Knowledge Comes With Death's Release

Bowie Remembered

David Bowie (David Robert Jones) would have been 79 years old on Thursday, and today is the 10th anniversary of his untimely passing. He was one of the 20th century’s greatest artists and performers. His songs are timeless. And he was a significant influence on my songwriting and my life, both obvious and not-so-obvious, and one of the reasons I moved to New York. After graduating from college, I met Joey Arias, who performed with Klaus Nomi, an alt-opera singer, at my father’s friend’s restaurant, The Wine Merchant, in Akron, Ohio. The night before they performed at The Bank on June 18, 1980, with my friend Sue’s band, Chi-Pig. (My favorite Akron band.) Joey would go on to befriend me when I moved to New York in September of ‘81. He was working at the hipster clothing boutique Fiorucci. Before meeting him, Joey and Klaus had famously performed with Bowie on Saturday Night Live in December 1979. It was avant-garde theater as much as musical performance, their “costumes” and robotic movements adding to Bowie’s masterful proceedings. It resonated with me on many levels. And it certainly was one of the most memorable music moments in the show’s storied history. Dare I say, all three of David’s songs that night must have inspired David Byrne’s costume and performance choices on his Stop Making Sense Talking Heads concert film.

I was fortunate enough to see David play live on one of his last tours. My wife and I stood a few feet from the stage next to his wife, Iman, and her mother at the Beacon Theatre for the entire 23-song concert. It was part of his “New York City Marathon Tour” in October 2002. He performed one show in each of New York’s five boroughs, including the October 20th show at the Beacon in Manhattan, fulfilling his promise to bring his music to fans across the city. The other borough performances were at St. Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn), Colden Center (Queens), Snug Harbor (Staten Island), and Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe (Bronx). No one would have anticipated that his 2003 Reality tour would be his last.

Here are ten of my favorite Bowie songs, and how I’m connected to them:

“Life on Mars” (Glastonbury 2000)

My favorite track by him. It’s one of rock’s most evergreen and enduring ballads. Hell, one of the greatest ballads of all time, one of a handful of gems from his first masterpiece, Hunky Dory. This is David crooning like Anthony Newley at the height of his vocal prowess. The original studio piano track was majestically created by Yes prog-rock keyboard wizard, Rick Wakeman. And the criminally underrated Mick Ronson, Bowie’s early ‘70s guitarist and collaborator, arranged the string quartet and played guitar and recorder. Ronson became my favorite guitarist during this time period. His hooks helped define the glam rock era. As an aside, have you heard Barbara Streisand’s fully orchestrated version? A bit bombastic, but worth a listen.

“Five Years” (Old Grey Whistle Test BBC TV show, 1972)

On a recent road trip to Ohio to visit my 91-year-old mother, I traveled with my daughter, Mina, and this song was on her playlist. I was chuffed that she had such a deep Bowie track on said playlist. The first girl I ever “French-kissed” in high school was while this song played in the background. From his second masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It was the soundtrack to my early high school daze and why I bought my first pair of “platform” shoes. I was ridiculed to no end the first day I wore them to school, but Bowie’s artistry—musically and stylistically—had already been cemented in my psyche.

“I’m Afraid of Americans” (Official Music Video)

The perfect industrial dance rock song for our current times. The disillusionment and paranoia that more than half of our citizens feel right now are beyond palpable. America’s misguided, dystopian, and dysfunctional imperialism writ large. I wonder if he’d appreciate that sentiment today? He spent his last two decades living in New York. Bowie shared tour stages with Nine Inch Nails around the time of this single from his Earthling (1997) album, co-produced by NIN’s Trent Reznor. Check out Trent in the cinematic video above.

“Cactus” (Berlin, Heathen Tour 2002)

David was a massive fan of music, both old and new, as his righteous Pixies cover so beautifully demonstrates. He made it his own, even better than the original. In 2002, I interviewed his longtime producer, Tony Visconti, at the Apple Soho Store in Manhattan for my newly launched podcast, CultureCatch.com (click the link to listen). He shared with the audience an unreleased early demo—every instrument played by David—of this song from his criminally underappreciated album, Heahen. (You can hear that demo on my podcast link above.)

“Space Oddity” (Official Video)

I first saw this video in 2018 in the David Bowie Is exhibition at the Brooklyn Art Museum. My wife and I were among the last visitors that day, so we got to spend a ton of time poring over the collection's minutiae at our leisure. This is a very different recorded version than the one ultimately recorded on June 20, 1969. This version was recorded for Love You Till Tuesday, a film made by Bowie’s then-manager, Kenneth Pitt. A new permanent home for David Bowie's archive is now open at The David Bowie Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

“The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” (Official Video)

From his album The Next Day from 2013, a throwback rock ‘n’ roll guitar-forward classic, it’s a study on the life of a celebrity and the stalkers that might threaten them at any time. The video features Tilda Swinton as Bowie’s spouse, and a creepy young couple that look like them and “follow” them throughout. I interviewed Ms. Swinton about her indie film Julia for my CultureCatch podcast in 2009. I wanted to book Bowie during this time, but he stopped doing interviews in 2004 after suffering a heart attack. Suffice it to say, Tilda reminded me of Bowie in appearance and mannerisms. They might have been alien siblings. “The stars are never sleeping / Dead ones and the living.”

“Subterranians” (Nacho Fan Video)

Bowie starred in one of my favorite sci-fi films, the Nicholas Roeg classic The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Although none of his music was used in this critically lauded feature, he had prepared this song for the film. He later suggested that the song was inspired by the divided city of East Berlin and its inhabitants, but the producer of the Station to Station album, Harry Maslin, claimed the track was intended for Roeg’s film. It was the first album in his Berlin Trilogy: Low, “Heroes” (both 1977), and Lodger (1979). This Brian Eno-enhanced track, which added his sonic magic to all three albums, would ultimately become the closing song on his ambient masterpiece, Low. This fantastic fan video features footage from TMWFTE.

“Fame” (Cher Show, 1975)

Back in 2018, I was part of a monthly group called Guitar Mash. Each month, we’d gather in a loft in Soho and invite celebrated guitarists to share stories and songs around our faux “campfire.” Each attendee would bring an acoustic guitar and play along to curated sets programmed by the guest-star guitarists. It was the ultimate fan experience. One such night in May of that year featured longtime Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar. I sat next to him and got to perform a few songs with him. He shared stories about his time with Bowie. One in particular was how he’d created the magical, funky riffs for this Bowie classic. He said that Bowie and John Lennon, who provided background vocals on the track, left the studio for lunch, and that while they were gone, he added his iconic 6-string magic. Bowie was thrilled with the results.

“Quicksand” (Madison Square Garden, 1997)

I pinched the title of this piece from the chorus of this beautiful ballad from his epic album, Hunky Dory. “Knowledge comes from death’s release” are words to live by. This album remains my favorite in David Bowie’s rich catalog. I once approached Tony Visconti at a music mastering workshop at Sterling Sound and gushed about how much I loved his production on this album. He gently reminded me that he did not produce it! (That honor belonged to Ken Scott.) My wife asked me in the car yesterday what instruments Bowie played. I told her guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, and drums. I loved that he often played a 12-string acoustic, especially on his earlier albums.

“Lazarus” (Official Music Video)

But Mr. Visconti did produce David’s final studio album, the late-career masterpiece, Blackstar (his 28th, including his two Tin Machine albums), in 2016, as well as 12 others. Outside of singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, I cannot think of another artist who approached his final recording with such bravery and honesty. From his off-Broadway musical of the same name, the brooding, hypnotic jazz-rock ballad and its accompanying video are riveting. The Thin White Duke, who had lived with his wife and child in Nolita, New York, for two decades, shared his final deathbed confession for all to hear and watch. Bowie died two days after releasing the album on his 69th birthday.

Thank you, Starman. Your music and legacy continue to shine brightly even in our most overcast skies.

Here are 10 tracks, plus a few other choice nuggets, for your listening enjoyment.