Bowie: Birthday Cake & Cover Songs
I am still searching for David Bowie. He is everywhere but he is nowhere. A few months ago, in a tiny alley in London, I stood where David Bowie stood as seen on the cover of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. It’s a weird feeling. London life moves around you but there is an unseen presence hanging in the air. A little later, my friend and I dropped into The Ship, a traditional pub where Bowie often held interviews. We drank with his ghost until the sun started to fall behind the grey curtain that so often hangs over England.
Since his death, his influence over just about every strand of rock-n-roll has glowed brightly whenever I listen to music. It is like a red stream pulsing through an otherwise monochrome landscape. Always the artist, I imagine David Bowie took great pleasure in seeing how his own work influenced those around him and how, sometimes, those same artists took his own songs in new directions. Today, the Thin White Duke would have turned 72. Here are some of the most interesting interpretations of his songs to soundtrack your day.