David Bowie, A Man Not of This Earth.

Do you remember Davey Jones? Not the guy who played one of four band members in the 1960's hit TV show The Monkees, this guy was a skinny, red-headed, gap toothed rock artist who blasted upon the world stage in 1969 with his hit single "Space Oddity."

His real name was David Robert Jones, but we know him by his stage name, David Bowie. His impact was immediate, no less than a celestial object striking the earth, he was felt far and wide. I was barely into my teens and I could't believe what I was hearing and then seeing as Bowie continued to transform the concept of what an artist is. He was the first non-heterosexual I'd ever heard of and for me, became an instant role model.  Just knowing that David Bowie was out there and doing fine made life here easier for an 11 year old alien from another planet.

Fiercely creative, kind, generous, but strong and unwilling to take shit from anyone, he went off the rails rarely. Once he claimed to be an admirer of fascism, but retracted it later, explaining that he was out of his mind and heavily under the influence while interviewed. He kept working up to the end, his latest album, BlackStar was released on his 69th birthday, just two days ago.

You can read more about him elsewhere, but I'd like to leave you with the following. It's a vocal only track of Bowie and Freddie Mercury recording "Under Pressure." Listen to the raw emotion of these two great artists with only their voices, multitracked and sometimes doubled or chorused as support. Try not to cry, I dare you.