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| Photo from Cleveland.com |
People die. But if we are lucky, a few, like
David Bowie, will share their talents with us before they go. Singer,
song-writer, actor, and musical influencer, Bowie lost his battle with liver cancer
on January 10, just days after his 69th
birthday and the release of his latest album entitled Blackstar. After
hearing the sad news, his long-time friend and colleague Elton John posted on Facebook "I am still in shock. Never saw it coming.
My deepest condolences to Iman and the family. An amazing life. An amazing career."
Indeed, the news of Bowie’s death was totally
unexpected. How in an era of instant information dissemination did his fans not
know about his illness?
I was in
high school when I first heard David Bowie’s music. NASA had recently launched Apollo 11, the
first manned lunar landing mission, when the local radio stations started
playing Bowie’s song Space
Oddity. The eerie lyrics and
haunting melody combined with Bowie’s unique voice captivated listeners who had
just witnessed science fiction come to life when astronauts walked on the moon
in July 1969.
But you don’t have to be a Bowie fan to be familiar with his music. His Little Drummer Boy duet with Bing Crosby is part of nearly every radio station’s Christmas playlist and his song Starman is on the sound track of the Oscar-nominated Ridley Scott film, The Martian. Not surprisingly, Bowie is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, class of 1996.
David Byrne of the Talking Heads inducted David Bowie into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ( from You Tube)
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| Costume photos from Cleveland.com |
Never static, Bowie adopted several other stage
personas during his more than forty years of entertaining. The costume collection at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame includes several other tour costumes, including the outfit he wore
on stage during his A Reality Tour in 2003.
The display symbolizes the artistry Bowie brought to the stage in his
performances and can be appreciated by both die-hard fans and neophytes.
“Bowie didn’t just alter the sound of rock; he shaped the way it looked, and he expanded what it could achieve as a medium. In doing so, he inspired millions.” - Greg Harris, Rock Hall Blog
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| The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH |
The curators at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
along with a group of music critics and historians have compiled a list of some of the most significant rock and roll songs ever recorded. They believe that these songs best exemplify
the development of rock music over the years.
While the complete list covers myriad artists, four of the songs on the list were composed by David Bowie. They are:
- Changes
- Fame
- Space Oddity
- Ziggy Stardust
In addition to his epic music career, Bowie appeared
in several motion pictures including The
Hunger, The Labyrinth, and Zoolander. According to WWMX Radio, in 1985, he was
offered a role as a villain in A View to
a Kill but turned it down saying “I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs." His
movie roles earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In spite of his prolific body of work, Bowie only had two songs that reached the
number one spot on the charts in the US - Fame in 1975 and Let’s
Dance in 1983. David Bowie made music a little more special for the
world, so instead of mourning our loss, we
should celebrate the contributions he made to the evolution of rock
and roll. Rock on, Starman!
