Bowie

“Oh, look out now, you rock and rollers / Pretty soon now, you’re gonna get older.”

Hearing of David Bowie’s passing felt like a gut punch. This is how I felt when Lou Reed died, but this is different. Lou Reed was so very human, in his many flaws and venomous misgivings; David Bowie was not. He always seemed like a man from outer space who would live forever. He was the type of person not only transcended art, music, and fashion, but the idea of being a world where he doesn’t exist is, well, jarring.

It came as a shock to many—myself included—that he was sick. He always seemed to be there, at the forefront of it all. Music, art, theater, fashion… he was always leading the guard and setting the trends; he introduced countless people to glam, electronica, ambient, drum and bass, and industrial rock well before it hit the mainstream. (Not to mention his own version of funk, which was so funky even James Brown ripped him off!) He was an early adopter of the music video and would constantly and consistently push the boundaries in any genre or form that struck his fancy. He introduced a theatricality to music that had shaped the way people see live music, and that theatricality brought him to the silver screen and the Broadway stage—to great acclaim, mind you.

Yet, throughout all of his many transformations and transmutations, he was always unmistakably Bowie. Though he may have sold the world, he never sold his soul. He had many alter egos and identities, and even they had integrity.

It’s tempting to think the signs were there, especially in what turned out to be his swan song, the excellent Blackstar. The searching lyrics are clearly about death… but most of his albums are, in one way or another. Like many, I didn’t expect this record to be his parting gift with the world, but the realization that it was, was perfect. He was saying goodbye and we didn’t know; it’s the ultimate Bowie move for his musical epitaph: completely unexpected, bizarre, experimental, brilliant and leaving us begging for more. (And which of his contemporaries can say that with all sincerity?)

So farewell to an inspiration to millions, an innovator and fearless creator.

I have no idea what happens to us when we die, but I’d like to think that something different happens to David Bowie; he’s stardust now.