To have had a bloody good cry over the news about David Bowie this morning

[MrsAxewound]

Bit of a strange way to react to the death of a stranger I guess but I am such a fan of his. I kinda cried like a family member had died! In my defence I am pregnant so I could just blame hormones

Yanbu

I had a little cry. I love some of his music

He has just always been there his music is part of my memories and now he is not is a reminder of our own mortality.

we can feel sad for people we don't personally know especially when they have given so much of themselves to us

yep probs ignore is the best solution.

darthvader - yes it is a quirk. I've googled it but no response to the 'can I have a glass of water?' think. Spooky.

My intro to Bowie was via big sis and Diamond Dogs LP, which I thought was shit at the time.. I was young!!!

I wasn't born in 70's but early 80's and his music has been a great love of mine! I am pregnant too but I had a little tear. He was a great inspiration for many his openness about bisexuality, creativeness, talent and flair will never be forgotten. I always thought he came across a rather nice man and kept himself to himself. So few ' celebs' manage that today . Thoughts are with his family watching someone through cancer and losing them to awful disease is terrible no matter who you are

I think for my introduction it was definitely Labyrinth at about age 8. Later I realised he was a musician, got the definitive collection from my local library, and that was it - I was sucked in.

Fav song, anyone? So hard for me to choose! I have a lot of love for Jump They Say, Station to Station and Cat People. And of course the whole Labyrinth soundtrack

Darthvader - your comments are out of order and have really upset me. Massively. At no point have I been anything but positive about David Bowie, all I said was that I wasn't as affected by his passing as some people but that I was not surprised that his death has affected so many people. That's allowed you know?

1973 was DB last performance as Ziggy. I was born in 1974.

for many his openness about bisexuality

Actually I think he took that back later, and admitted he had always been most hetero, but open to experimentation. Still, I'm sure his openness in the 70s helped a lot of people be brave and come out.

Life on Mars was just on the radio - Lauren Laverne noticed the request at the end!

user 7755 I get what you are saying now. I am sorry.

I just sang/sobbed along to Life on Mars on 6Music. It's an awful day but they are doing him proud, I must say.

user, if you want to talk about it, PM me for tissues and hugs. I'm trying to move this discussion back to the topic at hand.

David Bowie made a career out of provoking thought and emotion and trying to capture its essence in music.

Our lives are punctuated by that music and thus that emotion that he gifted to us.

So I do think it is different to Diana dying. Hugely

We make associations between hearing a song and events in our own lives. The song that you played on your 18th birthday, or at a festival with your best friends. The memory of dancing like a fool at a wedding.

Music often provides the colouring in between the outlines of our lives.

Bowie reminds me of a best friend who has moved abroad and means a lot to me. I haven't heard from them for a while despite trying and suspect they may have 'moved on with their life', as you do. Bowie reminds me of being 19 and seeing him live and discovering music which allowed me to discover myself and to discover the world and freedom. He reminds me of travelling the world (he happened to be touring abroad whilst I was there). Bowie reminds me challenging the average, normal and fitting and being ok to be different. Bowie reminds me of a particular gig he plays where he had the most flawless vocal during Life on Mars I cried. Bowie reminds me of roadtrips I went on in my twenties.

Bowie dying, means there will be no move. No move new sounds to challenge me. It reminds me of my age, and my own mortality. It bursts the bubble of youth. The golden era has ended.

I hope I will have other Bowie related memories, but the idea that he is a thing of the past is one that I will have to get used to. Whilst he is of my parents generation, he still of my time. He will not be for my son.

So grieving?

Do you grieve for a man or for the lost of a moment in time and the passing of those memories and emotions?

There is nothing wrong in crying today, as we all cry for different reasons and with different significance to our own personal lives.

Anyone who says 'you are crying for a stranger you didn't know, how pathetic', entirely misses the point.

Yes, Red.

I remember making out with an exciting 'older man' boyfriend to Sound and Vision.

Howling along to Life on Mars with dear friends, gloriously drunk, at about 19.

Posturing in a bad nightclub to John, I'm Only Dancing with a now-lost gay best friend.

Sobbing to the haunting Where Are We Now while going backwards and forwards to the hospice my friend died in, that freezing January of 2013.

If someone's music and artistic legacy doesn't mean anything to you, fine; but it shows a lack of imagination at best not to be able to understand what it might mean to others.

Beautifully said, Red :(

I've just cried like a baby and, while I didn't know him in a personal sense, I did know him for many years through his work which made my life better and I love him for it.

Always was amazing and such an amazing parting gift.

RIP.

RedToothBrush that is beautifully put.
I've been surrounded by his music since I was a little girl. My mum absolutely adored him. I lost her to cancer, two years ago.
I loved Labyrinth - I always say seeing him in tights was my first pubescent sexual awakening! When I was being badly bullied as a teen, I watched it repeatedly and it was a huge comfort to me, it made me feel like I had friends.
His music is the partial basis of some of my most important friendships.
It's been my soundtrack for 40 years.

Great post from RedToothbrush.

I've 'known' him all my life (born early 70s)

I've got ITV on in the background while I'm working, they are playing clip after clip of his music, every one of them iconic IMO. What a tremendously creative person he was.

RIP

Did anybody else play Omikron: The Nomad Soul? I bloody loved that game (which he starred in, for those unfamiliar).

He has left behind a galaxy of memories.

There will never be another artist like Bowie. Fearless genius.

Red has it spot on. Music provides the personal soundtrack to your life. It creates and evokes memories.

Bowie for me is memories of when DH and I first met and we found shared music we both liked.

Sitting in a bar in Amersterdam with all our friends pre DC when we were all young and carefree. One of our friends now has terminal cancer, everytime I hear Starman I see us all in that bar, happy and healthy.

A childhood where I watched Labyrinth every day and couldn't quite reconcile why I was scared by but also obsessed with his character....and those tights

I shed a few tears this morning, I don't mind admitting.

I've had a bloody good cry today OP and keep on feeling quite emotional. I'm 50 so maybe people our age do feel it more as we really did grow up with this music. I saw him on the Sound and Vision tour back in 1990 and remember vividly the video to Let's Dance for some reason oh and China Girl.

Listening to R6 music and will continue to indulge myself with alternate singing and crying.

Starman now which I truly love .

Literally don't care what's been said and have not rtft. Just heard and am in tears. YANBU OP.

I doesn't seem possible.
He was always there and now is gone.
It feels weird.
The world has dimmed a little today.
On his death.