The Day the Music Died

Though nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day

We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?

January 16, 2016.

For me, this was the day the music died.

I look back and it seems so long ago, but it has only been two years.

But two years without David Bowie can seem like an eternity.

January 16, 2016 was the day when the androgynous chameleon that epitomized the phrase "rock star" for me, got back on his spaceship and
took his final ride through the galaxy and into our hearts forever.

During my forty-six-year existence, Elvis has died. Cobain has died. George Michael, Tom Petty, Chuck Berry and more. Outside of Prince, who I hold with just as much esteem, but in a different way, Bowie was MY star man. Changes was one of the very first albums that I ever bought with my own money. I was too young to fully experience Ziggy Stardust, but I was mesmerized by the lanky, ever-changing, spirit that took me from ground control to china girls. From Fame to Modern Love to Dancing in the Street.

From the way he dressed to the way he presented himself in interviews, he had an ethereal yet real presence.

He was a tangible presence.

He exuded presence.

He just... was.

The day that he died, I picked up my Random Eight-Year-Old from reform school and as soon as we got home, I pulled out my vinyl began to tell a story.

With my son on my lap, we listened. And we looked at pictures and I told him
about a star man who fell to Earth and became a rock star.

We sat there and for a little while, we shared that moment.

He couldn't understand what I felt, but he was interested to hear about this myth that Bowie created.  This larger than life man that sang and danced and spoke with a foreign accent and had two different colored eyes.

It's been two years and I still miss him.

He lived the rock star life, he lived the simple life. He put it all out there and he kept his secrets but when he died, he did it with dignity, with his privacy intact, at home with his loved ones.

He knew he was dying.  He knew that he would be gone before he was ready, yet he played on.

He was a showman till the end.

"David and I were not the best of friends toward the end. We started out being really good friends. We used to hang out together with Marc Bolan, going to gay clubs, but I think we just drifted apart. He once called me "rock and roll's token queen" in an interview with Rolling Stone which I thought was a bit snooty. He wasn't my cup of tea. No I wasn't his cup of tea. But the dignified way he handled his death, I mean, thank God. I knew he'd had a heart attack on stage in Berlin years ago, but not about the cancer. Everyone else, take noteof this: Bowie couldn't have staged a better death. It was classy."
-Elton John

On January 16th, 2016, we lost our star man. We lost a talent, a man that gave so much of himself to us that when he died, I felt like a piece of me went with him.

Back to space.  

So, today, I pull out my vinyl. I listen on my computer at work, I post pictures and videos and quotes on the Book of Face.  I do everything that I can to remember, appreciate, and enjoy the legacy of music and art that he left behind.

"I just know that death is inevitable. I don't really have much in terms of
artistic ambitions for the future, I'm quite happy working on what I'm doing at
present. When you're young you want to be a bit ice, you don't want to be like
everyone else, you want to be bang on the money. But I'm not like that
anymore, thankfully. I place a touching importance on each day having been
worthwhile. I get up incredibly early, feeling really up to mystic, and expect
that day to be as good as I can possibly make it. Life is really interesting at
the moment. But then I really don't remember being bored. I've been depressed plenty of times but I've never actually been bored. Looking out of a window and watching people is quite enough to keep me occupied for half an hour." - David Bowie

There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy

They say he wandered very far
Very far over land and sea

A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise, was he

And then one day
One magic day he passed my way
While we...

And then one day
One magic day he passed my way
While we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me

The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return

Davie Bowie

January 8, 1947 - January 10, 2016