David Bowie RIP

[EdgeleyRob]

Terribly sad news.

For me Bowie is part of our national cultural identity,up there with Turner,Auden,Purcell,Elgar,RVW,The Beatles......
He made this spotty mixed up teenage misfit (in the early 70s) feel better about himself.
My parents threatened to destroy my Alladin Sane LP,they thought it and he were disgusting.
So much of his music on my shelves,I couldn't bear to be without it.

RIP David

Just now Hunky Dory,Diamond Dogs next

[Beef Oven!]

Terribly sad news.

For me Bowie is part of our national cultural identity,up there with Turner,Auden,Purcell,Elgar,RVW,The Beatles......
He made this a spotty mixed up teenage misfit (in the early 70s) feel better about himself.
My parents threatened to destroy my Alladin Sane LP,they thought it and he were disgusting.
So much of his music on my shelves,I couldn't bear to be without it.

RIP David

Just now Hunky Dory,Diamond Dogs next

My parents didn't have a problem with Aladdin Sane, but maybe that's because I NEVER let them hear 'Time'.

Good shout on the underrated Diamond Dogs!

P.S. Glad Alladin Sane made you feel better about yourself - it did for a lot of people.

[EdgeleyRob]

My parents didn't have a problem with Aladdin Sane, but maybe that's because I NEVER let them hear 'Time'.

Good shout on the underrated Diamond Dogs!

I tried not to

[Conchis]

My first thought when I heard the news: Oh, dear - that's sad.

My second thought: the word 'iconic' is going to be even more over-used today than it usually is, particularly by the BBC.

I lost track of Bowie around the time of Let's Dance, which most (including the man himself) agree initiated his least artistically interesting (and most commercially profitable) period. I hear there was a serious return to form around the millennium, although I've not explored his later albums - what I've heard of them makes me want to hear more, though.

Good to see Mike Garson (my favourite Bowie sideman) interviewed on BBC-1 earlier. When I heard his 'free jazz' piano solo on Aladdin Sane, the portals of the New opened to my fourteen year old ears.

This morning BBC Radio 2 News reported that Angela Merkel had posthumously thanked Bowie for 'his part in bringing down the Berlin Wall'. I have to admit, this made me laugh so much I nearly crashed the car into a traffic barrier! :)

[Beef Oven!]

My first thought when I heard the news: Oh, dear - that's sad.

My second thought: the word 'iconic' is going to be even more over-used today than it usually is, particularly by the BBC.

I lost track of Bowie around the time of Let's Dance, which most (including the man himself) agree initiated his least artistically interesting (and most commercially profitable) period. I hear there was a serious return to form around the millennium, although I've not explored his later albums - what I've heard of them makes me want to hear more, though.

Good to see Mike Garson (my favourite Bowie sideman) interviewed on BBC-1 earlier. When I heard his 'free jazz' piano solo on Aladdin Sane, the portals of the New opened to my fourteen year old ears.

This morning BBC Radio 2 News reported that Angela Merkel had posthumously thanked Bowie for 'his part in bringing down the Berlin Wall'. I have to admit, this made me laugh so much I nearly crashed the car into a traffic barrier! :)

I drifted off around Let's Dance, too.

But seriously, don't underestimate the influence of 'Heroes' on the Berlin wall!

[Beef Oven!]

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/11/10749546/david-bowie-berlin-wall-heroes

[Conchis]

I drifted off around Let's Dance, too.

But seriously, don't underestimate the influence of 'Heroes' on the Berlin wall!

I got the reference, but I can imagine A.M.'s office drafting something by committee for her to say and it coming out like that! :)

[Lat-Literal]

I understand to an extent the point about early Bowie and the commercializing of teenage angst but I feel that there are broader points. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a period when community was dissolving and being replaced by an emphasis on competition. The latter often involved less proximity. There was a simultaneous growth in radio and television and those made distance closer. Into that mix came the moon missions which accentuated distance while at the same time making it reachable. "Space Oddity" arguably depicts the emergence of individuality - complex and emotional - in the process of that social change. There is not the same suspension in the later "Life on Mars". The feet are firmly on earth but the point that is made there is if things are distant and grim here maybe we have to think of a different sort of distance. It is about isolation in what had become the modern age. Nowadays with the process complete - functioning in workplaces competitive rather than supportive to facilitate survival, community redefined as forums and the guy in the international space station seemingly as close to everyone as to be in their homes - the same dynamics do not apply. There are still creative individuals who do not emotionally fit in but social structure, technology and national security needs are such that no one of any age is permitted or inclined to define that in terms of actual distance.

On a more individual level, I know Bowie is meaningful to people specifically in terms of gender politics but my angle is that his art ran very close to all issues of mental health.

[Tapiola]

Just now Hunky Dory,Diamond Dogs next

I'm making do with the 2-disc Best of Bowie currently. Some great, great tracks. Good on you, Dave.

[Beef Oven!]

Then where do I. whilst agreeing with much that has been written here, express my concern at the overkill on the radio today particularly on 5 live. The phone-in at 9.30am was about Bowie, 'in depth' at 6.30pm was about him and every time I turned on today it seemed to be all about him. Overkill.

Start an 'overkill' or whatever thread.

[Conchis]

Then where do I. whilst agreeing with much that has been written here, express my concern at the overkill on the radio today particularly on 5 live. The phone-in at 9.30am was about Bowie, 'in depth' at 6.30pm was about him and every time I turned on today it seemed to be all about him. Overkill.

I like Bowie, so I'm enjoying the 'overkill'. If it had been, say, Robbie Williams who had died, I wouldn't be enjoying his 'overkill' at all and would be doing something else with my time.

Overkill is a fact of life when a 'major cultural figure' dies. As a 13 year old not-quite-Beatle fan, I'll admit to really enjoying the 'overkill' (sensitive word to use in that context) that followed John Lennon's death. It was great to have so much Beatle music about at at time when it wasn't all that fashionable.

If Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen depart before i do, I expect to enjoy the overkill that follows on from their deaths, too.

[Nick Armstrong]

This interview (in 2000...) is extraordinary, for me. Particularly from 6' 20" onwards, DB's predictions 15 years ago about the internet, and its impact on society and art, are phenomenal. Fascinating also that he says that, if he were 19 years old at that point, he probably wouldn't have become a musician but rather a music collector/listener...

[Stunsworth]

John, a very good friend of mine, taught at Gordonstoun School during the period when Duncan, Bowie's son was a pupil there. It's well documented that Duncan didn't have the easiest time at the school and my friend was very involved in his academic and pastoral care, giving him a lot of support and guidance.

During his last term, David Bowie came to visit his son and, recognising the work John had put into his son's development, gave him a very generous cheque in aid of Duncan's 'house'. He then said to John 'is there anything I can do for YOU personally?' So, my friend John, in his small boarding house sitting room, with only a guitar, did a duet of 'Space Oddity' with the man himself with only half a dozen boys and his cat as an audience!

What a wonderful story.

It seems Bowie wasn't one for gongs, turned down a CBE and a knighthood.

[Lat-Literal]

What a wonderful story.

It seems Bowie wasn't one for gongs, turned down a CBE and a knighthood.

Yes.

It might be worth repeating that when I worked briefly in 1984 at Cane Hill Hospital for the Mentally Ill, I was told that he visited his brother there and earlier his mother in an entirely private and unobtrusive way.

[EdgeleyRob]

But seriously, don't underestimate the influence of 'Heroes' on the Berlin wall!

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/11/1074954...in-wall-heroes

As important a historical moment as the performance of the Leningrad Symphony we were all discussing not too long ago IMV