Music: All About David Bowie

I don't know if this is fate or coincidence. Shortly after New Year's day 2016, I learned that David Bowie had a new album up for preorder, entitled Blackstar. Then I saw a massive box set available - Five Years, containing his first six studio albums, two live albums, two discs of singles and B-sides, and a massive booklet. Having earned a performance bonus at work, I decided to splurge on the set. No sooner did the awesome new music arrive, than I saw the news that Bowie passed away at the age of 69. It happened just two days after his latest album released, which was also his birthday. The timing of this is nuts, but it made me realize that the man had a greater impact on me than I realized.

To me, David Bowie has always been a rockstar in the same league (or perhaps above and beyond) as the classics. You'd have to be living under a rock to have never heard of "Space Oddity," "Ziggy Stardust," "Let's Dance," or any number of other hits. Over the course of a forty year career, the man's made a broad array of music - from the gentle roots of classic rock to more hard-hitting industrial, noisy electronica, groovy jazz, and stranger ethnic combinations. On top of that, he's been the star of various films, such as The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Hunger, The Last Temptation of Christ, Labyrinth, The Prestige, and he even shows up for an amusing cameo in Zoolander.

More than the music and the movies, Bowie always exuded style and class. His mere image varied from the otherworldly to the hip, serving as the epitome of "glam rock." He did things on and off the stage that could only be described as pure expressionism.

David Bowie's music was always just there as I was growing up. "Let's Dance" was one of the primary staples in my parents' collection of 80s rock. It wasn't until high school that I really started to take a notice, as I used the newfangled Internets and MP3 technology to look for and discover songs like "Fame" and "Under Pressure" (mostly under my mother's request). "Fame" became one of those songs I listened to repeatedly in those years, becoming part of my own personal high school soundtrack (and it sounds fabulous next to Beck's "Mixed Bizness," among other songs I listened to). One of my first-ever CDs that I collected was the film soundtrack to 1997's The Saint, which featured Bowie's song "Dead Man Walking." I always thought it was noisy, but it proved to be rather catchy. "Golden Years" was also essential listening throughout my adolescence.

As the years went on, I wound up collecting more and more of Bowie's songs, until I finally grabbed some Greatest Hits compilations, and just now got around to digging deeper into his discography. I ran across his songs often from various film soundtracks - "Cat People (Putting Out the Fire)," "(She Can) Do That," "The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell," and "Bring Me the Disco King" are all favorites of mine to this day. There was also a time when I kept hearing "New Killer Star" on the radio, and I really vied for it.

David Bowie's accomplishments have been huge, and after all this time I've come to look up to the man for all his talent, imagination, and class. Knowing that he's suddenly absent from the world, it feels like a vibrant part of our culture, and of human life overall, is missing. I know that I will miss him.

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AL'S FAVORITE SONGS