David Bowie

Listening to The Next Day and waiting for my Blackstar CD to arrive - it was ordered on his birthday, of course.

The Next Day is the soundtrack of my garden here in France, one of only two CDs I had ripped to a memory card so could listen while I heaved boulders around. I recall standing still while planting roses over an arch, rooted to the spot by every single song and ending up sitting and crying for the pure ache of the music.

Bowie was a key sound of my university days, I remember playing Ziggy Stardust, on a very stretchy and distorted tape, but nonetheless at full volume on the day I finished my first year exams. Last day living in Halls, the final day of being protected by parents or the college authorities. From tomorrow I had to be responsible, but today ... Eighteen months later the subtle introspection of Low was the (stretchy, wearing thin) tape of choice for writing up my dissertation (A Comparative Analysis of Prehistoric Burial Practices in the Irish Sea Context) which was really just an excuse to a spend another summer on the Isle of Man. 

That was 1987, so I was only a decade late! I skipped his output from the 80s, although I did buy Let's Dance later on - it was fun, poppy, light and to a left leaning student it somehow seemed like a betrayal or sell-out. I stuck to the back catalogue.

In the nineties somehow I didn't buy much contemporary music, discovering a real passion for jazz and continuing an exploration of late twentieth century classical music. And then we hit the early twenty-first century, the World changed and Heathen appeared. But I've lost my copy and cannot recall much about it. Much the same can be said for Reality, with only Looking for Water being easy to call to mind unprompted.

So now I wait for Blackstar - I wish I'd been tempted to watch some of the videos and excerpts that were out there on Friday as the shock of his death may have been less. Monday was perhaps the first time in a year I hadn't had a quick check of the nows before going out, but pre-breakfast blood tests put a premium on hurry rather than digesting the morning's depressing stories from around the world.

Maybe it isn't true? Just another reinvention.