David Bowie dies at 69

[zoobyshoe]

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-85546234/

David Bowie, the barrier-breaking British rock musician and actor, has died at the age of 69, just days after releasing a critically acclaimed album on his birthday.

Bill Zysblat, his business manager of 34 years, confirmed to The Times that Bowie died Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer.

 

[nsaspook]

RIP

 

[Mark44]

The first time I became aware of him was in 1972. One of his songs, "Major Tom," was played a lot on FM stations in my area. Music videos and MTV were just getting started about that time, and I remember seeing him and his band -- David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars. Quite different from the British bands that preceded him, such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and so on.

I didn't care much for most of his stuff, but I did like "China Girl."

 

[dlgoff]

RIP

image compliments of http://dangerousminds.net/comments/all_the_faces_of_david_bowie_in_one_animated_gif

 

[Evo]

Wow, that's sad, I loved some of his music. How sad for his wife and children. R.I.P.

 

[OCR]

I think that's a neat picture of the boy at 0.28... how would you read his expression ! ?​

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I loved and was scarred by Labyrinth as a child

 

[DennisN]

He was one of my alltime favorite musicians and songwriters.
The fun story behind the song "Life On Mars" (English audio, Swedish subtitles):

 

[OmCheeto]

I remember, when I was about 16, reading the book "The Gods Themselves", I listened to the newly released "Young Americans", on 8-track, in continuos loop.
After all these years, I have decided that my favorite track is still:


So, when I started reading "The Martian", having heard he had just passed away that same day, I did the same.
I only finished half of the book that first day.
The next morning, I saw many tributes.
One was a song called "Life on Mars", performed by Rick Wakeman.

I thought that was funny. Not Rick Wakeman. I take him very seriously.

Having never heard of the song, I decided to listen to the album "Hunky Dory", from which the song came from.

Beings that I can't read, and listen to lyrics at the same time, I turned the sound down very low.
So I had not a clue which song on the album was "Life on Mars", as none of them sounded like what Wakeman had played.
So that morning, three pages into the second half of "The Martian", the author mentioned that he wanted to pick a theme song for his "trip" on Mars, and the first one listed, was, of course, "Life on Mars". Which made me laugh, and smile.
What made me laugh even more, was when I read the lyrics, and found it had nothing to do with Mars.
But I can appreciate why Wakeman liked the song, as, it is very good.


I think this is why I like both David Bowie, and now, Andy Weir, the author of the book.
They are both, kind of, funny.

Anyways, I've been playing Hunky Dory to death, and the goofiest song, I decided, was called "Kooks".
I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the song was about.
So I googled it.
I think it is now one of my favorite Bowie songs.

 

[Derek Francis]

The fact that Davie Bowie's final album, released 40 years into his career, is every bit as good (if not better) as his earlier great albums is ASTOUNDING.

Beatles broke up. Zeppelin got inertia. Stones have slowly declined. Berry just performs his old songs. Bowie is sending shockwaves in the industry decades later!

Bowie, even his late years constantly changed his sound and progressive pushed forward. To say he was the most consistent musician ever might not even be a stretch.

 

[OmCheeto]

One of my favorite songs by Bowie, in his later years, was a commercial.

I had to poke a young gentleman, sitting next to me, to explain why one of the characters in the video was painted like a 60's version of a suitcase.

 

[OmCheeto]

ps. I have no idea who "Ricky Gervais" is. But some people on the internets mention his name, and I interpolate from what I've seen, that he is most probably a TV type personality:

 

[DennisN]

Two old collaborations:


(though Lennox outshines Bowie here IMO: )