Bowie’s last album hints at a dark secret, writes Tim Jonze.
One thing that struck reviewers who were grappling with Blackstar, David Bowie’s final album, was how tricky it was to interpret lyrically. What the critics didn’t know, however, was that the man behind it had been diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago, and that he knew his life was coming to an end.
If this had been common knowledge, they would all no doubt have looked at Blackstar in a different light. Was Bowie saying goodbye on it? And does it seem obvious now that he has died?
I Can’t Give Everything Away, the album’s final track, is perhaps the most potent song to re-examine. “I know something is very wrong,” he begins, then sings: “The blackout hearts, the flowered news/ With skull designs upon my shoes.” The sense that Bowie has an unhappy secret he desperately wishes he could share is reaffirmed in the chorus: “I can’t give everything away.”
Before the album was released, there was much talk about how the title track was inspired by the Islamic State. But it also has allusions to saviour myths and what we leave behind when we’re gone. “I’m not a pop star,” sings Bowie at one point. “I’m a blackstar.”
For full report by Tim Jonze of Guardian News & Media 2016, see Mail & Guardian
