My final Bowie blog, is fittingly, the last studio album he released in his lifetime, which came out nine years ago today on his 69th birthday. He would have turned 78, if he were still with us. Nearly a decade on, and I can still vividly remember this album coming out. Several media outlets promoted the release by posting a picture of him, dressed in a snazzy suit and hat. It would become the last known photo of Bowie before his passing.
The pic wasn't snapped on his actual birthday, but it was released the same day to publicise his new record, simply named ★, or Blackstar. I remember rushing down to JB Hi-Fi to nab a copy on CD. I'd seen the pic on the socials, and was buoyed by how good he looked.
It was an exciting period for Bowie fans after he dropped a new single on his birthday in 2013. It had been his first new music in about a decade, and the song Where Are We Now? was promoted as being from an upcoming album release. True to his word, his first studio album since September 2003, The Next Day, landed in March that year. With artwork that doctored the original "Heroes" record, and Tony Visconti back in the producer's chair, a new era of Bowie was being ushered in; and I was there for it!
Another new single came out at the end of 2014, Sue (Or in a Season of Crime), which tied in with the release of the excellent retrospective collection Nothing Has Changed. The end of 2015 saw another fresh single, Blackstar and yes, another new album was coming in January 2016. It was quite the ride from an artist who had barely surfaced since suffering a blocked heart artery in 2004, following a collapse on stage. So much new music in a short space of time!
I avoided the Blackstar song, and video clip, because I wanted to take it all in when the album was released. So, going back to that day, I can remember ripping the plastic off the CD and playing it in the car straight away. I got a few full listens in over the following day or two. I was excited for the change in direction, with all the avant garde jazz arrangements, and seemingly cryptic lyrics. What would Bowie do next? Such a buzz!
Then the news of his death broke, only two days after his birthday on January 10th. I remember being so confused, and so saddened. We all found out that he'd been fighting cancer, and suddenly, so many lyrics on Blackstar made total sense. The video clip to Lazarus took on a new resonance as well, because as his character was trying to write lyrics and songs, it mirrored his own struggle. He wanted to get another album out before his imminent death.
The eerie title track kicks things off, with a run time of nearly ten minutes, hearkening back to his excellent Station to Station album, which opened the same way. It's actually two songs joined together, but they flow in and out of each other quite effortlessly. Once the Gregorian chorus gives way to Bowie's wonderful clear vocal singing "Something happened on the day he died," you are transported into a different mood. The unsettling first few minutes have a bizarre drum pattern and its minor key adds to the tension. The second piece is classic Bowie, with the distorted, repeated line "I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar" punctuating his melodic couplets. The song works it way into the chants and lyrics that opened it, with a clever segue that goes back and forth a couple of times, playing with the track's timing and syncopation.
It's a big highlight of the album, and arguably, its best one. The accompanying clip features many disturbing images and callbacks to older Bowie songs, Space Oddity in particular. The sight of Bowie gyrating with his eyes bandaged, save for two small holes is almost as iconic as that of his clown in the Ashes to Ashes video or his patch-wearing rock pirate in Rebel Rebel. Seeing him dressed like a priest or some religious official, clutching a book (or bible) with the Blackstar on its cover is also quite stirring. I'm sure the more you watch the video, the more you will find in it. I haven't watched it for years.
The second track is the B-side of the aforementioned Sue single, 'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore. Whereas the initial releases of both songs favoured jazzier arrangements, the re-recorded versions on this record are almost industrial in feel, with thumping bass and booming drums. The single version of Sue is longer and feels more narrative than the one of this album, and I prefer both of those versions to the two tracks here. I'm not sure of why Bowie felt the need to re-record them. Maybe it was to give the album a more cohesive feel. Of the two tracks, I much prefer Sue, in either incarnation. As the narrator struggles with providing for the titular Sue, things descend into a dark tale of murder and madness. Quite unlike anything else in Bowie's canon, particularly in its original form.
Blackstar's second single and third track is Lazarus, a downbeat, but somehow hopeful elegiac song that gave us more hints than we realised. The opening lines are arguably the most poignant:
Far out. Right in the feels. It's quite a haunting brass line that repeats throughout the track. It's almost like a lullaby, but with a hint of menace or fear. Who knows how Bowie was really coming to terms with his mortality, but to use his death for his art is truly an amazing feat. Of all the moments on this album that say goodbye to his fans, this is probably the most poignant. However, there is a puzzling lyric about "looking for your ass" though. Not sure what that's about. As Bowie sings he'll be free like a bluebird, you can only assume he's singing about leaving this life. The title refers to the biblical character who rose from the dead four days after he passed away, when his tomb was visited by Jesus. This miracle was one of the reasons that led to Jesus' eventual crucifixion. Not sure how Bowie's narrative fits in with those events, but the interpretations are endless.
The fifth track on the record is another favourite of mine, Girl Loves Me. Using some of the Nadsat vernacular popularised in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange novel, and the 1971 movie, this track's lyrics are almost nonsensical. It doesn't stop the song being relatable, particularly the repeated line "Where the fuck did Monday go?". Again, there's a menace or some sort of malevolence permeating the mood of the track, and the Nasdat terms just add to that:
Spatchko at the rozz-shop/
Split a ded from his deng deng/
Yeah, not sure what's being sung about here, but I like it. He he he... the next song Dollar Days, is one of the weaker tracks here, for mine. It's a softer feel in tone and emotion, and expresses Bowie's struggle with what time he has left. Bizarrely, even though it isn't as melancholic or dark as other tracks on this album, it feels more depressing than any of them.
There's only so much you can give to the public. You have to keep something for yourself. I love hearing Bowie's son Duncan Jones talk about how much of a dag he was at home, and away from the stage. He would goof around like any other dad and regularly had his head in a book. That was his private side; it was only for a select few.
If that harmonica line sounds familiar, it's because it was lifted from Low's closing track of its first side, A New Life in a New Town. That could be taken as another hint to what Bowie was facing as he recorded this album. It's a tough listen at times, but it's such a different offering from the man. I think it's unlike anything he's released, from an album point of view. It has moments of echoing older records, but it's something quite extraordinary. I give it 4/5, me. It's up there with the best.
UP NEXT: TBA
