Sunday, January 17, 2016

mourning david bowie

when i was young, 7 or 8, my older brother and i spent a lot of time listening to the beatles, the beach boys, jan and dean.  we loved music.  we both still do.

as i became a teenager and things at our house became harder and scarier we took refuge in music often, if not always.  we listened to all kinds.  i particularly took to prince, the stones and led zeppelin.  i can say with absolute certainty that led zeppelin saved my life on numerous occasions.  in high school and college it was U2, pearl jam and a lot of the beatles (always a mainstay).  i still love all these bands. 

after the flood, in the early days of PTSD and exhaustion, i had no TV and no internet.  all i did was listen to music.  the first cd i replaced after the flood was david bowie.  i was listening to all kinds of people along with those listed above, among them:  carole king, blondie, queen, sam cooke, sinatra, elvis, adele, springsteen.  but i listened to bowie EVERY DAY.  every single day.  



on the days that i was too terrified to even open the front door, let alone go out to walk the dog, i played bowie on the turntable.  on the few days i was confident enough to take a long walk i listened to bowie on my ipod.  on the days i was able to go somewhere i listened to bowie in the car. 

bowie saved my life.  when i heard about his death on monday i was crushed.  not having known he was sick it was such a blow.  i ache for his family.  i mourn for a world without him.  selfishly, i mourn for a man i didn't know but that saved me.

RIP starman!





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