The producer of Blackstar confirms David Bowie had planned his poignant final message, and videos and lyrics show how he approached his death.
By Hannah Furness, Arts Correspondent for The Telegraph
David Bowie‘s final record was a carefully-orchestrated farewell to his fans, his producer has confirmed.
Was David Bowie’s Blackstar named after a cancer lesion?
Tony Visconti, the producer who worked with Bowie to complete his final album, has released a statement saying it was deliberately created and timed as a “parting gift” for his fans. In a statement on his Facebook page, he said: “He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way.”His death was no different from his life – a work of Art.
“He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift.
“I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it.
“He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us.
“For now, it is appropriate to cry.”
Visconti has previously spoken of creating the album, which was recorded in just three sessions over the course of three months at the beginning of 2015.
It now appears the singer and those closest to him arranged its release at the end of his life, after 18 months of living with cancer.
Music videos for Blackstar and Lazarus both feature a skull motif, with lyrics that will now be read and re-read by fans.
The title of Lazarus refers to the biblical character who was raised from the dead four days after he died by Jesus.
Blackstar
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
Lazarus
Look up here, I’m in Heaven!
I’ve got scars that can’t be seen
I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen,
Everybody knows me now
Look up here, man, I’m in danger!
I’ve got nothing left to lose
I’m so high, it makes my brain whirl
Dropped my cellphone down below
Ain’t that just like me?!
By the time I got to New York
I was living like a king
Then I used up all my money
I was looking for your ass
This way or no way
You know I’ll be free
Just like that bluebird
Now, ain’t that just like me?
Oh, I’ll be free
Just like that bluebird
Oh, I’ll be free
Ain’t that just like me?
Sue
Sue
The clinic called
The x-ray’s fine
I brought you home
I just said home
Sue, you said you want it written
Sue, the virgin on your stone
For your grave
Why too dark to speak the words?
For, I know that you have a son
Oh, folly, Sue
I can’t give everything away
I know something is very wrong
The pulse returns the prodigal sons
The blackout hearts, the flowered news
With skull designs upon my shoes
Dollar Days
Cash girls suffer me, I’ve got no enemies
It’s nothing to me
It’s nothing to see
If I never see the English evergreens I’m running to
It’s nothing to me
It’s nothing to seeI’m dying to
Push their backs against the grain
And fool them all again and again
I’m trying to
We bitches tear our magazines
Those Oligarchs with foaming mouths come
Now and then
Don’t believe for just one second I’m forgetting you
I’m trying to
I’m dying toDollar days
Survival sex honour stretching tails to necks
I’m falling down
It’s nothing to me
It’s nothing to see
If I never see the English evergreens I’m running to
It’s nothing to me
It’s nothing to seeI’m dying to
Push their backs against the grain
And fool them all again and again
I’m trying to
It’s all gone wrong but on and on
The bitter nerve ends never end
I’m falling down
Don’t believe for just one second I’m forgetting you
I’m trying to
I’m dying to
Source: David Bowie’s last release, Lazarus, was ‘parting gift’ for fans in carefully planned final
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