Why David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ Still Resonates 10 Years Later
One would be hard-pressed to name a rock star whose legacy can compete with that of David Bowie. The Thin White Duke’s timeless music is arguably more popular and resonant now than even in his ‘70s heyday. Even further, the singular social imprint he left — bending gender norms decades before doing so became culturally acceptable — continues to earn Bowie reverence among younger generations. In a manner that few artists other than Bowie are capable of, he capped off his indisputably enduring career with Blackstar, an album that scored the rare trifecta of critical, commercial, and artistic excellence.
David Bowie Shoots for the Stars — One Last Time
Whereas Bowie peer Lou Reed sadly passed away with a whimper of an album — Lulu, his ambitious yet ultimately lackluster collaboration with Metallica — Ziggy Stardust stuck the landing with his own highly experimental effort, 2016’s Blackstar. Ten years later, it remains confounding how Bowie cooked up a record that incorporated material from his off-Broadway musical Lazarus, genres ranging from jazz to art rock, and salutes to Kendrick Lamar and other unlikely musicians he respected.
From start to finish, Blackstar reflects an artist who had achieved a Buddha-level of enlightenment, as evidenced by his confidence and audaciousness to open it with the 10-minute title track. He wasn’t marinating in egoism or self-indulgence, though: One of the most humble yet ostentatious rock stars of all time entrusted his eight-member backing band to flex their experimental chops too. The rife-with-time-changes “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” and the piano-laced, mellifluous “Dollar Days” are the chief examples.
Accepting Mortality as Only David Bowie Could
Bowie delegated his career-long co-producer Tony Visconti to keeping his musical experimentalism coherent, freeing up the maestro to fearlessly tackle the most terrifying subject matter of all: an artist’s own mortality. Eerily released two days before the artist succumbed to liver cancer, Blackstar consists of seven songs with death as the principal throughline. In retrospect, it seems impossible how those who listened to the record immediately upon its release could have missed the blatantly obvious theme of accepting the end of one’s life.
Take the lyrics to Blackstar’s final song, “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” for example:
With skull designs upon my shoes …
Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That’s the message that I sent.
There Will Never Be Another David Bowie
Rare is the musician who crafts 26 studio records over the course of their career. Rarer still is the one who leaves this mortal coil with a record that challenges both the artist and their audience to great success, as confirmed by Blackstar’s three Grammy Award wins and millions of copies sold. Another music legend who bowed out with one of his best records was Johnny Cash. American V: A Hundred Highways, however, featured only two Cash originals amid its 12 tracks. Blackstar, on the other hand, is pure Bowie: uncompromising, unstrained, unapologetic — and eternal.
The Bad Penny (beta) 
Leave a comment