A few days before he passed away, singer David Bowie released a new album and also shot a video for a song titled lazarus as if he had a premonition
David Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-spanning persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died of cancer. He was 69 and had just released a new album.
Bowie, whose hits included Fame, Heroes and let’s Dance, died ‘peacefully’ and was surrounded by family, representative Steve Martin said. The singer had fought cancer for 18 months.
long before alter egos and wild outfits became commonplace in pop, he set the music world on its ear with the release of The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars (1972), which introduced one of music’s most famous personas. It was a concept album that imagined a genre-bending rock star from outer space trying to make his way in the music world. The persona — the red-headed, eyeliner wearing Stardust — would become an enduring part of his legacy, and a touchstone for the way entertainers packaged themselves for years to come.
Bowie turned 69 on Friday, the same day as he released a new album called Blackstar. “While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief,” said a statement issued via his social media accounts. No more details were provided.
The singer, born David Jones in london, came of age in the glam rock era of the early 70s. He had a striking androgynous look in his early days and was known for changing his appearance and sounds. After Ziggy Stardust, the stuttering rock sound of Changes gave way to the disco soul of Young Americans, to a droning collaboration with Brian Eno in Berlin that produced Heroes.
He had some of his biggest successes in the early 1980s with the bombastic lets Dance, and a massive American tour. Another one of his definitive songs was Under Pressure, which he recorded with Queen.
“My entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter,” Bowie told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview, “The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety. What I’m most proud of is that I can’t help but notice that I’ve affected the vocabulary of pop music. For me, frankly, as an artiste, that’s the most satisfying thing for the ego.”
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, but he didn’t attend the ceremony. He kept a low profile in recent years after reportedly suffering a heart attack in the 2000s. He made a moody album three years ago called The Next Day — his first recording in a decade which was made in secret in New York City.
He released a music video on Friday for the new song lazarus, which shows a frail Bowie lying in bed and singing the track's lyrics. The song begins with the line: look up here, I’m in heaven.