Monday, January 11, 2016

Remembering David Bowie


 
It has taken us all day to write anything on David Bowie that wasn’t just a social media post.

The news of his death hit like a punch to both the gut and directly in the heart. While we are all mortal and all eventually will pass on, some people you think are larger than life and can cheat death – Bowie was one of them.

As everyone from Iggy Pop to U2 to Kendrick Lamar paid homage to The Thin White Duke, everyone was left speechless. From his most famous fans to his civilian ones, his death just days after turning 69 and releasing his latest album, Black Star, as his Swan Song became much more poignant.







Planet Earth is blue - Bono
Posted by U2 on Monday, January 11, 2016


After 18 months with cancer, Bowie, who proved that you could be anonymous and private in a day and age where we share nearly everything online, kept his illness quiet. The only people that needed to know did and for that, we now suffer with his void.

As fans lined up all around London, Berlin and New York, the cities that were his home over the years, they laid flowers, lit candles, wrote personal notes and shared memories. Fans came together to discuss his life and legacy. Some met the man, others did not, but the common factor was that he touched them all.


Throughout his illustrious career, he was the misfit and artist he wanted to be. Not the one the label wanted. Not the one the people wanted. He was the one he wanted.

His shape-shifting persona kept him going and kept fans wanting more over the years.  It is the music that will live on but it is her personas that go on in infamy. Every musician that has matter today owes a debt to him. Every artist and fashion designer owes a debt to him. Being David Robert Jones wasn’t enough for the man, being David Bowie was.

From his blue collar roots in England, he became an icon. He became an inventor, an innovator, a mad scientist looking for what was new and exciting. That is why his five-decade long career was so important even right to the very end.

Black Star, his new record, was his goodbye letter to all of us, according to his producer Tony Visconti. He knew his time was running out and knew that he had to create – even until the very end.


He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was...
Posted by Tony Visconti on Monday, January 11, 2016

His legacy will live on and he will be remembered in places you might not think. If you walk on the Highline in New York City, thank him. He curated the first (and only) High Line Festival in 2007 where proceeds went to help fundraiser the now popular park. If you go to Berlin, many thank him for bringing down the wall. The swinging 60s of London was a scene he was heavily involved in.


A real Renaissance Man – musician, actor, activist, designer, creator. Thank you, David Bowie.

If you listen to important music today, thank him. If you see something left of center, thank him. Yet, if you happen to be yourself today, thank him. The space oddity that he was became a symbol for us all. 


"Just Like That Blue Bird, Now I'll Be Free." -- "Lazarus"