Remembering David Bowie: The Brilliance Of ‘Blackstar’
By Andy Kahn Dec 27, 2016 • 8:08 am PST
January 10, 2016
David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.
Reading those words on David Bowie’s website on January 11 seemed surreal. How could it be? How could Bowie be dead? He just released a new album, ★ (Blackstar), on January 8 which was also his 69th birthday. How could Bowie be dead?
We’ll never know if The Man Who Fell To Earth who called himself Ziggy Stardust really was an alien or if those truly were just characters conceived to convey an otherworldly sound. Bowie always seemed like he was from a different universe altogether, just visiting Earth for a time before setting off on a different life’s journey. I consider myself lucky to have lived in the Age Of Bowie, to have shared the same planet with someone so cosmically magical and to have his relics to revel in now that he’s on a different orbit.
Listening to ★ after January 11 felt different than it had just the few days before. Every song – from title, to lyric to tone – seemingly took on a different and more profound meaning. While some were wondering how Bowie could be dead, it was becoming clear that he had come to terms with the inevitable prior to ever stepping into the studio for his final sessions. His birthday present to us all was also a message saying goodbye.
Well documented reports from the likes of longtime Bowie collaborator and ★ producer Tony Visconti have made it clear that the album was knowingly recorded as a final statement from one the greatest musicians to live. Seven songs clocking in at just over 40 minutes document Bowie’s final regards to the world he leaves behind.
Supported by Visconti, ★ was recorded with the aid of Tedeschi Trucks Band bassist Tim Lefebvre, jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin and members of his group including keyboardist Jason Lindner, guitarist Ben Monder and drummer Mark Guiliana. LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy can also be heard on the tracks “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” and “Girl Loves Me.”
There are overt references such as the track “Lazarus” and its Biblical story of rising from the dead, as well as album opening lyric “Look up here, I’m in Heaven.” The album also appears to have less implicit indicators such as the ominously labeled title (and title track) and various sources of lyrics that often carry a deeper meaning after his passing. Perhaps there’s significance to the use of the Nadsat slang Anthony Burgess utilized in his novel A Clockwork Orange in “Girl Loves Me?” Perhaps there a deeper meaning to the complex album artwork and more to be discovered therein? We can only hope.
“I can’t give everything away,” Bowie sings as part of the album’s, and his career’s, final track. Yet, with ★ there appears to more to discover with each prevailing listen, with each deep dive into one of the tracks, with each examination of the lyrics, with each viewing of the accompanying music videos and with each encounter, however it may be, with the brilliance of Bowie’s ultimate work of art.
