January 10th 2016 is the day that David Bowie died. This time it was the murderous cancer that was responsible for a heroes demise, rather than the bullet that did for Lennon, Gaye and Cobain.
The impact for music of David Bowies death can not be overstated. Somewhere in the subconscious we are shocked that this god like being was just as vulnerable and fragile as the rest of us, to disease and ill health. The reason for this is that we were convinced he wasn’t created equal.
So, why should we feel so low? Why will the world stop to commemorate the passing of a singer of songs?
It is because David Bowie transcended music. He was bigger than celebrity, an original celebrity of A+ List proportions.
The masses will tag along and imitate the pain that the genuine mourners will feel. The likelihood is that every facebook profile picture will be superimposed with a forehead thunderbolt. Across the decades, however, Bowie remained ultimately accessible to all. His importance cannot be underestimated and that is why David Bowies death will reverberate around the whole worlds media. The earths communities will surely stop to be consoled in every culture. David Bowie changed the world, not with a Nobel peace prize. He didn’t cure a disease. What he did was to re-write the rule book on what was possible in popular music, yet he remained prolifically untouchable and at the top for his entire professional career.
Even more so than Elvis Presley and The Beatles, Bowie managed to gift wrap himself, via all of his mysterious alter-egos, to the popular mainstream without compromising his genius. There were a few cringe moments along the way; The Dancing In The Street video with Mick Jagger and the Christmas video with Bing Crosby but somehow that made him a bit more human.
David Bowie released his final album Blackstar on Friday. It will symbolise his goodbye to the world he was surely only visiting. Bowies connection with galactic and etheric phenomenon is known by all due to his well known hits such as Space Oddity and Starman, but the mans aura and his own oddities pose the question – Has he just ended his stay on the planet earth and decided to return home to wherever he came from?
Whether he was in the form of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the bad guy with the sock down his tights in ‘Labrynth’ or the alien from the very questionable movie The Man Who Fell To Earth, David Bowie is a conundrum and a haunting mystery. Was he real? Was he human? Will he rise again in three days?
What is certain is that he, she, it – was a truly wonderful gift given to us from the big bang at the beginning of time, and we should celebrate what was left behind for us by the phenomenally imperfect prophet of pop eccentricity. His life was a performance up until his death in the final act.
Bowie was an extra-terrestrial being yet he alienated no one. He was an actor on a musical stage.
Charge your glasses and celebrate something of true mythical beauty that we were lucky enough to bear witness to. Planet earth is blue and there is nothing we can do.
Words Jimmy Gallagher
Quiffed Owl 