David Bowie R.I.P

I remember Eno saying that good singers tend to be good impressionists, I think he was talking about Bowie... and (whisper it) Bono.

the hot pants line

he nails a couple of 'em, but his voice provides a limited bag of impersonation tricks

reminded me of Andy Partridge's "That Wag" on "Fuzzy Warbles" where he does Robert Smith, Morrissey, etc.

Springsteen by far the best. Think I have heard him do a better Iggy impression on the officially released material.

He sure is a chameleon, that David Bowie. Perhaps further proof that by that point he wanted to be anybody but himself.

...

So, here's a question:

Have we ever gotten the full story on why Bowie retired?

We all know about the heart attack onstage in 2004 and rumors of poor health afterward. I know he had young children. And obviously, he did a few things here and there, as evidenced by Lazarus musical, various appearances at shows, and, of course, the two records.

But is that really the story? I'm asking in large part because Bowie's reclusion over the last decade has obviously colored how it feels as a fan to lose him so suddenly -- particularly given that we literally JUST got him back before he departed for good.

For that matter, this was someone who seemed to really, really enjoy his celebrity. As much as I've been listening to his records the last week, I've also been watching his interviews. And man, Bowie did a LOT of interviews -- the guy was positively everywhere for long, long stretches of his career, including the early 2000's. It's hard to believe this was someone who "just got tired of it all." The guy was ubiquitous -- and seemed to really, really enjoy being in the limelight.

Do we know what exactly happened? Did he conclude that he didn't have much else to say? Did he want to spend time with family because he never really had before? Was he no longer able to keep up with the pace of being a celebrity? All of these are legitimate reasons -- as is his right to not really share why he decided what he did.

It just seems odd.

I think you're right, he wanted to spend time with his family because he never really had before. One account had him walking his daughter to school every day. There's also the (apocryphal?) story of him post heart attack of being afraid of dying on stage.

I thought it was a canny career move in which health played a large part. It's obvious now he was sicker than we all thought -- and for a long time.

Is it so obvious? He had his heart problem in 2004, but the cancer battle was reportedly only the last 18 months. There's a lot of time in between where who knows what was going on.

Much we don't know. These boomer guys and their drugs. It's probable he was sick for years the rest of us knowing.

NOT knowing

You sound like Yoda.

Albums do not make one great.

phew.
just listened to my fave album, lodger, and did not crash into a heap.
this hopefully means i can now start listening to bowie again.
i genuinely thought i would be locked out forever due to the emo chaos/connections.
all i can say is that lodger is fucking brilliant.
lodger was the first bowie album i really fell for (basically 'boys keep swinging' on TOTP = my bowie/ronson moment), and i have never ever become bored of it.
better late than never : bring on the bowie weekend.

oh, and just realised, i have never actually listened to 'buddha of suburbia' despite having it on skinny promo for years ..

i.e. i have a new-to-me album to listen to.

guy went tot low-profile his last ten years in Manhattan

this was someone who seemed to really, really enjoy his celebrity

eh, i don't know, i see this around a lot and personally i think it's reading a bit too much into him. the media projecting it's own importance. he liked talking and giving interviews but not so much schilling a product as describing his working methods and his thoughts. i would say he really really enjoyed working rather than being enamored of the glitz and glamor.

Is it so obvious?

heart problem in his 60s, does he need any further reason to retire?

Do we know what exactly happened?

ch-ch-ch-

Bowie said the best quote about the importance of fame: "All it means is getting a good table at a restaurant."

Got the impression he was always rather private, as opposed to Jagger

I assume Jagger is pretty private, too! And probably most big rock stars. That's why these guys buy palatial estates, so they don't have to go out and be bothered.

Jagger's quiet NOW. He was far bigger tabloid fodder in the seventies and eighties. Bowie was invisible.

not so much schilling a product

i see what you did

In that video interview I posted above Bowie talks about moving all the time, never owning a house. He was always in other cities, which probably made him pretty hard to find.

He was clearly sick in 2013 - people dropped hints everywhere. The Next Day had tons of references to degenerative diseases and memory loss and death and loss of eyesight. It was just the liver cancer that finally got him. Dude had SIX heartaches in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXibq_9Q8gI

lol, sry, too much gin. David Bowie suffered six heart attacks in his last full year alive on this Earth

No worries.

I smiled..

I always assumed the heart condition was reason for no touring, what's the source on heart-attacks? any big heart-aches post hermione?

btw watery VH1 'adult' album is such a great description of the Hours cover

I wouldn't miss out on any Lou decade

David Bowie suffered six heart attacks in his last full year alive on this Earth

Where did you get this information?

Oh wait, it comes from gossip in UK tabloids (e.g. the Mirror reporting a comment by Bowie biographer Wendy Leigh. The first sentence in the Mirror article claims, like you, that Bowie had "six heart attacks in the past year", but this isn't exactly what Leigh said ("six heart attacks in recent years"). In any case, her Bowie book is the trashiest, most appallingly researched piece of shit and I wouldn't consider her a reputable source about anything.

(should be a closing parenthesis after the link there)

Lots of blindness and dementia throughout Bowie's lyrics, from the beginning. Nearly losing your eye and coming from a mentally unhealthy family on one side'll do that.

I didn't realize until I was reading a ton of stuff last week that the Ziggy cover artist was responsible for Bowie's eye. I guess I always figured it was a congenital thing.

That reminds me that after the discussion of how much or little he cared about fame yesterday I came across an interesting passage in Paul Trynka's Starman about how he told Iman his only close friends were from his teenage years in Bromley such as George Underwood.

I'm up to the young Americans era in the trynka biography. It's really great. There's so much super basic shit I didn't know about young Bowie

Parodies would have been better if he had sung the appropriate fragment from the respective artist's song featuring Marlon Brando in the lyrics.

maybe it's been noted already, but i keep seeing this thing posted around ... durr.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZWL36-WEAAsz_p.jpg:large

(i know he covered that song, but the context i've seen it in is "David Bowie's most amazing lyrics/quotes")

twu otm, also in my extensive bowie research that consisted of listening to the buxton thing I heard an interview where he pretty much said "I wanted to be a celebrity" so idk about this disinterest in fame people are ascribing to him

yeah bowie is the new lennon for quote misattributions in fb images.

twu otm, also in my extensive bowie research that consisted of listening to the buxton thing I heard an interview where he pretty much said "I wanted to be a celebrity" so idk about this disinterest in fame people are ascribing to him

yeah bowie is the new lennon for quote misattributions in fb images
- Bob Marley

Lol. I started a version of that last weekend on FB and one guy wondered what I was doing.

the one i was very suspicious of was "i don't now where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring" or something. but that appears to check out (it's from his 50th birthday concert).

Wow, Five Years was great.

I didn't realize until I was reading a ton of stuff last week that the Ziggy cover artist was responsible for Bowie's eye. I guess I always figured it was a congenital thing.

whoa back up, the original legend was that peter frampton walloped him back in his school days ??

is there another reason now ?

George underwood punched him because he tried to usurp georges date with a girl in a super sneaky way