Not every song rewards deep interpretation, even in David Bowie’s world. The meaning is sometimes self-evident. In this case, it’s the universal truth that liberated women are DTF. Of course, the activists who fought for women’s suffrage didn’t do it so their grandchildren could more … Continue reading Suffragette City
David Bowie died five years ago today. A remarkable swath of notable people also died that year, and some very nasty historical events took place. Nasty events have been taking place ever since, and it feels that the world has come unraveled in the past … Continue reading Sue (or in a Season of Crime)
In honor of the avant-garde achievement of Low, I oughta just write this entirely in random words… Whether it’s a joke, a pretention, or a howl of existential angst is entirely up to your own perception.
Every decade gets the David Bowie it deserves. (Apologies to all of the years before and after his lifetime.) 90’s David Bowie tapped into the specific malaise of the 90’s, adapting the aesthetics of grunge, industrial and house music to his own ends. Outside, a … Continue reading Strangers When We Meet
“I would scream very loudly” – David Bowie, getting a self-defense lesson on the Dinah Shore show. Whatever else we know David Bowie had going on in his life in 1976, he still appeared on middlebrow variety programmes like Dinah Shore and charmed the pearls … Continue reading Stay
The definition of epic and ambitious is David Bowie’s deranged Krautrock stew of Christian symbolism, European history and cocaine. It’s a very toxic combination that really shouldn’t be toyed with, like bleach and ammonia. It’s an illustration of how creative peak and personal nadir can … Continue reading Station to Station
Tin Machine asked and answered the question, what would happen if David Bowie was in a band where he let the other guy sing sometimes? The answer was that audiences were not clamoring to hear the soulful belting of David Bowie’s drummer. It was the … Continue reading Stateside
Remember 2013? That was a very good year, not least because David Bowie decided to come out of retirement. Although he wouldn’t stoop to anything as crass as promoting the thing in person, The Next Day was widely acclaimed and a bestseller. Interviews and live … Continue reading The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
It is never too early in the day to contemplate where we are without David Bowie. The popular adage that Bowie was somehow holding the fabric of the universe together feels more and more true, as the fabric of the universe becomes increasingly threadbare. It’s … Continue reading Starman
David Bowie predicted the fall of humanity. We all had five years left to live, he said. It wasn’t five years counting from June 1972, as it turned out, or from any other doomsday years since. It may still turn out that it will be … Continue reading Star
