David Bowie.
This morning, Tiffany woke me up with the words “David Bowie died last night”. It’s kind of odd how some moments feel like they just get stapled into the memory books because of their importance. I barely knew who John Lennon was when he died, but remember distinctly the moment I heard about it and feeling that it was an important moment of loss. This felt like that
Bowie had been on my mind lately because I just purchased his new album Blackstar two days ago based on Gordon White‘s recommendation. I am still absorbing it. It was released on his birthday, January 8th. Like a lot of people I will be listening with new ears today and hearing it as his goodbye to the world. It inspires me deeply that he released relevant and good work right up to the end.
Bowie of course was deeply interested and involved in magic and the occult, and so is certainly on-topic for this blog, but other than a few songs he kept that part of his life mostly private. In other ways his influence will continue to be felt for ages, and I don’t think it is much of a stretch to say that the culture would look different if he had not been here. By playing with gender and androgyny at a time when it was deeply taboo, he helped pave a way for thousands of people to feel comfortable in their own skin and be who they really are.
This morning the kids ate breakfast listening to “Starman” and “Life on Mars”. Matthew said :”Are all his songs about space people?”, and I got to tell them about this crazy rock star who used to dress up and pretend to be a space alien named Ziggy Stardust. I also told them that a David Bowie song was the first music video recorded in space.
When Bowie sang the words “Let the children lose it. Let the children use it. Let all the children boogie.” They got up and danced.