Today we remembered an icon.
I was driving to work this morning when the news came on the radio. Through the day I checked in on social media and it was all over my newsfeed… tweets, hashtags and unspoken competitions as to who could find the most obscure picture, video or reference of a man whose other-worldly physicality carried a career that spanned over 50 years.
I knew I was going to write tonight and it’s a funny thing, starting a music blog two days before David Bowie dies… it’s like starting to date someone a week before Valentine’s Day… you think you can ease into it and then, boom, you’re in it. Full on.
And wait, am I making this loss of an amazingly talented man all about me? I am, and that’s exactly my point tonight. We all are. And it’s okay.
Not all celebrity deaths are created equally… as callous as it is to say that, it’s true, and we all know it. Schnieder from One Day At A Time passed away last week and the over-35 Internetters gave a collective chuckle of fond rememberance before scrolling to the next news story without even clicking.
But when someone like Bowie dies, we stop. We remember. We personalize that loss and we take a minute, or longer, to establish and share our own connections with those who we have lost. They have meant something to us and all we want to do is share that with each other.
Today I remembered his stint on Extras and listened to my favourite Bowie song – Ziggy Stardsut (acoustic) – at least a half dozen times. I thought about this post, what I would write, how I could subtly work in the fact that the street I grew up on was called Bowie Ave.
And then I started to read more about the album he released just days ago.
And then I watched the videos.
And for a man who has had almost as many characters as he has albums, I find it extremely compelling that one of his most shocking, most achingly charismatic portrayals should be his last; a character who foreshadows the fate of the actor. Lazarus is beautiful and I won’t be the first to write it today, nor the last to say it, but in Lazarus, and in the backstory leading up to the album’s release, David Bowie has shocked us one last time and achieved something as close to immortality as any artist can hope for.
Watch the video below if you haven’t seen it already. I’m willing to bet that the actual number of people who have seen this is exactly half the number of YouTube of views. I know I’ve watched it twice today already myself.
Today we remembered an icon. An amazing oddity of an artist who never stopped showing us that life and art do not need to be separated; they can live, and die, together as one.
Further Listening – “The Terror Of Knowing” – My tribute playlist over at 8tracks