R.I.P David Bowie: 8th January 1947 - 10th January 2016

I wonder if he ever shopped at "Rebel, Rebel", the record store in Grenwich Village NYC that was named after his song and stocked a LOT of Bowie back in the day?

 

Kate Moss - Tribute to Bowie - Paris Vogue December 2012

 

PBS has a show tomorrow night, Friday, about David Bowie's career called Five Years. It comes on at 10pm central time. Here is the info for it----

http://www.pbs.org/show/david-bowie-five-years/

 

Can't believe it's already been over a month.

The one solace of it all is that the whole world stopped for a moment for him that late night/early morning, I haven't seen that extent for a musical icon since MJ passed. I love that it seems like Bowie has become more popular in America, but at the same time bummed that it took his death for his shirts to start being all over Hot Topic and getting the same sort of "rock god" attention many of his living peers enjoy. But better late than ever, right?

 

classic pic by bob rock from his bowie book​

 

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

 

A closer look:

 

He looks like David Bowie as much as anyone who doesn't look like David Bowie can look like David Bowie.

 

David Bowie - Rare Rehearsal In New York City 1995

 

Did anybody ever smoke more than David Bowie?
He seems to have a cigarette in his hand in almost every pic...

 

Tom Waits


Also, while he's not a musician, I've read that at one time, David Lynch smoked like 5 packs a day. I'm not sure how true that is.

 

Lynch is a musician at various times over the years albeit not primarily. He's made well-regarded albums under his own name, and the "industrial" / "ambient" soundtrack he made himself for his own 1970s classic movie Eraserhead whilst tough-going, was pretty influential at the time, on the UK music scene at least.

 

I'm a huge fan of David Lynch, but I only not refer to him as being a musician because he has stated himself that he doesn't consider himself to be a musician.

"If I'm honest about it, I'm a non musician, and there are great musicians in the world, great great players, singers... And what they've done is inspire me so much that I'm like 'got my little lunchbox', then I'm off to the studio, you know, to have fun in that world they inspired."

 

Bowie hangin with the lads

 

He sounds very humble. His Eraserhead soundtrack I suppose is barely "music", it's so genuinely weird (unlike a lot of music that THINKS it's weird but is just lame). But it's fantastic IMO, and stands up as an album without the film, I used to play my CD of the Eraserhead album when I was in the same mood as when I would play Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's 1972 No Pussyfooting album. Which has a "similar" chunk of sculpture type feel, sort of aggressive, heavy but kind of beautiful in an, er, uglyish way!

 

He smoked strong cigarettes too, from what I can tell. French Gitanes in the 1970s, and when I saw Tin Machine in 1991 or 2 or whenever it was, he was smoking Red Marlboro. Fellow smokers or ex smokers will know these are both strong cigs! I have footage of him smoking Marlboro Lights in 1997 though, so he'd at least gone down a step.

 

Is anyone else amazed at the way Bowie has somehow grown in stature as an artist since his very sad death?

I have been a big fan for years which is why I regularly pop up on the Bowie threads; but I've been re-evaluating and finding plenty of stuff that I missed.

https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/ is a great site for some in-depth exploration.

I'm also realising that much of the material is (even) darker than I thought before.

While it's common for an artist's death to increase appreciation, it does seem to have happened to a greater extent with Bowie. I don't recall it to the same degree for Lou Reed for example (another artist I admire).

Tim

 

No I think his stature was secured many moons ago. He was and is legendary.

The only tbing different in regards to his lesser works - they will get new evaluation, maybe more appreciation.

But in the big picture nothing he has done in the last decade or more including death changes things that much in my mind.

 

I'm with you here, onlyconnect. Sure, his reputation was incomparable before Jan. 10th, but what's happened in the last month has taken that reputation to a whole new place. I haven't had this feeling for a very long time - a musical 'event' that we can not quickly assimilate using existing concepts. I think we're still too close to events to really appreciate their magnitude, but I reckon the manner of his leaving us has introduced something unprecedented in rock'n'roll history.

 

I think that the fact that Bowie was meeting his death head on with the album Blackstar helped to create a bit more of a reaction.People were shaken up a bit by the videos and music in that context. It was a death event. I don't think anyone apart from Johnny Cash has done something like that to my knowledge.

Also Bowie has always been there - I'm 51 and Bowie released Liza Jane before I was born. People remember him as a part of their life in the 70s, 80s etc when they were growing up. It's a bit like your parents suddenly not being there. It's a weird feeling, as if something fundamental has changed with his sudden passing. That's how I feel about it anyway.

 

Some beautiful comments about Bowie here:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...t-would-have-happened-if-id-married-bob-dylan

 

Umm... Keef?

 

That lyric, "I'm a backstair" has taken on a whole new context.

 

Joni Mitchell.