Tuesday, January 12, 2016

January 12 - Cat People (Putting Out Fire): David Bowie's Dead

Suddenly, you were gone
From all the lives you left your mark upon
Afterimage - Lyrics by Neil Peart
Rush, Grace Under Pressure (1983)

In my lifetime, there have been a few deaths of musicians and stars that really have impacted me. I wasn't old enough to truly appreciate the impact of Elvis, but I distinctly remember hearing about his death in 1977 (we were on summer vacation in a cabin in Ytteråsen). The same can be said about John Lennon's death in 1980. Through the 80s, I also remember the deaths of Phil Lynnott and Cliff Burton, but they were not as impactful on me as Frank Zappa in 1993 or George Harrison in 2001. And now David Bowie's dead. Gone. No more. And I think it's hitting me in a very big way.

If I were to list the 3 most impactful bands/artists for me, the list would be as follows (in no particular order):
The Beatles
David Bowie
Motorpsycho

I've already shared what little I remember about starting to listen to David Bowie - and that he always has been there with me since I first started listening to him. An example of this is that when I in high school got a chance to borrow a 4-track recorder, one of the songs I played around with recording was his Cat People (Putting Out Fire). No, it wasn't very good - but it was very much fun, and it really says something about his influence on me.

A few years later, I was trying to study music education at Høyskolen i Bergen (Bergen University College), and we had to choose a classroom instrument to learn. Since I already knew how to play the guitar, I picked the piano, and the song I started working on was none other than Space Oddity. In many ways it is a quintessential Bowie song. He plays around with the key signature (C major) by introducing a D major chord in the verse and a E major chord in the chorus. Then he adds a bridge that includes a Bb major chord - and it all really works. I had great fun trying to work it out in very rudimentary piano style (my skills are not really that great), but my teacher did not know the song.

I discovered David Bowie at an interesting point in his career. I still consider Let's Dance a solid album - and I still listen to it - but that is more than I can say about his next two albums, Tonight and Never Let Me Down. After these two albums, he decided to stop his solo work and become just a part of a band. This band, Tin Machine really knocked my socks off. I still remember Svein Ola Sjøvold dropping the needle on Heaven's In Here on their first album in the Radio Ung studio, goading me to identify the singer. I couldn't. Looking back, it seems ridiculous that I couldn't identify him, but I was steeped in hard rock and heavy metal at the time, and David Bowie was supposed to be pop, so it didn't connect. I loved the first Tin Machine album. I wasn't as crazy about the second one, appropriately called Tin Machine II, when it first came out - but it has grown on me. The live album Oy Vey Baby was the last album they released, because Bowie was on to new things.

And that is really what I have liked about him throughout his career. I have not liked all of his albums, and Black Tie, White Noise (1993), which was his next album at this point is an album I still struggle with (OK, let's just admit it, I really can't listen to it...). But he was exploring new things again, and he was very daringly creative = and that album was the next step towards two of my favorite Bowie albums, especially of the second half of his career: Outside (Part 1 of the Nathan Adler Diaries - although it remains the only part) from 1995 and Earthling from 1997. Looking back at it, it seems like he mastered the sonic landscapes he was exploring on Black Tie, White Noise and was able to place his very distinctive musical style with them on Outside and Earthling. Brian Eno was back as he had been in Berlin on Outside, and Reeves Gabrels' very innovative guitar is very present on both that and Earthling. And I was so very back loving his music with these two albums.

His next trio of albums, Hours... (1999), Heathen (2002), and Reality (2003), are very solid David Bowie albums, which means that they are better than most other music released - but not necessarily my favorites (although Bring Me The Disco King, the final track on Reality, is a spectacular song - and there are other glimpses of true greatness as well). He then toured until he had a health scare in 2004 (and, as mentioned before, I did get to see him on that final tour), and then nothing. It was all quiet. There were pictures, such as one from the opening of his son Duncan's movie Moon, and there were sightings at art shows and exhibits - including his own work - but no music.

Not until 2013, when The Next Day was released. I really liked The Next Day, and I was incredibly excited when it was released, but not as excited as I was over Blackstar this last Friday. I am very thankful to Amazon.com for their Autorip feature, because I still don't have the physical copy of the album, but I have been listening to it since just after midnight Friday. I loved it from the beginning, and I am very glad I did, because it is so easy to get caught up in the whole "his final album" thing and that it was released just before his death - but it is such a great album. His vocals on the title track is haunting in a way that really is enhanced by the fact that he no longer is with us, and the jazziness throughout seems to me like he had reached yet another artistic peak.

In a world where too many people stay too long doing too much that ends up being crap, it is a huge relief to have a true artist like David Bowie. Like I said, I did not like everything he released, but I respect it all. I respect that he followed his artistic vision, and I have been incredibly lucky to have his artistic vision match my musical tastes on numerous occasions.

And then he really moved me. I still get goosebumps and chills from Life on Mars, all I need is the opening droning e-bow to start bopping my head to "Heroes", the first few chords of Crack City makes my entire body move, and the chanting that opens Blackstar fills me with mystery and wonder. There is so much more that can be said, but I fear that my words at this point are inadequate in conveying how I really feel.

I never met David Bowie. I never spoke a word to him. But still this one hurts. This one I will be grieving. Thank you, David Bowie, for filling my life not only with music, but with little wonders as well. You will be sorely missed.  


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