An Elegy for The Thin White Duke

Yes we’re a comedy site, but we’re also somewhat of a community, and Bowie touched us all. Nothing made that more clear than watching our feed– which is exclusively people in comedy– pour their hearts out all night and all morning, so we will gladly post some thoughts from members of our little village today. Earlier today Sharon Dougherty shared her thoughts on what David Bowie meant to her, and we also wanted to share an elegy from our friend and contributor Earl Douglas.


David Bowie. An ARTIST who was and is everything those who pursue this thing we call art wants to be: Joyous, brooding, uncompromising, fearless, fun and, above all else, free.

The music that he wrote and produced, speaks for itself. The long list of collaborators: Carlos Alomar, Tony Visconti, Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers, Iggy Pop, Reeves Gabriels, Tony & Hunt Sales, and the late and sadly missed Mick Ronson and Stevie Ray Vaughn among many, many others, again, speaks volumes, blazing a trail that countless others are still following.

The number of artists that Bowie put over is staggering. Mind blowing.

Lou Reed was slow out the gate with his solo career, until Bowie, a fan of the Velvet Underground, knew how to push the musical and sonic buttons and it births Transformer.

Mott The Hoople are close to breaking up when Bowie, who loved the band and was on the cusp of his own super-stardom, offers them two of his best songs from that period, ‘Suffragette City’ and ‘All The Young Dudes’. They settle on ‘All The Young Dudes’ and Ian Hunter has never stopped thanking him for it.

Bowie understood, recognized and championed the New York City counterculture scene that would give birth to punk, hip hop, and the avant garde. All of these scenes cite Bowie’s artistic and creative vision as an influence. It led to him collaborating with Lou Reed on ‘Transformer’; Iggy Pop with Lust For Life and The Idiot; Reeves Gabriels and the Sales Brothers on Tin Machine; Lester Bowie on ‘Black Tie, White Noise’, and the talented musicians that helped craft his swan song, Blackstar. Extended stays in New York also led Bowie to work with John Lennon on their #1 hit, ‘Fame’. Bowie also advocated for a singer-songwriter out of a Freehold, New Jersey who was making the rounds in and around New York City clubs. His name was Bruce Springsteen.

It was Bowie who gave Roxy Music exile Brian Eno the chance to produce what is now known as ‘The Berlin Trilogy’: An incredible marriage between rock and pop with electronic music and the avant garde. Joy Division, The Smiths, Bjork, FKA Twigs, The Weeknd are just some of the benefactors from these amazing records.

Bowie gave an early break to a young, up and coming singer-songwriter named Luther Vandross, who sang backup vocals on the Young Americans album and tour. Vandross would receive one of earliest songwriting credits when he co-wrote ‘Fascination’ with Bowie for the album and often cited Bowie’s intense work ethic as an influence.

At a time when rock and disco were music’s version of the Hatfields and the McCoys, Bowie – prepping his first album in 3 years – took a huge gamble by selecting Nile Rodgers – best known for his work with Chic, Diana Ross and Sister Sledge – to produce his 1983 album Let’s Dance. Bowie also asks a young, relatively unknown guitarist out of Austin named Stevie Ray Vaughn to play on several tracks. We know the rest.

Like a true champion, Bowie was not afraid to fail. I’m sure his management and the various labels thought it would be career suicide to end the Ziggy Stardust concept; release a dark concept album based on the novel 1984 (Diamond Dogs); be a white guy dabbling with funk and soul (Young Americans) – then go on Soul Train to promote it; release several albums dominated by instrumentals and elements of electronic music (Low, Heroes and Lodger); form a band where everyone has equal footing – and not feature classic hits (Tin Machine) and later go on tour with a group with a bigger following as your opening act KNOWING that you are going to be playing a half empty house (The Outside tour with Nine Inch Nails).

With style (Could this dude ROCK a suit or what?), grace and a ton of ‘Why not?’, David Bowie make it cool to be different and showed us all to be creative, daring and proud of who we were.

Even in his final years, Bowie wrote an oversaw the creation of a musical and recorded one last beautiful epitaph of an album called Blackstar.

The final lines of his latest – and final single, ‘Lazarus’ says it all:

This is 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?

Deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to his widow Iman, his son Duncan, daughter Alexandria, and the entire Jones family.

Thank you Mr. Jones…

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Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.