you already know his history, it's pretty great. If I went into it blind it would be confusing because it doesn't really explain things, no talking heads that I remember or a narrative laying everything out.

I've been listening to his albums chronologically with my kids on the way to school, we're up to the Heroes tour (Welcome to the Blackout). They watched the movie with me and dug it. It's certainly not a warts and all movie, but I didn't get the sense that they were polishing him too much.

the music collages in Moonage were a+ too btw obv

I saw the film in IMAX, stoned, and it was amazing, but it's less a documentary than a vision/acid trip of Bowie--expanding on what Cow_Art said, the film doesn't even mention album titles or, often, what year it is; the viewer just floats on, doubles back, etc. That suited me fine, as I figure most people seeing a film like this don't need the FAQ or fiftieth recitation of a Ziggy-era anecdote. I can see why it'd be annoying to some, though, who expected more of an examination. Personally, I wish more groups received this kind of impressionistic treatment.

I found it intensely thought-provoking, almost overwhelmingly so at times… and it did that without imposing a narrative agenda, instead giving you space to think your own thoughts.

This thread next to the Jeff Beck thread reminds of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwnmVialMI4

"According to legend, Beck would not sign off on the footage because he didn’t like the pants he wore onstage, although that story may be apocryphal." LOL

https://preview.redd.it/ydxz2nmbgtd91.png?auto=webp&s=feb318245192bc59c707323ae61017b050a06001

"Celebrities you'd expect together..."

Nacho just uploaded a nice cleaned-up version of the Hammersmith footage with Beck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nip7vnkdoOA

Beck looks sober and washed xpost

Man, Bowie really looks like Michael Gira in that pic

I think Blackstar is his best record too. I admit it's an easy one to overrate, given the context (and of course incredible comebacks after decades of shaky albums are very easy to get rapturous about), but even when I'm listening passively I'm still very impressed by it. like if I'm gonna listen to any Bowie record it's that one.

"overwhelming" is otm. its so good i almost cant listen to it

the isolated vocal tracks from under pressure are great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMQb9LCNGxs

used to great effect in aftersun (2022) by charlotte wells

we could do a line by line lyrics poll

ee do ba be vs. it's the terror of knowing what this world is about

That'll do.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/david-bowie-exhibition-gbr-scli-intl/index.html

i would like all 80K personal items in an online format please, with high resolution images for everything. and i would like to be paid to be the person to put that together over the next 5 to 10 years, please

The V&A have a really great Youtube channel, so I'm certain some of the items will feature there, eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCmaflrfppK

Sorry, copied the wrong link somehow.

http://www.youtube.com/@vamuseum/

Blackstar was the record that made me dig into his back catalog beyond the hits.

Well, speaking of learning about Bowie in strange ways, I really first learned about him from the video game Omikron. Have some affection for the Hours songs because of that

Of course not, but I hadn't explored his albums until then, I was just a casual fan of his hits.

After he died, I got into his work with Eno, and from there the first two solo Iggy albums. And then Eno's work with Jon Hassell, Cluster and Byrne. And then I dug deeper into Bowie's late work. It's all a great tapestry.

quite enjoyed this https://easystarallstars.bandcamp.com/album/ziggy-stardub

Ah it’s fun indeed ! Particularly « Soul Love ».

No Ziggy Marley though?

Longtime fan of Big Bend Tribe's Heroes, but only recently discovered this italo-disco version of Starman, which is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uo2rWp0Moc

Fun to see they incorporated the sleng teng casio thing into "Hang on to yourself". Full circle.

Full Midnight Special Edition of The 1980 Floor Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjC7j8cNQ2k

BTW, almost every week I hear of a new "jazz musicians interpret David Bowie" project or "dance troupe interprets David Bowie" event or "cocktail bar inspired by David Bowie." I know Bowie himself would probably approve, but part of me just thinks, come on, create your own ideas, stop letting this person's iconic work do the heavy lifting.

It’s impossible to get people to listen to jazz or frankly any new music so if that’s what it takes all power to them imo

OTM

Plus at least some of those cats genuinely dig Bowie.

At the calculated risk of being a namedropper, a few weeks after Bowie died I went to a gig I knew Ben Monder would be at and talked to him a quite a bit. He told me about how much he loved hanging out with Bowie and Tony Visconti while working on that last record, how smart they were, how much Bowie read and how much he retained of what he read.

When I scanned through that link, I thought - "wait, this doesn't look like 1980," then I got to the right music and I got the pun.

Which link?

The YouTube embed of the 1980 Floor Show

I'm sure all of the people putting additions on the house that Bowie built love Bowie, but just about *every* creative person loves Bowie. I know inspiration is where you find it, but there's a lot of other stuff out there from which to draw, imo.

i remember being confused by that 1980 thing when i saw it on tv. i think i'm still confused. "floor" sounds like "4" and one of the songs in the set is 1984. and it's a floor show. ok i'm good now.

Okay finally watched a bit and saw. Guess that’s Ava Cherry. Also hadn’t realized the theme song was actually Johnny Rivers singing “The Midnight Special.” D’oh!

And Dooshenka … is Amanda Lear!

Thread delivers.

Detailed writeup here, along with a link to dedicated FB group:

https://madelinex.com/2018/09/01/ziggys-last-stand-bowie-the-1980-floor-show/

Private group though.