David Bowie emerged in the late 1960s with the voice of a rock belter but with the sensibility of a cabaret singer, steeped in the dynamics of stage musicals. He was Major Tom, the lost astronaut in his career-making 1969 hit “Space Oddity.”
The signer had been fighting cancer for 18 months, and “died peacefully today surrounded by his family” a message on his Facebook page reads. There are no further details.
Bowie’s son Duncan Jones confirmed the singer’s passing on Twitter. The New York Times wrote…
His last album, “Blackstar,” a collaboration with a jazz quintet that was typically enigmatic and exploratory, was released on Friday — on his birthday. He was to be honored with a concert at Carnegie Hall on March 31 featuring the Roots, Cyndi Lauper and the Mountain Goats.
He had also collaborated on an Off Broadway musical, “Lazarus,” that was a surreal sequel to his definitive 1976 film role, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
If he had an anthem, it was “Changes,” from his 1971 album “Hunky Dory,” which proclaimed:
“Turn and face the strange / Ch-ch-changes / Oh look out now you rock and rollers / Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older.”
Mr. Bowie earned admiration and emulation across the musical spectrum — from rockers, balladeers, punks, hip-hop acts, creators of pop spectacles and even classical composers like Philip Glass, who based two symphonies on Mr. Bowie’s albums “Low” and “ ‘Heroes’.”
Mr. Bowie’s constantly morphing persona was a touchstone for performers like Madonna and Lady Gaga; his determination to stay contemporary introduced his fans to Philadelphia funk, Japanese fashion, German electronica and drum-and-bass dance music.
Nirvana chose to sing “The Man Who Sold the World,” the title song of Mr. Bowie’s 1970 album, in its brief set for the 1993 “MTV Unplugged in New York.”
“Under Pressure,” a collaboration with the glam-rock group Queen, supplied a bass line for the 1990 Vanilla Ice hit “Ice Ice Baby.”
After spending several years in the late ’60s as a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop/rock album, eventually redefining glam rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy made Bowie an international star, yet he wasn’t content to continue to churn out glitter rock.
His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz. By the mid-’70s, he developed an effete, sophisticated version of Philly soul that he dubbed “plastic soul,” suffused with genuine soul. This eventually morphed into the eerie avant-pop of 1976’s Station to Station. Shortly afterward, he relocated to Berlin, where he recorded three experimental electronic albums with Brian Eno.
At the dawn of the ’80s, Bowie was still at the height of his powers, yet following his blockbuster dance-pop album Let’s Dance in 1983, he slowly sank into mediocrity before reviving his career in the early ’90s. Even when he not quite in fashion in the ’80s and ’90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the most influential musicians in rock, for better and for worse.
Every one of his phases in the ’70s sparked a number of subgenres, including punk, new wave, goth rock, the new romantics, and electronica. Few rockers ever had such lasting impact.
Mr. Bowie’s metamorphoses, he was always recognizable. His voice was widely imitated but always his own; his message was that there was always empathy beyond difference.
Concludes the NY Times.
RIP Mr. David Bowie.
