RePlay: David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ Goes Inside the Mind of a Dying Artist

After decades of stardom, David Bowie released his 25th and final album, “Blackstar,” Jan 8, 2016. Just two days later, he died after an 18-month battle with liver cancer.

Now considered one of the most influential artists in recent memory, Bowie was a true stylistic chameleon, jumping from one persona to another, blending glam-rock, art-rock, funk, R&B, New Wave and pop.

His last album is a mix of experimental jazz and progressive rock, resulting in an unusual, mournful sound. The weight of the artist’s mortality grows with each of the seven songs.

Each listen inherits more gravitas as Bowie’s ghost lingers.

On the symbolic title track “★,” he claims he’s “not a film star,” “a pop star” or “a Marvel star,” but “a blackstar”— a theoretical idea in astronomy where a star collapses in on itself, but hasn’t imploded into a black hole. He’s no longer the Bowie people remember from the radio or movies — instead, he’s “a blackstar.”

He references classic literature in “‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore” by using 17th-century vernacular inspired by the John Ford play of the same name. The song details a woman who “punched like a dude” and “stole my purse, with rattling speed,” while jazzy saxophones wail. 

In one verse, Bowie angrily reports that “Black struck the kiss, he kept my cock.”

At this point in the album the motif of the color black emerges, representing and personifying his death. This blackness is affecting his psyche. Bowie uses novelisation and astronomy to express the paradoxical feeling of his life collapsing but still being alive in “★.” 

In “Lazarus,” he does away with metaphors. The song is much more blunt than the rest of the album, with lines like “Everybody knows me now / Look up here, man, I’m in danger” and “I was living like a king,” examining the futility of wealth and fame in the face of his diagnosis.

Bowie then turns to the concept of legacy in “Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime).” Sue is a woman who has a terminal illness that she miraculously recovers from — until her husband discovers that she’s had an affair and kills her. 

Her husband questions how she wanted to be remembered, saying “Sue, you said you wanted writ / ‘Sue the virgin’ on your stone / For your grave.”

In “Sue,” he shows how an idealized legacy after death might not be accurate.

“Girl Loves Me” might be Bowie’s boldest lyrical choice on the album, written in two different languages — Polari and Nadsat. Polari was a secret, coded slang used by gay men in the U.K, and Nadsat is a fictional language used by the violent street gangs in “A Clockwork Orange”— a popular film from 1971, based on a 1962 novel.

Bowie explores his sex-crazed, drug-addicted teenage self in the psychedelic song, recounting meet-ups with dealers and prostitutes over proggy synth.

In the penultimate song, “Dollar Days,” Bowie speaks directly to the listener. He cries out “Don’t believe for just one second I’m forgetting you” in a heartbreaking tribute to his fans.

In the middle of the album, Bowie shows himself struggling with his own legacy. He provides his reckless youth in “Girl Loves Me” as evidence that he might not be deserving of the fame and fortune he discussed in “Lazarus.” “Dollar Days” is a thank you note to his fans who have supported his career, despite the regrets of his past.

The final song “I Can’t Give Everything Away” serves as the last testament of David Bowie. He describes his new perspective as his body fails him — “Seein’ more and feelin’ less.” He explains the personas of his past as cautionary tales and purposefully contradictory.

He sings “Sayin’ no and meanin’ yes / This is all I ever meant.” 

He apologizes for his secrecy in his songwriting and private life with the last line of the album — “I can’t give everything away.”

The spectacle and mystery of “Blackstar” is the culmination of David Bowie’s enigmatic career. The music phenom may have left the world, but his star-powered magnum opus shines on.

“Blackstar” is available to stream everywhere.