David Bowie Obit: “He Was The Best There Is”
I woke up, I suppose like most of us did today, to find the world was a poorer place; to find that David Bowie had died. Along with the news was a directive from my editor at NY1 requesting an obit on the lickety split that will be married to video by my cohorts there. Strangely, I’ve been immersed in Bowie’s music recently as preparation for my interview last week with Tony Visconti and the release of the new record Blackstar. This prepared for the task but also made the shock of his passing more acute. Here’s what I wrote –
This photo and the one in the mirror are by Mick Rock.
Just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 25 album, David Bowie has died after a reported 18 month battle with liver cancer. His immortality was secured decades ago; his influence on generations of musicians was profound.
Bowie personified the ideal of the ever-changing artist remaining a step ahead of his audience and the music world. His ode to impermanence – the song Changes from the Hunky Dory album – captured the transitory nature not only of his image and art but life as well and fittingly was the last song he played live on a stage in 2006. That stage was in New York City where the Londoner born as David Jones spent most of the second half of his life.
Bowie’s sense of fashion, his flair for the visual and theatrical, and his fearless musical exploration informed his most essential albums of the 70’s. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars epitomized glam while offering an androgynous alien persona. Young Americans mined Philadelphia soul while flirting with disco and funk and included Fame; a collaboration with John Lennon which became his first number one song in the states.
Closest to the artist’s heart however was the work he did with help from Brian Eno on what came to be known as the Berlin trilogy: Low, Heroes, and Lodger. Bowie said his complete being, his DNA were in those albums that were driven by synthesizers and electronics instead of guitars and incorporated ambient music and minimalism.
With the smash hits Modern Love, China Girl, and the title track, Let’s Dance in ’83 was Bowie’s high water mark commercially. As the 80’s became the 90’s, he made a pair of hard rock albums as a member of Tin Machine. In ’96, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2013, he released his first album in a decade: The Next Day. It was followed by Blackstar last Friday that producer Tony Visconti said Bowie planned as a parting gift to fans before his death.
Iggy Pop, whose signature song Lust for Life was written by David Bowie, summed up his late friend’s life better than anyone: I never met such a brilliant person. He was the best there is.
For more, HERE is the remembrance from Jon Pareles of The New York Times.
