MUSIC: Rest In Power, David Bowie.

David Bowie died at the age of 69 on January 10th 2016 of cancer. In the next few days you’re going to hear a lot about what the man accomplished; his creation of rock genres, his genius levels of reinvention; his work in music, stage and film. Bowie is arguably one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen. There have been many great artists who have passed away; some who have accomplished as much during their careers as Bowie. But the reason why this death seems particularly impactful is that despite how famous and decisively weird he was it always felt that the Thin White Duke was always one of us.
While he had some unfortunate personal missteps during his heavy drug phase in the mid 70’s what made David Bowie special is that while he was the quintessential rock star on stage; off stage he aligned himself with the misfits and outsiders. Artists artists who create but because they weren’t the right gender, sexuality, or skin color they were pushed to the side and locked out of success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg
When Bowie announced he was gay in 1972 it was at some level a publicity stunt. By most accounts in his personal life he was pretty straight (he has since stated he’s always been a “closeted heterosexual") and he was in a phase in his career where pushing social mores was a common aspect of his art. For a rock star to publicly embrace being queer was a huge deal at the time, and to be honest still is. While the puritanical blow back helped stall his career in the United States for a couple of years he never shirked from the messing with gender and sexuality roles all throughout his career.
Bowie was a white musician who knew that the roots of rock and roll lie in the black experience. Early on he claimed his inspiration was Little Richard (musically and considering his propensity for gender bending at least artistically), who claimed when he first heard Tutti Frutti he “heard god”. During the mid 70’s he helped the career of a young talented background singer who happened to be named Luther Vandross. A background singer during the studio sessions for his Young Americans album, Vandross eventually helped co-write one of the songs and Bowie took him out on the subsequenttour and had him open every night. Even the handful of times he didn't come up with his own ideas he was quick to give credit. How many rock artists were willing to admit that their work(as he did with that album) was, “the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak, written and sung by a white limey”
Even as he grew older he never seemed old; there was something otherworldly about how he stayed effortlessly cool throughout the decades. Someone of his stature had no reason to know who TV On The Radio were while they were preparing their major label debut. Yet they found themselves in a position where a stranger who sold over 100 million albums was happily singing background for one of their songs in the studio after randomly calling one of the band members up. David Bowie, the world’s friendliest stranger, will be missed.