My God It's Monday - RIP David Bowie

Well, I was going to write about how I can't believe it's Monday again already and I can't believe that it's been over a week since I last posted, but then I found out that David Bowie died of cancer yesterday and I thought instead of all that, I'd just talk about the chameleon himself.

When Robin Williams died last year, that really hit me hard. Especially that someone who made so many people laugh was so desperately unhappy. This one is hitting me hard as well, because David Bowie was one of my favorite musicians ever.

There wasn't a lot of music in our house aside from classical and folk music when I was growing up. Then there was the top forty on the radio as I hit my teens. Then I heard Modern Love, and Let's Dance and China Girl and Cat People and  I was hooked on Bowie. Totally hooked. I'd cruise the second hand record shops to find old albums (remember those? Vinyl?) Anyway. I picked up his earlier albums and fell in love with Heroes and Suffragette City, with Space Oddity and Starman. Rebel Rebel, Changes, Golden Years, Jean Jennie, Diamond Dogs, Oh! You Pretty Young Things,Absolute Beginners, Fashion, Rock 'n Roll Suicide, I could go on and on.

I've only been to a handful of concerts in my time, but one was the Glass Spider Tour. I saw him on that tour at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. I lined up at six am to get tickets that only went on sale at ten am. Despite my lining up I still had nosebleed seats and you know what? I didn't care. I was there, watching Bowie sing the songs I loved. I still have the T-shirt I got that that tour. It's worn incredibly thin and I still occasionally wear it because it's soft as anything.

Bowie was strange and different, a gender bender, an alien himself. His lyrics told me stories and I loved the words as well as the tunes. They opened whole new worlds for me. When one of his songs comes on he radio or on my iTunes, I still stop and sing along.

Rest in peace, David Bowie. You are one of my heroes, for more than just a day, and you will live on in your songs and the hearts of myself and all the people you touched with them.

Sean