I know I am late with this but in a way I’m glad. There were so many others blogging and tweeting and what not when David Bowie passed away. Here’s what I wrote a day or two later:
I cannot call myself a fan but there are many, many songs that I like and he was a prominent, colourful feature of my 70’s and 80’s childhood. I didn’t like everything he did but what I really admired was his unflinching approach to his artistry. Bowie very much did what he pleased.
Now that is what you call an icon. Go be like that if you have the courage to do so.
As a South Londoner I was proud of the fact that he was one too, a local boy made good and never starry in the least.
He is not a bad person to seek to emulate in terms of quite fearlessly being yourself – the young can (and often) do a lot worse these days, following the antics of “stars” like Justin Bieber, Arianna Grande, Rihanna, Jessie J. Sadly the list is endless… It is so much so that I struggled when talking to my son, to come up with an equivalent artist of these times for whom a palpable feeling of loss would be generated when he reaches my age. Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey – yes they are outside the box but they have not set the world alight in the way Bowie did. And they are outside the box in a wholly marketed way – something their fans cannot see. Everybody has a feeling about Bowie, good or bad. Too many artists these days generate no strong feelings either way and to a certain extent, modern music lost its’ way some time ago and we have lived these past 30 years or so with mimics and wannabes.
True originals are hard to come by. That’s my feeling anyway. It’s probably why the majority of the music I listen to is a throwback to my youth. Metal keeps evolving and I still get a thrill from it. I listen to modern RnB sometimes but it is all very “samey samey”, increasingly misogynistic – and Chris Brown seems to be all over every track! My taste is eclectic to say the least. I like Michael Buble for example, but he’s a repackaged Frank Sinatra/Harry Connick Jnr both of whom I love and both of whom, I think, are better.
So, David Bowie, I salute you, your originality, your creativity and your fearlessness.
Rest in Peace.
Drops of Sanity 