Monday 11 January 2016

What else can I write about today?

I'll always recall the moment I learnt of David Bowie's death; 8:14am on a 715 bus turning onto Puławska from Karczunkowska, I received a push-notification from the Guardian app that he was dead. Within seconds Twitter was full of the news and throughout the day the tributes poured in.

The most significant pop musician of my age? The 70s, perhaps the greatest decade of pop of all time ever, and David Bowie was there in my consciousness throughout the period. For me, from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars was one of the key artifacts defining those times. So, so many meaningful Bowie songs kept appearing at key times of my life. I remember the Friday morning in the school playground after David Bowie's provocative performance of Starman on Top of the Pops the evening before - it was the one thing everyone was talking about.

I've just spent three hours having come home from work going through his discography and listening to the those tracks that most poignantly resonate with my teenage years; so many precious memories from an artist who surprised, who dug deeper, who interpreted, who continued creating for decades, really creating when others had sat down to rest.

Punk rock, which so influenced me, was a here-today, gone-tomorrow phenomenon (1976-79); David Bowie entertained me with something new right through to Tin Machine (1989 - a much underrated album). I might have switched off, but he kept on creating right up to his death. "So young," commented my son. Yes, 69 is indeed too young for someone so intelligent, so creative, with so much still left to say.

It's difficult to write anything sensible on this day, I'll leave this post for updating as and when. It is evident that David Bowie was an extremely significant figure of our age, for us all and for me.

Since his death, I've had the following songs going round my head: Starman, Space Oddity, Five Years, Warszawa, Loving the Alien, Putting Out Fire With Gasoline, Tin Machine, Ashes to Ashes.

He fell to earth from the aeons to entertain us and make us consider the infinite.




 Bu-bu-boom puh-puh / Bu-boom puh-puh / Bu-bu-boom puh-puh / Bu- boom puh-puh...

This time two years ago:
Where's the snow?

This time four years off:
Two drink-free days a week, British MPs urge

This time five years ago:
Depopulating Polish cities?

This time six years ago:
Powiśle on a winter's morning

This time seven years ago:
Sunny, snowy Jeziorki

This time eight years ago:
Eddie's giant soap bubble

3 comments:

Contrarius said...

I like what Jarvis Cocker said: "Bowie made it OK to be different."

student SGH said...

First heard of David Bowie when I was 13, in the context of We, Children from Bahnhof Zoo. No doubt I will hear of him many times.

Anonymous said...

42378

You and Jarvis are 100% right for 70's London.

Who's gonna do it for Wawa half a century later?