All is not lost, janeslogin. Bowie has died, but he left his music here with us. Perhaps you can take the opportunity to acquaint yourself with some of his work. A handful I’d like to suggest:
Space Oddity is one of his very famous songs, but this version is being performed in space, on the International Space Station by astronaut Chris Hadfield. This is the original, by David Bowie himself. Changes has been mentioned a lot on social media by my friends in tributes to Bowie. The Man Who Sold The World has been the track I’ve gravitated to the most over the last couple of days. This is the original. I’m actually more familiar with Nirvana’s 1994 cover as I was the right age group to be exposed to that first. Bowie reworked it in the 90s, and I’ve been loving this version. Nature Boy is a Bowie cover of a Nat King Cole original. Life on Mars has been featured heavily in the BBC teledrama of the same name, and the US version of the same series. If you’re familiar with the show, you’ll recognise the song. Under Pressure is a collaboration between David Bowie and Queen Let’s Dance has been featured a lot in the Australian media because the video was filmed here and starred Indigenous actors.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last few days is that his catalogue was so large and diverse that one top 10 list I saw listed none of the songs I’d have put in his top 10, and yet was still a great list.
So, what do you think this means? I’m sure there are famous performers in an area of entertainment that I know nothing about who pass away everyday. What makes your lack of awareness of David Bowie odd is that he was not a second tier performer.
So, let’s try this. Have you heard of these artists?
Bowie originally offered them “Suffragette City” to record, but Ian Hunter thought it was arse: he wanted “Drive-In Saturday” instead, but Bowie was keeping that for Aladdin Sane.
Did you know the makers of Google News also invented a pretty swell search tool for other stuff too (they don’t just deal in news)? I know the elderly have a hard time learning how to use this information superhighway so hopefully this handy link will help.
The OP’s profile page indicates that he is male.
“Biography
77 year old male. Retired. Once worked in medical microbiology but got sucked into laboratory information systems.”
I am a little surprised he never heard of David Bowie, but I suppose it’s possible.
I had to look up what songs were on Ziggy Stardust, as I embarassingly have never heard any of his albums in their entirety, but “Suffragette City” I recognized as an oft-played single, at least here in Chicago. ETA: “Starman,” too, but not as much as Suffragette.
I know him more from covers of his work and from acting work, but his music was just “not my style” plus a lot of those covers are for songs recorded before I discovered how to use the record player (his first album and I got cooked at the same time). He was a huge influence on a lot of musicians whose work I do like.
“Suffragette City” is the only song from “Ziggy Stardust” that I’ve heard on the radio, but I’ve heard tons of others. “Changes,” “Golden Years,” “Rebel, Rebel,” “Space Oddity,” “Fame.” His music got lots of FM airplay in the 70s.
Do you have children? His heydey was when you were in your late 30s-40s. You may not be exposed to him if you didn’t have teenagers into music during that period.
Having said that, I can’t see any excuse for your ignorance. He’s one of the most well known figures in 20th Century music.
