01-11-2016, 10:18 AM
JAN. 11, 2016
By JON PARELES
![[Image: 20160112_BOWIE_HP-slide-EDQ9-jumbo.jpg]](http://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/01/12/arts/music/20160112_BOWIE_HP-slide-EDQ9/20160112_BOWIE_HP-slide-EDQ9-jumbo.jpg)
David Bowie, the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of drama, images and personae, died on Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday.
Mr. Bowie’s death was confirmed by his publicist, Steve Martin, on Monday morning. He died after an 18-month battle with cancer, according to a statement on Mr. Bowie’s social-media accounts.
“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family,†a post on his Facebook page read.
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 Broadwa musical, “Lazarus,†that was a surreal sequel to his definitive 1976 film role, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.â€
Mr. Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut.
His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul,†but it was suffused with genuine soul. He also captured the drama and longing of everyday life, enough to give him No.1 pop hits like “Let’s Dance.â€
“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.â€
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’.â€
Mr. Bowie’s constant visual reinvention 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.â€
“Under Pressure,†a collaboration with the glam-rock group Queen, supplied a bass line for the 1990 Vanilla Ice hit “Ice Ice Baby.â€
Yet, throughout 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.
Born David Robert Jones on Jan. 8, 1947, Mr. Bowie constantly reinvented himself. He 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.†He was Ziggy Stardust, the otherworldly pop star at the center of his 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.â€
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May he rest in the arms of God... He will be missed
By JON PARELES
David Bowie, the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of drama, images and personae, died on Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday.
Mr. Bowie’s death was confirmed by his publicist, Steve Martin, on Monday morning. He died after an 18-month battle with cancer, according to a statement on Mr. Bowie’s social-media accounts.
“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family,†a post on his Facebook page read.
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 Broadwa musical, “Lazarus,†that was a surreal sequel to his definitive 1976 film role, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.â€
Mr. Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut.
His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul,†but it was suffused with genuine soul. He also captured the drama and longing of everyday life, enough to give him No.1 pop hits like “Let’s Dance.â€
“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.â€
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’.â€
Mr. Bowie’s constant visual reinvention 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.â€
“Under Pressure,†a collaboration with the glam-rock group Queen, supplied a bass line for the 1990 Vanilla Ice hit “Ice Ice Baby.â€
Yet, throughout 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.
Born David Robert Jones on Jan. 8, 1947, Mr. Bowie constantly reinvented himself. He 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.†He was Ziggy Stardust, the otherworldly pop star at the center of his 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.â€
Read More Here
May he rest in the arms of God... He will be missed