The Paper's reporter Qian Lianshui compiled
Rock legend David Bowie died on January 10, 2016, two days after the release of his last album, Blackstar. In the last decade of his life, David Bowie stopped touring and in-depth interviews due to health problems, fading from public view. But he entered one of the most creative phases of his life, publishing two studio recordings of "The Next Day" and "Blackstar", and completing a lifelong Broadway musical "Lazarus". If there is still time, his next album will be completed soon.
Rolling Stone magazine published a long article about his last years— suffering a heart attack on the night of his tour in Prague, stopping the tour, finding liver cancer, living the life of an ordinary person, and continuing to create until he left the planet.
This article is a partial compilation of inside David Bowie's Final Years by Brian Hiatt.
After the death of David Bowie in 2016, rolling stone magazine cover on February 11
When the pain hit, David Bowie was singing "Reality." The song is from a previously released album of the same name, about facing death and giving up fantasies. On a Prague night in late June 2004, David Bowie, 57, on the tour stage, was entering the stage of his life described in the song. He had quit smoking and alcohol, took cholesterol-lowering drugs, and hired a fitness instructor. That night he still looked so "David Bowie": thin, with long blond hair and almost invisible wrinkles. But he couldn't finish the song, and the bassist remembered the change in expressions on the faces of the audience in the front row—from joy, doubt, to uneasiness. It was the security guard who took the stage and sent him off the stage.
David Bowie went on stage that night and sang a few more songs, and then he went to the doctor and was mistaken for a shoulder muscle problem. Two days later, he performed another performance at a German music festival, ending with Ziggy Stardust, which became the final concert version of the song. He finished the song, sang it anywhere wrong, and then got off the stage and fainted. Doctors discovered that there was a problem with his heart, and a large artery was severely blocked, and immediately performed surgery.
The final weeks of the tour were marked by ominous signs. Seven weeks before his heart attack, a stage worker fell from a high-altitude lighting device. A few weeks later, a fan threw a lollipop on stage and hit Bowie's injured left eye, which made him very uneasy. Before he stopped touring due to a heart attack, Bowie told keyboardist friend Mike Garson that he was going to spend more time with his supermodel wife, Iman, and daughter Alexandria.
After the German night, David Bowie disappeared from public view. He never toured again, nor did he give any more in-depth interviews. It wasn't until 2013 that his debut new album in a decade, The Next Day, came out, accomplishing feats that many rock stars don't do: returning with an exciting mystery long after the glory days have passed.
He loves to celebrate his birthday with his new album. "The Next Day" was released on David Bowie's 66th birthday. He wrote more than thirty songs for the album in the corners of the apartment building, with huge differences in style. He and the band tried a few songs first, and Bowie played the guitar himself, and the inspiration was endless.
Meanwhile, the legendary, living ghost hid in the crowd, sent his daughter to school, took a taxi, and worked out with ordinary people in Manhattan and Woodstock gyms on weekdays. When with his family, he was David Jones, the chameleon's real name. When the aliens entered Earth, he found that he still liked it.
In 2014, David Bowie began working on Blackstar, a new film that surpassed The Next Day, into the most creative and final three years of his life. While working on his new album, he took his new songs to the Broadway stage (Lazaurs). At this point, he had one last secret to hide: he was battling liver cancer.
David Bowie's last album Blackstar
Until October of that year, David Bowie was working on Lazarus with his friends. In the play, the alien Thomas Newton locks himself in his apartment and drinks gin, heartbroken, and calls himself "a dying man who can't die". His only salvation came from the ghost of a 13-year-old girl. The girl convinced him that he could find his way home. This girl was the god of old Newton. It's not hard to guess that Bowie's daughter was exactly 13 years old at the time.
He's also writing new songs, some for Lazarus and some for the next album. In the summer of 2014, David Bowie and producer Tony Visconti recorded a single "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime") with the Maria Schneider Orchestra. It's a jazz-style orchestral epic that's something he's never tried before. Jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin's electro-acoustic jazz band will be at the heart of Bowie's next album.
By the time Bowie showed up at a New York studio to prepare for Blackstar, he had lost his hair and eyebrows. He told the band members about his illness and begged them to keep it a secret. This topic has never been discussed again.
The rehearsal and recording process for Blackstar was loose and experimental. Bowie and Visconti drew inspiration from D'Angelo's Black Messiah and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. He spends lunch with the band in the recording studio at noon each day, ordering food from a nearby sandwich shop.
Bowie put enough hints of death into the lyrics to make Blackstar feel like a formal farewell. Visconti noticed the death-defying lyrics and found them to be the most humorous of Bowie's musical career. "Dude, she beat me up like a man" "Where did he go on Monday?" ”......
Bowie is well aware that lazarus' existentialist themes serve the same purpose. While preparing a farewell gift for the world, David Bowie worked harder to be David Jones. Everyone around him could feel his strong desire to survive. He wanted to live, to return home, to be with his wife and daughter.
Bowie is well aware that lazarus' existentialist themes serve the same purpose.
Unwell, he did not participate in the test screening of Lazarus. But he managed to appear at the premiere, fainting backstage for the second time in a decade. At this time he still had a month to live.
But Bowie felt he still had time. In his final weeks, he also recorded five new songs demos. A week before his death, on the eve of the release of Blackstar, he told Visconti that he was going to make a new album.
The news of David Bowie's death came suddenly. Death didn't let him fulfill his wish. By his own estimation, there were still a few months left, enough to turn the demo into a formal work. David Bowie died on January 10, 2016, two days after the release of Blackstar and a month after the premiere of Lazarus. He was remembered as much as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
At the end of the Lazarus music video, Bowie escapes into a coffin-shaped closet. When the final guitar weakened, he opened the door and disappeared into the darkness. Such an exit was not Bowie's own idea, but he liked the design. It was someone on the set who made this suggestion, and he thought about it for a moment and immediately agreed. A big laugh appeared on his face. He said something like, "That would make them guess, wouldn't it?" ”
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