Where are we now? (David Bowie) (LP 1057-1059)

David Bowie  Heathen (CD, ISO/ Columbia Records, 2002) ***** 

David Bowie  The Next Day (CD, ISO/ Columbia Records, 2013) **** 

David Bowie  Blackstar (CD, Columbia Records, 2016) ***** 

Genre: Pop/ rock 

Places I remember: Vinyl Countdown; The Warehouse

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: (You Will) Set The World On Fire (The Next Day)

Gear costume: Everyone says "Hi" (Heathen); Lazarus (Blackstar) 

Active compensatory factors: I found the Bowie catalogue from the nineties onwards a bit of a blur until he re-emerged with The Next Day in 2013, and, of course I bought Blackstar after seeing the Lazarus video and after his death was announced a few days after he released the album.

Blackstar floored me. I'd enjoyed The Next Day and played it a few times in the years between it and Blackstar, but his final album is a whole nuther level of extraordinary on so many levels.

While Heathen is superb (I back tracked to that after realizing I'd missed a gem), as it stands as a culmination of all his powers to that point, Blackstar launches a whole new version of Bowie, and then he's gone.

His passing for me is like Lennon's. I can't believe we live on Earth without him.

For more years than Lennon, Bowie soundtracked my life off and on from 1971's Hunky Dory (one of my first purchases) until Blackstar in 2016. That is one amazing career in music, with music constantly evolving along the way and maintaining an unbelievable quality.

Where do they all belong? R.I.P. David. A one off.