Loving The Alien (Remembering David Bowie)

I'm not the sort to ordinarily gush or dwell on the deaths of celebrities, but this time is different.The news of the death of David Bowie shocked me, and I have to admit that I feel a deep sense of loss, more so than I would have for any other artist's passing. I realize now that I'm more of a David Bowie fan than I thought I was. I suppose my own music collection is telling of that. My iTunes Genius app includes at least one or two of his songs for every random playlist of 50 songs generated out of the pool of my 6000 or so songs in my collection.

I don't know exactly why he appealed to me so much as an artist. I think that he was favoured by those who themselves didn't readily belong to, or weren't grounded in any one conventional or specific place, time, vocation, or social group; harmless people, who are kind and loving sorts, yet regarded as oddballs and misfits by the rest of the world. That is, those who are left to feel like they were aliens walking on their own Earth and wandering and exploring it alone. It is a feeling I have struggled with for most of my life, and Bowie for the most part found the right imagery, words, and musical notes to explain it accordingly and exactly.

He did much to pave the way to bring social conventions that were seen as too taboo and abhorrent and softened them to more of a view and place of normalcy and acceptance, even though he used shock and awe to get our attention first, and thus made it a richer world for all of us. He was a hero to people who don't follow or conform to a set accepted script of gender or sexuality. He made it safe people for people to live within their own skin if they had eccentricities, instead of suffering for and from them. He was an inspiration to so many artists of other genres, from punk to hip hop, from metal to even country.

He was a master of sound and vision. He was a true artist right until the bitter end. Even though cancer was winnowing away the rest of his life energy from him, his creative spirit stayed strong until his very last breath.

Thank you David for all of your genius and greatness that you shared with us. I wish we could have had you cloned. I will miss you. Indeed, the stars look very different today.

My Favourite David Bowie Songs (in no ranked order)

• The Man Who Sold the World
• Ziggy Stardust
• The Jean Genie
• Ashes to Ashes*
• Modern Love
• Let's Dance
• China Girl*
• Space Oddity*
• Sound and Vision
• Slow Burn
• Changes
• Heroes
• Absolute Beginners
• Loving the Alien
• Rebel Rebel*
• Golden Years*
• Fame
• Queen Bitch
• Without You
• Station to Station
• This Is Not America
• I'm Afraid of Americans
• Lazarus

*- If the list was ranked, these songs would be in the top five.