David Bowie passes away..........

[Achilleslastand]

Just heard breaking news on the radio and did a double take, had no clue he was even ill. I am at a loss for words and shocked.https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/lege...064252101.html
RIP to one of best.

[Urbanized]

I'm having a super hard time dealing with this news this morning. Unbelievably sad.

I shouldn't feel so crushed over the death of a 69 year old man who I didn't know - a man who led an amazing, full life - dying of cancer, but I'm am crushed. Truly.

[kevinpate]

Agreed.

[BlackmoreRulz]

Because of my learned prejudices at the time I shunned Bowie as a young teen. My wife turned me on to the Ziggy Stardust album when we first started dating in '77, it remains one of my favorite albums of all time(it will get a play today).

Found this today reminiscing....

[TheTravellers]

Wow, just wow, what an incredible performer, sad... Bought his new album on his 69th birthday Friday...

[TheTravellers]

I'm having a super hard time dealing with this news this morning. Unbelievably sad.

I shouldn't feel so crushed over the death of a 69 year old man who I didn't know - a man who led an amazing, full life - dying of cancer, but I'm am crushed. Truly.

Agreed. I felt this way when Lennon and Lou Reed died also, they're just giants, and had always been part of my world since I started listening to music (Bowie and Lou were 2 of my touchstones).

[5alive]

^^^^
Agree with all of the above. I think many of us grieve because it is a sign of getting older and the world just keeps moving on...

[Mel]

I am still in a state of stunned disbelief. I was up very late as usual when the news of this hit my FB feed from my UK friends. I thought it was a hoax at first. I stayed up 'till 0500 listening to his music. His team did an admirable job of keeping this low profile. RIP Ziggy.

[MadMonk]

I've never been a huge follower of David Bowie beyond the couple-handful of songs I was familiar with, but I realize what a huge influence he had on a variety of music genres. I gather his illness was kept pretty quiet and he even put out a new album. RIP, Mr. Bowie.

[Mel]

Watch the video "Lazarus" on Youtube. He is saying goodbye.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^
Yeah, reminds me of Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt." Not so much stylistically as symbolically.

[zookeeper]

Still processing this. Losing David Bowie is a big loss, a larger than life artist.

[stratosphere]

i just got *back* into Bowie a couple of months ago when i saw the 'Blackstar' video on Palladia channel on Cox. I used to love him as a kid....during the 80's. Not sure what happened but it's certainly come full circle. The news came as a total shock to me monday morning.

Blackstar is an amazing album and the way it all played out it appears as though he realized the cancer that was previously in remission had come back and was terminal, therefore he wanted the fans to have something special one final time. He apparently faced death with grace and dignity and will be greatly missed. Truly one of the greatest artists of our time, or perhaps ever.

[TheTravellers]

i just got *back* into Bowie a couple of months ago when i saw the 'Blackstar' video on Palladia channel on Cox. I used to love him as a kid....during the 80's. Not sure what happened but it's certainly come full circle. The news came as a total shock to me monday morning.

Blackstar is an amazing album and the way it all played out it appears as though he realized the cancer that was previously in remission had come back and was terminal, therefore he wanted the fans to have something special one final time. He apparently faced death with grace and dignity and will be greatly missed. Truly one of the greatest artists of our time, or perhaps ever.

Yes, he definitely knew he was terminal - from what I read, he knew about a year ago (was diagnosed about 18 months ago). So I'm guessing Blackstar will get looked at from quite a different angle now.

Oh, have to add that my birthday presents in 1981 were the "Scary Monsters..." album and a strobe light, and yes, I asked for both of them - hey, it was the 80s... From that album, I went back in time and discovered all his earlier works and was a *huge* fan from then on, still going to be weird that he's not around 'cos he just always has been...

[Mel]

I am hoping the "Criterion Collection" re-releases "The Man Who Fell To Earth". After his low key cremation in NY I think it would be cool if they encapsulated a small portion of his ashes to be put on the ISS.

[tfvc.org]

I am hoping the "Criterion Collection" re-releases "The Man Who Fell To Earth". After his low key cremation in NY I think it would be cool if they encapsulated a small portion of his ashes to be put on the ISS.

Or Mars, or the next Voyager like mission.

[White Peacock]

I was always more of an admirer of the man in general than a fan of his music. He had some fantastic songs, but a lot of his material just struck me as filler. The songs that stand out, though, really stand out, and Blackstar is a damn good album; it sounds the richer moments of the Flaming Lips with Bowie on the microphone instead of Wayne Coyne. It's definitely Bowie's best work in ages.

He always excited me on screen; like most 30 somethings, the first exposure I had to David Bowie was his role as the Goblin King in Labyrinth. He was a fantastic Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ, and a great Nikola Tesla in The Prestige.

I was glad to see his Occult interests seem to have remained until the end, and the Blackstar video is fully injected with enough symbolism to keep a viewer analyzing it through multiple viewings. It's a hodge-podge of esoteric symbolism mixed with nods to his long and storied career, all wrapped up in what's, in hindsight, an acceptance of his own impending mortality. The Lazarus video follows a similar theme, but much more heavily imbued with the death theme, and not as much of the esoteric theme.

Watching Lazarus, I interpreted the figure that emerged from the wardrobe to be a personification of cancer, as the figure is later lying under the bed that Bowie is lying in, prodding him through the mattress, and ultimately Bowie creeps backward into the wardrobe himself and closes the door.

Moving stuff.

[Mel]

David Bowie "Five Years" is on PBS tonight at 2100.

[TheTravellers]

David Bowie "Five Years" is on PBS tonight at 2100.

Great show, watched it on MTV Live (formerly Palladia)! What was weird, though, is it's not five *consecutive* years, it's five different years - 1971, 1975, 1977, 1980, and 1983...

[Mel]

I have not seen it. Maybe it covers the years he re-invented himself.

[Snowman]

I have not seen it. Maybe it covers the years he re-invented himself.

Probably the easiest years would be those that he released albums and thus would likely have been doing the most number of interviews/tv appearances.

[Urbanized]

Thanks for the rec! The description says it's his five most important years.