David Bowie, rocker, chameleon, progenitor of glam and punk in many ways, and all around creative renaissance man, has died at the age of 69.

There are many generations and legions of fans, some of whom have followed the man since his debut as (using his real name) David Jones and the Lower Third in the mid 1960s, when he employed a sort of Syd Barrett/Donovan pagan style in his music, using the vogue of the British psychedelic folk sounds of the time. Once he hooked up with people like the late legendary guitarist Mick Ronson and the producer Tony Visconti and started doing the kind of sounds fellow sonic countrymen T-Rex were doing, biting guitars out of the Stooges playbook with a kind of androgyny outer shell to them, did the legend of David Bowie start to spout.

And once it did, there was no letting up: From 1970’s superb The Man Who Sold the World and then 1971’s minor masterpiece Hunky Dory, which contained the haunting “The Bewlay Brothers” which propelled Bowie into a higher league critically and creatively, to the magnum opus of not only his career but to the sounds and releases of the 1970s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which had a sort of Clockwork Orange auditory feel to it, and was the first true album to start garnering radio hits for the man, (which started with 1969’s memorable “Space Oddity” and “Changes” a few years later) and shocked the world with his wild and influential approach to melding fashion and even bisexuality in his music and world stance. It became his strongest suit, his biggest trump card in a sonic sleeve full of them. His prolific output in the 70s still remained strong, and he changed styles and sounds somewhat as the 70s wound down, even finding a smash success with his first number one track, done with John Lennon, “Fame,” as the decade reached its midpoint.

As the punk and new wave movement started as the 1970s wound down, Bowie was right there still releasing challenging albums and was able to carve his place in an era where artists of his generation were frowned upon by a younger generation who were snarling punk attitudes out of amplifiers. Bowie managed to still remain relevant and vital as the decade blended into the 1980s as hits kept coming (“China Girl” and “Modern Love”) and Bowie kept releasing records which walked the uneasy tightrope of sounds, always reaching yet staying firmly rooted in his main style axis (the Tin Machine project, Earthling, etc.). His final release was Blackstar, just literally out of the gate for sale as the new year rose its head, as was the man’s 69th birthday. Producer Tony Visconti said it was the artist’s parting gift to fans.

Nobody outside his close circle knew how sick the man was. Nobody knew he was dying. It was a regular cause célèbre that a new David Bowie record was coming out. A tour was expected in a sense by fans around the world. On the heels of Lemmy’s death, which already sent shockwaves around the world, now comes a death which is on equal ground and footing in terms of the loss of (as Todd Rundgren might put it) a true legend, a wizard, a star.

It’s not only the end of an era, it’s a slamming shut of a time, a man who almost singlehandedly gave a passion and influence in his music that ran the gamut of everybody from Syd Barrett to Iggy Pop, Trent Reznor to Foo Fighters, no matter the genre, sounds, styles, music, people were touched by David Bowie. He was royalty, not just in the excess sense of rock and roll, not just in the decadence of the world and life success in that field brings, but he was a true monarch in every sense of the word, a mandarin of sounds whose death will cast a large, looming, tragic, and sad shadow over the entire year and beyond. As I type these words, a part of me is gone now, stillborn, I’m still 100 percent stunned and the words are coming out quickly and without much thought. It’s still hard to process a death of this magnitude, this is like Lennon, the next few days and weeks will be filled with tears and tributes, remembrances and tributes, and music, glorious music from David Bowie that’s enriching to the soul, just like it always has been. The music will never make us forget, the music will always be there, just like the memories.

RIP David Bowie, one of most vital, integral figures in all of music, in any age, in history. We were so fortunate to have had him.

For more thoughts on David Bowie and his wonderful gifts to the world, see the tribute we did for his 66th birthday.

RIP David Bowie
January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016

Video

David Bowie – Starman (1972)

David Bowie – The Jean Genie [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

David Bowie – The Width of a Circle

David Bowie – Panic in Detroit