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

And that it will happen so soon.

 

Has Robert Smith commented yet?

 

David Jones has died, but David Bowie will live forever.

 

It was crazy down here. I went downtown and there were a lot of people in the streets wearing bowie Ts. Bowie sounding on the radio all day long. And I almost cried. First Lemmy now David; crazy.

 

Yesterday I heard a radio interview with the swedish guy who held the camera during filming of Lazarus. He said that he and director Johan met Bowie and filmed the video early november 2015.

 

Even Heathrow Airport were playing Bowie all day yesterday over the PA system.

 

I don't think he has yet.

 

Brian Eno's tribute has probably already been posted. Interesting to read that Bowie was thinking of returning to Outside in some way. A sequel or remake perhaps.

FROM BRIAN ENO:
'David’s death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.

We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud. Over the last few years - with him living in New York and me in London - our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were mr showbiz, milton keynes, rhoda borrocks and the duke of ear.

About a year ago we started talking about Outside - the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.

I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: ‘Thank you for our good times, brian. they will never rot’. And it was signed ‘Dawn’.

I realise now he was saying goodbye'

 

RIP David Bowie. I was more of a casual fan, but yesterday I decided to give some albums a concentrated listen... I tried "Hunky Dory", "Ziggy Stardust", and "Low". I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't do this while he was alive because I really enjoyed them.

 

Yes, he clearly looked gravely ill.

It doesn't matter now.

 

David Bowie's Montreal connection stretched back to 1970s stardom
http://montrealgazette.com/entertai...al-connection-stretched-back-to-1970s-stardom

 

From the Guardian in the UK:

Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove, who worked with Bowie on his last stage musical Lazarus in New York, said the singer had been suffering from liver cancer.

Hove, who attended the premiere of Lazarus with Bowie in December, told Dutch NPO radio: “I have lived for a long time with the knowledge this was coming. I was with him on stage at the premiere of Lazarus a few weeks ago. I knew when he got into the car that it might be the last time.

“He had told me in confidence and I never broke that confidence. He told me about a year and three months ago, soon after he found out himself. Liver cancer.”

He said Bowie refused to postpone Lazarus. “He absolutely did not want to and I knew why. It reminded me of Dennis Potter, who kept on writing scenarios and scripts right up to his deathbed, in a fight against death and it was the same with [Bowie] too. He put up an incredible fight. He really didn’t want to die.”

He added: “It was incredibly painful to watch. He came to the rehearsals and walk-throughs as often as possible. And stayed, and I saw how much effort it was taking."

“At the premier he seemed to be glowing with health, but afterwards he had to sit down right away. We chatted for 15 minutes. It has been very intense, working together but also keeping the secret.”

 

'Blackstar' Bassist on Bowie: 'The Greatest Musician I've Ever Heard'
Tim Lefebvre describes the iconic artist's 'immense generosity' and 'extraordinary humor'

Tim Lefebvre, a member of Tedeschi Trucks Band, played bass on every song of David Bowie’s last album Blackstar. Here he shares his initial reaction to Bowie's passing and what it was like to spend time in the studio with a rock & roll legend.
You can now better understand what the album Blackstar is about. I knew that David was ill, but not to this point. He made us understand that he was frail. We didn't realize. When he sang, when he played, he had strength and a real punch. I'm shocked.

Last night, I was playing at the Blue Whale, a club in Los Angeles, when between sets I got the news. I checked my phone and read a text message, which said, "He is gone." Mark Giuliana, the drummer on Blackstar, was with me. I went back on stage thinking, "This can't be true." It was unbelievable and shattering, but I went on playing, transported by David's overpowering energy.

He created this album knowing that he was going to die and he never let go till the end. It's his testament, a final part of his heritage, a last gift for all of us. Do you realize the generosity of this immense artist? We are often so full of self-pity; in the meantime David worked, giving all of himself with a smile, despite the sickness.

I listen to all the Blackstar songs and only now realize that "Dollar Days" is a chronicle of a death foretold. I felt the incredible sadness of this song while we were recording it. His voice, his words — "I'm falling"; "I'm dying to" — were full of tears, full of hope, of pain and also of solitude. It is, at the same time, a last search for survival and the admission that he was not going to make it.

I would be unable to play it again today.

David was a star. He knew it. The man was more powerful than the image. He managed to control everything. He was a king and a gentleman. He treated everyone with respect and love. He was sincere, authentic and brave. He made you feel important. He was the first to applaud when he was amazed by someone playing. He was often amazed. So wonderful.

David Bowie was like John Lennon. An artist, an icon, someone truly committed who will never be forgotten. He was the greatest musician I've ever heard. A genius who revolutionized pop and rock, breaking all barriers.

It is as if David took us with him in his spaceship, showing us the Earth's view from the stratosphere: In "Heroes" — speaking about the Berlin Wall — or in "Blackstar," a political song with many layers that I'm still trying to understand. I learned so much from him, from his extraordinary imagination and incredible storytelling. I saw with my own eyes how he could transform himself, turning into a woman or a flamboyant and mad character.

David was a man full of love and extraordinary humour. During the recording of Blackstar, we spent our days laughing. David and I battled with words. It was hilarious. He dished them out with his great British accent. He laughed and nicknamed me "Kunt," a reference to the song by British comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore where they keep repeating the world "Kunt." At the end, everybody called me '****,' even the sound engineer.

I cannot believe that he's not here anymore. So, what has he left me? The incredible inspiration to make records and music as powerful as his, just like we did together in this small recording studio in New York — no frills, just what's essential.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...the-greatest-musician-ive-ever-heard-20160111


Stuart Murdoch (Belle And Sebastian):

January 12th, 2016: “The Next Day”
Hey

Had this crazy crappy dream last night that Bowie had died. Then I woke up, and it was the next day.

It was a day of international mourning yesterday. It is right and proper we mourn David Bowie.

I’m in the business he was. I’m here, pottering around in the fringes. By people in this business, there were a handful of figures who were deemed “immortals” even while they were still alive. He was one of them, no doubt. The musician’s musician, the idol’s idol, etc.

There’s a short church service near where I live that’s on every morning, so I like to go along. This morning the preacher was talking about how we are blessed, our “blessings”. I do believe that we were blessed to know Bowie, we were blessed to be around at the time he was.

I have memories of Britain in the 70s, of grimness and darkness, three-day working weeks, and many power cuts. Industrial relations breaking down, people being torn apart by ideology and the real threat of poverty.

But then we had dudes like Bowie shining out from our screens, and transporting us to strange places over the radio. Not every clown who sang a pop song did that, but he was different. He lead the way with an unflinching pursuit of strangeness and beauty and defiance. And with one listen to any of his great hits, you couldn’t help but being dragged along into that world.

We were blessed to know him. And he in turn was blessed with an amazing talent, one that he was brave enough to give into completely. How many times must people have looked at him with disgust and disbelief in the early days..

So it is right and proper that we mourn and are thankful in equal measure.

Thinking back on this morning’s service, the talk about blessings can often be taken in the wrong way. “Count your blessings” is a cliché often espoused by head teachers to bored and recalcitrant school kids. It comes across as a condescending nag. But think beyond the food on your plate for a second, or your gas central heating. What are you blessed with?

I think if we can figure that out, all of us would better know how to live our lives. I think it can take a long time to figure it out. At school they can tell you that you’re a fast runner, or that you’re good at arithmetic. Sometimes, however, you might have to wait a lot longer to realise that you have a gift for healing, or that people value you because of your gift for listening and empathy.

We’ve all got something. It may not be as obvious and spectacular as Mr Bowie, but we all got something. In these dark days, when the news always seems a bit grim, please tell me that you’re using whatever ‘blessing’ you have.

Stuart

http://www.belleandsebastian.com/diary

 

Ok, thank you. Same as Lou Reed :-(

 

I'm going to throw out a few bits and pieces about my relationship with David Bowie's music. They probably won't mean much to anyone, and there's no distinct narrative to this, it doesn't have a point as such, but I don't know where else to put this.

I remember two songs (and videos) very clearly when I first started getting into pop music at 7 or 8 years of age in 1980/81. One was Kratfwerk's The Model, the other was David Bowie's Ashes to Ashes. It sounds like some boastful hipster revisionism, but it's not. I never really fully got into Kraftwerk afterwards but I would come back to Bowie.

During the 80s a lot of the big stars of the 60s and 70s were going through creatively tough times. I didn't like what Springsteen, the Stones, Dylan etc. were doing during that decade. And I didn't really care too much for David Bowie either. The one thing I do remember is being excited at the release of the China Girl video because we heard there was nudity in it. One Sunday afternoon we were all gaping in the window of a friend's house where his older brother was watching a pop programme with the premiere of the video on it. Mostly I just remember Bowie's backside in the surf on the shoreline!

In the early 90s I moved to London for a bit and a guy I was sharing with had a cassette tape of Ziggy Stardust. It completely changed my view of David Bowie (just like listening to Nebraksa a few years later would totally change my impression of Bruce Springsteen). Over the next few years I bought all the albums in that peerless run from Hunky Dory to Scary Monsters.

In 1997 David Bowie played the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. This was after he released Earthling, which was not particularly well received, but which I thought was great, as I was listening to a bit of drum n bass and dance music as well at the time. Luckily my friend and me got tickets. We had been obsessing over the Hunky Dory album, and our favourite song was 'Quicksand'. "Can you imagine he played that first?" we excitedly said before the gig started. "Will he play any of the old stuff?"
The lights went down, on he strode with an acoustic guitar and the first words were "I'm closer to the Golden Dawn, immersed in Crowley's uniform".

As I said earlier in this thread, I got a bit surprised and embarrassed by my emotional reaction to hearing about his death yesterday morning. If you were to ask me who my musical heroes were I probably wouldn't have said Bowie first, or even second. But there's something about him that has pervaded deeper into my being over the last 20 years than I perhaps realised.

I still can't quite understand a world without David Bowie.

 

Thank you for sharing. I burst into tears on my cycle to work pretending to everyone my eyes were watery because it was cold. I saw him at Glastonbury 2000 and he just blew me away. I remember him saying that when he first played Glastonbury in 1971 some woman ran up on the stage, he finished the anecdote with 'if your here...for god sake love, don't get up again'. Can't remember the exact words. Very Bowie and that's why I love him.

Earthling has been a favourite of mine for years. I actually think it's his best album from the 90's.

 

I was thinking about how deeply I felt his death on the way to work this morning. I've always been a fan, and I own most of his discography, but I never considered myself a "super fan". Which is why I was actually surprised at how much his death affected me. I realized on the way to work that, to me, David Bowie was not simply an artist. He was art.

 

Here is a link about it. This wasn't the direct article I read. Maybe they started coming up with the concept in July. Cool tribute tho.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...lbum-blackstar-parting-gift-article-1.2492447

 

I can't help but feel reaction in the U.S. is far more muted than in the U.K. or elsewhere. The only people I know who have reacted are people who'd probably fall into the "arty/hip" designations. That's not a put-down of American Bowie fans, either.

Last night, I met a friend at a neighborhood bar for a beer. The TVs were running Entertainment Tonight/Insider. They were far more concerned with "fashions and tweets from the Golden Globes" than they were about Bowie's passing.

When they finally did get to mentioning Bowie, the bartender walked up and changed the channel to college football.

This will sound over-the-top and maybe even pretentious, but in that moment I felt like I understood what it really meant to be a Bowie fan.

 

Great loss and way too young.

Here's a link of Bowie's speech when he received an Honorary Degree at Berklee in 1999. Very interesting - he calls John Lennon his "mentor".

https://www.berklee.edu/commencement/past

 

well, it was the college football championship last night, and you were at a bar, so I wouldn't read too much into that. but you're right, it is more the "arty" fans in the usa who are mourning his loss.

 

Never too late my friend. I've been into Bowie since 1980, when a stoner friend made me watch the ¨Ziggy..¨ VHS. I was hooked. Nice of you to play some albums in his memory. I don't think I'´ll be able to watch any of the many live DVDs I've got without crying.

 

Shocked, sad and full of respect for the man, the icon and the Black Star, who will defintely shine on longer than I will be here on earth. A true hero and innovator, always steps in front of the rest of us. Just got his brand new great new album and seeing a portrait of Bowie zapping into last nights late night news in germany they showed videos of Next Day and Ziggy Stardust. I thought it was because of his new album, but I had that strange vibe it could as well be a requiem thing. Now I know it was exactly that. R.I.P Davey Jones, my respectful best wishes to his beautifl wife Imani and other family members. His work was not in vain...