2. David Bowie★ (Blackstar)
I heard this right before he died. The parallel between him and Cash with ‘Hurt’ was something else. They both knew they were getting ready to check out and I could see that in the video, in the music and in the art – like this is my last time, my last transmission to planet Earth. Bowie poured everything into this last piece knowing that after this he was catching the spaceship outta here. The conviction of him knowing that and getting ready to go to the other side hit me hard.
I didn’t really listen to Bowie growing up, I grew up listening to jazz. In the last couple of years, I’ve been listening to more Bowie though and appreciating how you can’t put him in any kind of box genre-wise. I don’t ever wanna be put in a single genre musically, but if there’s a genre they gotta put me in, it’s got to be pain and suffering, because that’s where the art is coming from, that’s the thread that connects it all for me. Like Bowie’s Blackstar, that pain and suffering is where the art is coming from, he’s channelled his pain and suffering through this amazing fucking art.
I contemplate and meditate on death every day and it makes me more appreciative of this moment because we only have so many summers and winters and shit; we must think about what we are gonna do with the time we have here. If I can leave some art in this world that helps other people to find purpose deep inside their soul, then I’ve lived a life worth living.
