Martin Bridgeman

(First reaction on 11/1/2016, around 8:00 a.m., edited to correct some grammar)

It’s hard to know where to start…David Bowie was the definitive soundtrack to my life. I looked up to him and the possibilities that he voiced.

I first heard Space Oddity, Changes, (Oh You) Pretty Things  and Kooks when they first came out and I fell for that voice and the melodies. A short time later, I discovered The Man Who Sold The World and the amazing band that would later produce Ziggy Stardust. From that point on I was hooked…I remember the buzz in school as we marvelled at his Top Of The Pops performances, each one different, pushing boundaries of art, music, dance and sexuality. His face was on my wall, his myth and legend lodged there forever. He was the face of the outsider, the one who made it okay to be yourself…whatever that meant.

His run of albums throughout the 1970’s was nothing short of astounding, nothing short of peerless. His persona changed accordingly too, which was a bonus; from Space Oddity and Hunky Dory, to Ziggy to Soul Train, the Cracked Actor, the Thin White Duke to the Berlin albums, he shape shifted and took us along with him if we had the will to accept the changes. I defended “Low” to some dedicated Ziggy fans but then “Heroes” brought us all back together. His music morphed again and “Scary Monsters” twisted the image just so and then, shortly after, he dropped a dance album courtesy of Nile Rodgers. Looked as a collection it was and will remain astounding. His output in the 90’s split fans, gained more new ones and moved on, again, on his own terms.

His film career caused a lot of debate but none affected me like “The Man Who Fell To Earth”. It made a bold statement about the nature of the outsider, played to the max by the Prince of Outsiders…

That was his gift. He had an artistic soul, a restless, questioning one that never stayed long in one place. He nurtured emerging scenes, appropriated and made popular or just left the albums there for us to catch up on while he moved on. He was a true artist in the renaissance sense.

He may have lost a few of us over the years (I was never a fan of Tin Machine for example, but I’m going to give them another listen) and we mourned his silence after his ‘retirement’.

Once again, as (almost) expected, he arrived back on the scene with a fine new album of music and we dared to hope for a new run of albums. He didn’t disappoint. His (last) “Backstar” album was a stunning return to form, embracing the New York jazz scene with his trademark puzzling, alternative view of what an album should be…now we know that it was also his legacy to us, the audience in his mind to the very end, something he spoke of many times.

We say in Irish “Ní bheidh a leithéad arís ann” and it’s true now in the strongest sense. There will never be another David Bowie and this musical and artistic world we all share  is all the sadder for that.

He blew our minds…

(Here’s the show I attempted to present, emotional and fraught but done with as much grace as I could muster. Thanks to KCLR for the opportunity…

Listen here