RIP, David Bowie

Pretty much everyone in my circle is utterly pig miserable tonight about the death of David Bowie.  God knows, I am.  I usually do become saddened when I hear of a musician I liked dying.  I was most despondent when Stevie Wright left us a few weeks ago, but I wouldn't say I felt grief.  Tonight, I do feel a bit of grief.  I'm guessing shock has played a factor in this grief.  With Stevie Wright, it was hardly a surprise to hear the news.  Let's face it, his lifestyle and addictions had left him a ravaged shell of the talented man he was, and I hoped he was at peace.

But with Bowie, it's just plain shock.  Not many outside his immediate circle knew he was sick.  Fuck me, I was only celebrating his birthday a few days ago, as were many of the legion of fans.  And yes, I was a fan.  Not to the point of obsession, but I was definitely a fan.  Ever since I was eight years old and heard him petulantly and seductively intone, 'Hot tramp, I love you so...' in 'Rebel, Rebel', I've been pretty much hooked on his oeuvre.  The way he delivered that line just oozed promise of some rather naughty things to come.  Not that I realised that at eight, you understand; just the magnetic draw of the man.

This public distress and shock is pretty much on par with the death of John Lennon, although with Bowie it's due to natural causes and not some psychotic fuck-up who should just say in his cell and keep on reading J.D. Salinger, and never set foot on commonly-public trodden soil again.  So at least with Bowie, I only feel sadness.  Sadness is not great, but when accompanied by anger, it is so much worse.

Why the fuck did Bowie have to die?  The term 'genius' is parried about too lightly, and it's a term I'd rather reserve for the likes of Tesla, Edison, and Da Vinci.  But in the musical and pop culture sense, maybe it could apply here.  Everyone talks of his reinvention, and it was so entertaining (unlike Madonna's constant reinvention: in every incarnation she produces she still looks like a desperate drag queen).  Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke - loved 'em all, I did.

This has been a crap day.  You know what the highlight of my day has been?  Getting some whiteout and obliterating a misplaced apostrophe on a notice at work.  Well, the context was plural noun, not possessive noun, so that pesky annoying apostrophe had to go, before my sanity did.

I guess if there's a Rock and Roll Heaven, Bowie is jamming with Mick Ronson again, or performing another duet with Freddie Mercury.  Possibly Freddie and Bowie are rolling their eyes about Vanilla Ice and 'Ice, Ice Baby', a clusterfuck that had the temerity to sound like 'Under Pressure'.

Sigh.  Vale, Bowie.  You were so awesome.