Farewell, David Bowie.
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but it's been all Bowie, all the time on most UK media today.
I got very teary first thing this morning: I'd turned on the radio (BBC Radio 4, so speech/news, not music) and heard Space Oddity. Oh, I thought, another Tim Peake ("Major Tim") story... and then they explained why they were playing it.
Space Oddity always moves me anyway, and the fact that Bowie died of cancer, at almost exactly the same age as my Mum a few months ago, may help explain why I got so emotional about it. But then Life on Mars and all the other Bowie classics have also been making me well up...
As I said to a friend on Facebook who didn't quite get what all the fuss was about, I wouldn't describe myself as a particularly huge Bowie fan: but then all day, as I've caught track after track, I've thought, "That one! I'd forgotten how much I love that one!" Space Oddity, Life On Mars, Let's Dance, Under Pressure... and on and on.
I also found it very moving listening to numerous testimonies from people who'd been unhappy, confused, maybe-gay or maybe-bi or maybe-genderqueer or maybe-just-not-very-gender-stereotypical teenagers, and seen or heard Bowie for the first time and suddenly realised that to be the way they were might be completely OK; that there might be other people out there who felt just the same; that being weird or different or unconventional might even be deeply cool, and gained from that enough confidence and courage to find a way to be happy with who they were.
As legacies go I think that alone is a pretty positive one. Rest in peace, Starman.
And here is a rather different Bowie tribute, which has been going viral since the Organ Scholar at St Alban's Cathedral decided on some special incidental music for tonight's Evensong...
I got very teary first thing this morning: I'd turned on the radio (BBC Radio 4, so speech/news, not music) and heard Space Oddity. Oh, I thought, another Tim Peake ("Major Tim") story... and then they explained why they were playing it.
Space Oddity always moves me anyway, and the fact that Bowie died of cancer, at almost exactly the same age as my Mum a few months ago, may help explain why I got so emotional about it. But then Life on Mars and all the other Bowie classics have also been making me well up...
As I said to a friend on Facebook who didn't quite get what all the fuss was about, I wouldn't describe myself as a particularly huge Bowie fan: but then all day, as I've caught track after track, I've thought, "That one! I'd forgotten how much I love that one!" Space Oddity, Life On Mars, Let's Dance, Under Pressure... and on and on.
I also found it very moving listening to numerous testimonies from people who'd been unhappy, confused, maybe-gay or maybe-bi or maybe-genderqueer or maybe-just-not-very-gender-stereotypical teenagers, and seen or heard Bowie for the first time and suddenly realised that to be the way they were might be completely OK; that there might be other people out there who felt just the same; that being weird or different or unconventional might even be deeply cool, and gained from that enough confidence and courage to find a way to be happy with who they were.
As legacies go I think that alone is a pretty positive one. Rest in peace, Starman.
And here is a rather different Bowie tribute, which has been going viral since the Organ Scholar at St Alban's Cathedral decided on some special incidental music for tonight's Evensong...