David Bowie

David Bowie by ZootCadillac

It looks like David Bowie is retiring.

David Bowie has quietly retired from the music business, according to his biographer.
Paul Trynka, who has written a new book about the legendary rocker, titled Starman, believes Bowie will only return if he can "deliver something seismic".
The author tells Spinner.com, "My heart says he'll come back but my head says he's likely not to. I think he would only come back if he thinks he could deliver something that will be seismic. If you pop back into the stage, it's got to be something that has a big explosion and lots of flashes. It would be a bit of a miracle if he comes back, but miracles do happen."
Bowie has not performed live since he sang with Alicia Keys in 2006. His last album was 2003's Reality.

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He had me at "You remind me of the babe..." There was a summer or two where we would rent Labyrinth over and over (we would also rent the VCR that came in a huge plastic suitcase). I remember sticking the one speaker tape-deck to the TV to bootleg the musical soundtrack of the film. Bowie never had to make that Jim Henson film, his career was pretty well established in the mid '80s. It was just awesome that he did do it.

as Jareth, The Goblin King

He went on to do some pretty good films before and after that. He was cast in the leading role of the sci-fi drama The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Hunger was an interesting vampire film. He had almost as many cameos as regular parts. In The Last Temptation of Christ he sentenced Willem Dafoe/Jesus to death as Pontius Pilot. Another cool cameo was in the Twin Peaks film- Fire Walk With Me, he appeared in Zoolander as himself. Bowie recently appeared in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige as Nikola Tesla. Loved the film, but Bowie was why I went initially. His most remarkable role probably was when he played the part of his late and real life good friend, Andy Warhol, in Basquiat. This is just a taste of his film career. My favorite may always be Jareth, the Goblin King in Labyrinth.

as Nikola Tesla

It took me another ten years to appreciate Bowie's musical career. Somehow I ended up with my brother's 1995 Bowie album, Outside, which touched some nerve in me and I took in as much of the Thin White Duke as I could hear. I love it all. The man is constantly reinventing himself and only a small selection of his catalog is ever really played. I was fortunate to see him in 1998 where he opened the concert with Quicksand wearing sandals, khakis and a white button down shirt (I'm afraid I was the only one among my peers who recognized the song!). His music lives in fantasy and science fiction. This is what I love the most about the music. With that Bowie's music is amazingly creative. So very often it detours away from what would be usual or expected. I have an appreciation for Glam Rock because of my time with Bowie's albums. No one can know just how much his music influenced today's and the last several decade's music.

I've had the theory that David Bowie is, in fact, not actually human. He belongs to some other race- perhaps alien, perhaps homo-superior. But there are other celebrates that belong to this race. The above mentioned Willem Dafoe could be one. Tilda Swinton may be another. I also suspect Annie Lenox to be of this race. Others might be (or have been) Christopher Walken and Freddie Mercury. The Man Who Fell to Earth might be more of a biography than we realized! (jk)

I am not sad about the news that Bowie is probably retiring. He has a fabulous career and there are plenty of obscure works of his I still have yet to deeply discover. I'm just a little disappointed he never did a Bond theme.