One of the first, if not the first, music videos I ever saw was for David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” My dad was really into recording (see also: taping) Friday Night Videos back in the early 80s, pre-MTV.
I still have one of his VHS tapes of homemade music video compilations; it’s labeled with a piece of masking tape and I refuse to pitch it.
“Let’s Dance” is on there.
Even as a super young kid, when I saw this video, I knew this guy was cool as fuck.
And then obviously “Labyrinth” happened. I watched that movie for the first time in third grade, at my friend Elisabeth Holtz’s house, sitting on the floor making shitty beaded jewelry and thinking, “I would not mind one bit if David Bowie kidnapped my little brother.” Legend.
In high school, I “borrowed” one of my dad’s Bowie CDs because I wanted to put “Changes” on a mix tape I was making, and then I conveniently “forgot” to put it back. That ignited a nice little fight. My dad and I were almost constantly feuding during my teen years so it was no big thing to me at all, but looking back on it now, it was pretty ironic that he was the one who introduced me to David Bowie and then there we were all those years later, fighting because of him.
I ended up just going out and buying my own Bowie CDs after that.
(With my mom’s money, haha!)
Waking up to the news of Bowie’s death this morning took my breath away. I woke up Chooch and said, “Something terrible happened…
David Bowie died.” And that’s when I realized I was crying.
Chooch shot up from his bed like Nosferatu from a coffin, and cried, “WHAT?! How!?” I told him it was cancer, and he went on a tear, motherfucking cancer up and down.
“Now there won’t ever be a sequel to ‘Labyrinth’,” he added somberly.
This feels like one of those universal deaths, the kinds that suck so hard and touch people on such a worldwide level, that we all kind of come together for a moment. It’s comforting. Especially when I open Facebook and see people mourning the same loss as me, when I didn’t really think we had much in common. David Bowie is the glittery, otherworldly, sonic thread that connects us. And there will never be another like him.
Thank you, David Bowie.
8 Responses to “Goodbye, David Bowie. ”
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I have been sobbing all morning… I grew up listening to David Bowie.I love music the way I do in large part because of him. He made me feel better about being “weird”,hell he helped me to embrace it.There was just something so damn special about him and I can’t believe he is gone.
Yes! He made it cool to be different. A total game changer. I wish I could hug you right now!!<3
Let’s Dance is actually the song I’ve had in my head ever since I heard about it last night…
Great minds…!!
David Bowie was my first exposure to real “rock” music. Nerd that I am, one night I was searching Encarta encyclopedia(!) sometime in the 90’s and came across the entry for Rock n Roll (or something similar). “Changes” was the in the mashup sound byte they gave as an example, but with no artist info, so I spent the next few weeks (before the internet was actually useful) searching for it. At least one of his songs is always on my most current playlist.
I agree with you, Erin. This is one of those universal deaths that touches most of us. I love the quote you posted, as it does ring truth. We were lucky to have shared the earth with him and to have been touched by his music. <3<3<3
Thank you for sharing your Bowie story with me! I love knowing about how my friends got into certain music. “Changes” is such a great song!
One of the coolest guys on the planet, RIP David Bowie.
To have even an iota of his cool, unique weirdness…a true legend.