A Lad Insane: A Tribute to David Bowie

The world of music lost one of its greatest yesterday. David Bowie, the English singer and songwriter who first achieved worldwide fame with his The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album in 1972, passed away from an 18-month battle with cancer at the age of 69 on January 10. His death came as a shock to many, as his twenty-fifth studio album Blackstar was released on his 69th birthday two days before his death and virtually no one knew of Bowie’s prolonged illness. An undisputed icon of popular music and fashion for over four decades, David Bowie leaves behind a remarkable legacy of persistent change and bold musicianship that will amaze future generations of music-lovers.

Bowie’s life began on January 8, 1947 in Brixton, London. From an early age, Bowie showed artistic promise with his early interest in rock n’ roll music and modern jazz. By 1962 at the age of 15, Bowie began performing in small-time rock and skiffle groups. Bowie would spend the bulk of the 1960s performing with several groups, never making any commercial or critical impact until his release of “Space Oddity” in 1969. The “Space Oddity” single and accompanying album produced a small splash in the UK music community, the single itself causing most of the splash. The next two years saw Bowie’s first marriage to Angela Barnett, as well as release of The Man Who Sold the World (1970) and Hunky Dory (1971), the latter of which was his first serious breakthrough in the US. Both albums also foresaw the formation of a band that would soon become the “Spiders from Mars.”

In 1972 Bowie released his landmark album, Ziggy Stardust, which was the first major representation of his glam rock style and androgynous appearance and cemented his name in the minds of rock fans in the West. Bowie abruptly killed of the “Ziggy” persona in mid-1973, and for the next two years he would release more successful albums and singles while also forming a dreadful cocaine addiction.

Bowie’s 1976 album “Station to Station” showcased his new persona, the “Thin White Duke,” as well as a burgeoning interest of krautrock and a further interest in funk music. This period perhaps marked the worst point of Bowie’s cocaine habit, and in late 1976 he moved to West Berlin to try and clean himself up. This multi-year stay in Berlin saw the release of the acclaimed “Berlin Trilogy” (composed of the albums Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger) and Bowie’s kicking of his cocaine addiction. Sadly, the dawn of the 1980s began with Bowie’s divorce of Angela.

Bowie’s popularity would continue to surge through the early 1980s with the releases of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Let’s Dance, both of which carried on Bowie’s signature style of changing his sound. Bowie’s career was relatively quiet during the late 80s and early 90s, where he embarked on several tours and formed a temporary hard rock group called Tin Machine. In 1992 he married Somali-born supermodel Iman, and Bowie continued to release new material during the rest of the decade.

The 21st century marked the last few live performances of Bowie, and he released very little material in the first decade of this millennium. In the last three years of his life, Bowie produced two new albums, The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar, which both presented a new sound and type of Bowie for a whole new generation.

After a nearly five-decade career, during which he released just over two dozen studio albums and influenced countless artists of various generations and styles, Bowie passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. Fans and critics will forever remember his game-changing work, which constantly challenged and progressed the norms of rock and popular music as a whole. Bowie is survived by his wife Iman, daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, ex-wife Angela, and son Duncan Jones.

“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” – David Bowie