David Bowie (1947-2016)

David Bowie had such a beautiful face. Here he is on his 1978 tour.

David Bowie, rocking out on what would be his last tour, 2004.

Before I had heard of David Bowie’s death this morning, I had already been thinking of him today. I was thinking of him while I took my shower. That sounds odd, I know, but I was looking forward to listening to Bowie’s new album “Blackstar” on my way to work. I was thinking, “What will this album sound like? What will I think of it? Will I review it for my blog?” I also thought about how Bowie hadn’t spoken directly to the media in years, and if he would ever change his mind and give another interview again. It was odd, since in the early 2000’s Bowie was a fairly ubiquitous presence in the mass media, and he had suddenly disappeared from view. And it made me a little sad, because Bowie was a smart, funny guy who was a great interview. And then I opened up my computer and learned that he was dead.

David Bowie is one of my favorite musicians. I’ve spent countless hours listening to the music he created. Bowie was the soundtrack to my college years (1999-2003) and much of my life afterwards. When I had my own radio show on the campus radio station, I played Bowie a lot, and in 2003 I did a two-hour all-Bowie show. I’ve still got the tapes of it, and I’m glad I could pay that little tribute to Bowie’s music. It’s tough to think that we’re now living in a world without him. It’s so odd and bizarre to think of David Bowie in the past tense. David Bowie was always so forward looking, there’s no way he can ever be just in the past.

Where do I start with Bowie? What do I say about an artist who has been so important to me over so many years? How do I sum it up in words? It’s a cliché to say that he was constantly reinventing himself, but it was also true. He hardly ever stood still. Once you thought you had his style pinned down, he would change it again.

I saw David Bowie in concert twice, once in Chicago in 2002 and at the Target Center in 2004, on what proved to be his last tour. Those shows were both fantastic, Bowie was one of the most charismatic rock stars ever. And his voice just seemed to get better with age-he was still able to hit those high notes in “Life On Mars?” I’ll always have great memories of those two concerts.

It was fun to see Bowie become part of the pop culture conversation again in 2013 with the release of his comeback album “The Next Day.” He had been gone for so long, and it was great to see how much people still appreciated him. I haven’t written about Bowie much on this blog, (if I would have started blogging in 2000 instead of 2007, it would have been nothing but Bowie!) but I did write about “The Next Day” here, and in 2009 I reviewed his “VH1 Storytellers” DVD.

I got “Blackstar” in the mail from Amazon on Friday afternoon. Then it was Bowie’s latest album. By the time I listened to it on Monday morning, it had become Bowie’s last new album. It was a surreal experience to listen to it today, and while Bowie’s work has always been preoccupied with death, there were so many lines that hit an emotional chord. The most vivid was the opening line of his song “Lazarus”: “Look up here, I’m in heaven.” It was an emotional drive into work today hearing that song.

Bowie’s gift for writing beautiful and haunting songs ensures that his legacy will live on. Few rock stars had such a huge influence on their times, and David Bowie will be remembered as one of the great musicians of the 20^th century.

Album Review: David Bowie "The Next Day"

Promotional poster for "The Next Day," photo by Mark Taylor.

David Bowie, 2013.

When it was announced in January that David Bowie would be releasing a new album in March, I was ecstatic. I couldn’t believe it, David Bowie was finally returning to music almost ten years after releasing his last album. I was so excited for this album to come out. I really thought Bowie was retired for good, I really feared that I’d never hear any more new music from one of my idols. And then suddenly, on Bowie’s 66^th birthday, the announcement was made: Bowie was back! It was so thrilling to have it happen that way, instead of suffering through months of rumors about purported sessions, having release dates pushed back, etc. It was great to read all the articles about Bowie in the press, and to see how excited people were about him again. 

I will freely admit that I can’t really be objective in writing about “The Next Day.” I think it’s fantastic, and I’m just so happy to have Bowie back. I can’t really compare “The Next Day” to any other Bowie album simply because its gestation and release are so different from any other Bowie album. “The Next Day” will always be different from other Bowie albums simply because it’s his “comeback” album, and because of the near-decade between “Reality” and “The Next Day.”  I will also admit that I’ve very selfishly been a little annoyed at David Bowie the last couple of years just because he’s been out of the game for so long. Because Bowie has been so prolific for so much of his career, and music seems to flow out of him so naturally, it was tough for me to accept that he might have simply packed it up and called it a day. I’ve tried to be excited about the few compilations that have come out since he stepped off the stage in 2004, like “VH1 Storytellers,” (which I reviewed here) and the belated live CD release from the wonderful “Reality” tour, but there’s nothing as exciting as a brand-new Bowie album. It will be very interesting to see what this next phase in his career brings about. Bowie has said he’s not going to tour, and he hasn’t given any interviews to promote the album. We’ll see if both those things continue in the future.  

There’s a lot of material to digest on “The Next Day,” 14 songs on the album proper, and 3 bonus tracks on the Deluxe Edition, with not a cover version in sight. There’s a lot of variety on the album, from rockers to slow ballads. Bowie’s writing muse is clearly back. 

While typical music criticism focuses a lot on the lyrics of a song, analyzing Bowie’s lyrics is always difficult, as he has for so long written in a “non-linear” fashion, making typical lyrical analysis a waste of time. It’s less about the actual meanings of the words and more about the feelings that the songs conjure up.

I do have to say, however, despite all of my praise for Bowie, that the album cover for “The Next Day” is one of the ugliest I’ve ever seen. The designers can talk all they want to about how meta it is, but to me it’s profoundly unoriginal, just a rip-off of the cover of one of Bowie’s greatest albums, “Heroes,” plus a white box, with “The Next Day” printed inside the box in a super boring font. For an artist who’s created some of the most iconic album covers ever, it’s a profound disappointment.

I’m not going to dissect every song on “The Next Day,” rather I’ll just mention some of the highlights of the album for me. The first song “The Next Day” is a really great song. It’s so fun to just hear Bowie’s terrific voice again. “The Next Day” sounds like it would fit in well on “Heathen” or “Reality.” The song is an aggressive rocker with lyrics about abusive religious figures. Bowie also uses the word “gormless” in the song, which means stupid or lacking intelligence. Who else would use “gormless” in a rock song? Probably only Elvis Costello or David Byrne.

 “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” is maybe my favorite song on the album. It plays off of the double meaning of stars, both as celestial bodies and as celebrity bodies. It harkens back to a lot of Bowie’s best work, which deals with celebrity and fame. It features a gorgeous and catchy melody. The narrator of the song has an ambivalent attitude towards the stars, singing:

“We will never be rid of these stars

But I hope they live forever”

 “Where Are We Now?” was the first song released from the album as a single in January. It’s a slow, melancholy song that references Bowie’s time spent living in Berlin in the late 1970’s. When I first heard it, I wasn’t that impressed, and I found the song too slow and rather dull. But now that I’ve heard it within the context of the full album, it’s grown on me and I like it more. 

“I’d Rather be High” is the tale of a teenage soldier who would rather be anywhere else than where he is-in combat. It shows that Bowie’s talent for writing a song as a character is still intact.

“(You Will) Set the World on Fire” is a driving rocker about a folk singing girl in Greenwich Village in the 1960’s. The lyrics reference many of the folk singers of the day, and Bowie even mentions my favorite 1960’s folk singer, Phil Ochs, as he sings,

 “Baez leaves the stage

Ochs takes notes

When the black girl and guitar

Burn together hot in rage.”

The last bonus track on the album, “I’ll Take You There,” is one of my favorite songs on the album, and one of the catchiest. It’s a fast rocker, and the lyrics feature the characters of Sophie and Lev, who wonder,

“What will be my name in the USA?

Hold my hand and I’ll take you there

Who will I become in the USA?”

We don’t really know why Sophie and Lev are trying to get to the United States, or if they make it there or not. But that’s one of Bowie’s charms; he doesn’t always spell everything out for us. He leaves a lot for us to interpret however we want to. 

“The Next Day” is a great album, brimming full of ideas from a master rock musician. Bowie has long been a superlative singer, songwriter, and performer, and on “The Next Day” he shows that he’s ready to create great songs once again. No matter what other albums come out in 2013, “The Next Day” will be a major highlight for me, simply because it’s a very welcome return to music by one of my favorite musicians.