Blackstar has been described as David Bowie’s swan song—a final “goodbye” from an artist who transcended art and music. In Bowie’s many creative transformations, he achieved immortality by vanishing and re-emerging as various incarnations of his past selves. It brings to mind the biblical character whom Jesus raised from the dead, which is the namesake of the first of three heartbreaking tracks from David Bowie’s final studio album.
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“Lazarus”
In both the song and music video for “Lazarus”, Bowie hints at his terminal condition, not widely known at the time. He battled cancer for 18 months before he died in 2016, two days after Blackstar was released. The video features Bowie on his deathbed, his eyes covered with buttons sewn into a bandage. He sings: “Look up here, man, I’m in danger / I’ve got nothing left to lose.” Drummer Mark Guiliana drives “Lazarus”, pushing Bowie’s swan song with skittering jazz. The sparse guitar notes and lonely saxophone highlight the drama and isolation of a dead man walking.
“Blackstar”
There’s a little-known Elvis Presley tune called “Black Star”, where Presley sings: “And when a man sees his black star / He knows his time, his time has come.” Bowie viewed Presley as his hero, and the two share a birthday, so it may not be a stretch to imagine “Black Star” inspired Bowie’s album and song title. To continue with The King’s metaphor, a black star happens following a massive collapse. (I’ll leave it to the physicists to correct me or further explain the science.) And you can’t help but think of “Starman” and “Ziggy Stardust” when hearing Bowie’s “Blackstar”. Knowingly or not, he also collapsed Presley’s “Black Star” into a single word.
“Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)”
“Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)” was first released as a single in 2014, following Bowie’s cancer diagnosis. After watching Maria Schneider perform with her orchestra at Birdland in New York, Bowie contacted Schneider to work on a new piece. Schneider introduced Bowie to an experimental quartet whose members also contributed to the track. Then Bowie re-recorded “Sue” for Blackstar using the same band with contributions from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. The track is built atop avant-garde jazz, and sounds like the anger, disorientation, and chaos that might swirl inside one’s head trying to absorb a life-altering diagnosis. In this haunting lyric, listen to how Bowie drops his voice on the word “fine”: “Sue, the clinic called / The X-ray’s fine / I brought you home / I just said home.”
Photo by Jimmy King
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