Jan 10: This is not America

Today is the 10th anniversary of the passing of David Bowie: a musical icon for many. I remember listening to his music from the late 1970s onwards. My wife saw him play live, but I never managed it. 

He is often described as a musical 'chameleon', adopting a number of personas in his music, and also having a successful acting career.

In 2022, the film 'Moonage Daydream' was released: a montage of footage. This is well worth catching and captures the experience of seeing him play live for his fans.

David Bowie's archive is now on display at the V&A Storehouse in East London. 

This contains a range of objects (about 90 000) and there is more information on Bowie's career and the creation of some of his most famous songs. I have plans to see it later this year and will be blogging about the visit here of course.

Social media is full of people sharing their favourite David Bowie tracks today.

Here's a track which is not necessarily my favourite, but whose name is perhaps apposite.

It's from the soundtrack to a film called 'The Falcon and the Snowman', which starred Sean Penn. Penn is getting a lot of nominations for acting in the Paul Thomas Anderson film 'One Battle After Another', More about that over on my dedicated film blog.

For the album, Bowie was asked to contribute by the composers Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. They will be mentioned on the blog a lot. He worked out the vocals after watching an early cut of the film.

The story of the track is here. It was recorded in late 1984. Released in early 1985 it made it into the UK charts.

It is called 'This is not America'.

The iconic Bowie track 'Heroes' was used in the final closing credits of the final episode of 'Stranger Things'. 

I will be blogging more about that particular track later in the year, and also sharing a Bowie story map created by Brendan Conway.

What is your favourite Bowie track? 

Let me know in the comments.