“Just Out of View:” One Year Without David Bowie
One year after the death of the Thin White Duke, it seems that his final farewell wasn’t so final after all. In early 2016, during his last days, David Bowie released his ultimate full-length studio album Blackstar, which included his swan song, “Lazarus.” A year later, and a day before what would have been Bowie’s 70th birthday, the music video for “No Plan” was released. The video is as haunting as that of “Lazarus” and reminds us all of just how badly we miss the irreplaceable man and artist.
When “Lazarus” premiered last year, talk of symbolism and irony was rampant. The video opens with the image of a dark figure peering out from inside of a tall wooden wardrobe. As we know by the closing scene of the video, that wooden wardrobe becomes the artist’s final resting place. A fragile Bowie shivers and lies blindfolded upon a metal-framed bed surrounded by cold, tiled walls. He acts out a metaphysical experience, seeming to witness something that transcends the capability of the living.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8[/embedyt]
One of the most haunting elements of the video is that blindfold. Perhaps it represents our inability to know what a dying man perceives. At one point his blindfolded gaze is directed upwards as he flails his feeble arms towards the ceiling at something that isn’t visible to us, crying out the lyrics: “Ain’t that just like me?” The feeling of isolation that one can only assume impending death brings is impenetrable at that moment. It has been reported that David Bowie was informed of the terminal nature of his cancer during the filming of “Lazarus” in late 2015. Three days after the video’s release, he was dead.
“No Plan” is somewhat of an after to “Lazarus’” before. Bowie is already gone, or “just out of view” now. The music video depicts mesmerized passersby as they begin to gather outside of an electronics shop on a rainy street. Rows of flickering televisions are piled on top of one another in the store’s window. The TV screens flash with celestial imagery, shots of the earth as if viewed from outer space, and pieces of song lyrics until finally ending with a familiar image of the late Bowie. It’s simple, and it’s mysterious. It reads like a message from the Starman, letting us know where he’s been this whole time.
“No Plan” is the title track of a newly released four-song EP. It was released on Bowie’s posthumous birthday this past weekend. It features music that appeared in the limited-time Broadway musical Lazarus. The musical was based on The Man Who Fell to Earth, a novel by Walter Tevis. The 1976 film adaptation of the novel starred David Bowie. Lazarus, starring Michael C. Hall, ran in New York City from late 2015 until shortly after Bowie’s death. It was critically praised and ultimately served as yet another parting gift from the artist to his fans.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIgdid8dsC8[/embedyt]
Some may agree that 2016 was doomed early on. For those of us who felt the impact of David Bowie’s life, his death, shortly after the beginning of a new year, was a foreshadowing moment. The gaping hole left by the loss of such an influential man and artist will remain eternally cavernous. There will never be another Starman. Instead, there will forever be a Blackstar “waiting in the sky,” and we will forever have the final gifts he selflessly made sure to leave behind before he went on his way.