David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016) was a patron of expressionist art who, before the end of 1976, increasingly showed interest in the burgeoning German music scene. He was prompted to move to West Berlin to clean up his drug addiction and revitalise his career. There he was often seen riding a bicycle between his apartment on Hauptstraße in Schöneberg and Hansa Tonstudio, the recording studio he used, located on Köthener Straße in Kreuzberg, near the Berlin Wall. Working with Brian Eno, he began to focus on minimalist, ambient music for the first of three albums, co-produced with Tony Visconti, that became known as his Berlin Trilogy. Leading contemporary composer Philip Glass described Bowie's Low (1977) as "a work of genius" in 1992, when he used it as the basis for his Symphony No. 1 "Low"; subsequently, Glass used Bowie's next album as the basis for his 1996 Symphony No. 4 "Heroes." Glass praised Bowie's gift for creating "fairly complex pieces of music, masquerading as simple pieces." Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) produced the number one hit "Ashes to Ashes," featuring the textural work of guitar-synthesist Chuck Hammer and revisiting the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity." As "Ashes to Ashes" hit number one on the UK charts, Bowie opened a three-month run on Broadway starring in The Elephant Man. Though he intended the group Tin Machine to operate as a democracy, Bowie dominated, both in songwriting and in decision-making. The band's album debut, Tin Machine (1989), was initially popular, though its politicised lyrics did not find universal approval: Bowie described one song as "a simplistic, naive, radical, laying-it-down about the emergence of neo-Nazis." Gerard DeGroot's The Seventies Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic Look At A Violent Decade (Macmillan, 2010), quotes Bowie telling German journalists "Britain could benefit from a Fascist leader." On his return to Britain, Bowie greeted his fans with a Nazi Salute. "I think I might have been a bloody good Hitler," he told Rolling Stone [magazine]. "I'd be an excellent dictator." The sudden prominence of reactionary rock deeply annoyed those who assumed that rock's rhythms were virtuously leftist.
Speaking as The Thin White Duke, Bowie's persona at the time, he made statements that expressed support for fascism and perceived admiration for Adolf Hitler in interviews with Playboy, NME and a Swedish publication. Bowie was quoted as saying: "Britain is ready for a Fascist leader ... After all, Fascism is really Nationalism ... I believe very strongly in Fascism, people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership." He was also quoted as saying: "Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars," and "You've got to have an extreme right front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up." That notwithstanding, on 24 April 1992, David Bowie married Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne.
His January 2016 release Blackstar (★), which is said to take cues from his earlier krautrock influenced work, according to The Times: “may be the oddest work yet from Bowie.” I have always viewed him as a artist using himself as the canvas and incorporating ideas and symbols, some of them dangerous, to achieve whatever effect he sought. He tried to dismiss his excesses as derangement. But Davie Bowie was never deranged. He knew exactly what he was doing. Born David Robert Jones, this unusual man died of cancer two days after his 69th birthday on 10 January 2016.
David Bowie was speedily and secretly cremated. The iconic singer told his loved ones he wanted to “go without any fuss” and not have a funeral service or public memorial. A source in New York told the Mirror newspaper: “There is no public or private service or a public memorial. There is nothing.” The financially astute singer was reportedly close to bankruptcy in the 1970s, but managed to save himself from financial ruin, leaving a fortune worth £135 million to his family.
The singer had what is known as a “direct cremation,” described on the New York State’s health department website as “the disposition of human remains by cremation without a formal viewing, visitation, or ceremony." It is also considered to be one of the more affordable ways to dispose of someone who has passed away, costing between $700 to $900. The deceased is generally collected from the place of death and transferred to the crematorium. Following the paperwork, the remains are then cremated, and then generally returned to the family unless otherwise specified.
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