David Bowie is considered by some to be the best solo artist to ever have lived. Up until his death, he had released 27 full-length studio albums. Of those 27, 9 of them received platinum album certifications in the UK and it is estimated that he has sold over 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime. Two days before his death on January 8, 2016, David Bowie released his 27th and final studio album, ★ (Blackstar). The album is a chilling farewell to David Bowie and his extremely influential legacy.
The album diverts away from Bowie’s normal glam rock/pop rock attitude into a much darker and melancholic art rockier area. Bowie uses the darker elements of rock and even jazz to help tell the stories of christianity’s Lazarus on “Lazarus” and explain his emotions during the final months of his life on “I Can’t Give Everything Away”. “Lazarus” was originally written for an eponymous off-Broadway production based on the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. The song explores the themes of mortality and is seen as “a condensation of the human narrative, birth, death, into a single song.” The closing track off the album, “I Can’t Give Everything Away” is Bowie’s final farewell to us.
Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That’s the message that I sent
David Bowie’s fight with liver cancer over the years has left him wiser (“seeing more”), yet feeling less as the cancer slowly tears away at him. The last three lines can be interpreted through Bowie’s own perspective as his whole life had been saying no through his characters in the past, such as Ziggy Stardust, when really trying to say something contradictory to the character often aimed at the music industry.
Bowie’s vocals on the record sound worn out and tired, probably due to his ever-growing weakness, but also to show that he knows this is the end and soon he will be gone. The instrumentals and the vocals work much better knowing the context of his years battling cancer and his sad, yet appropriate death following the release of ★. Ultimately, David Bowie was not ready to leave. The chorus on “I Can’t Give Everything Away” shows him constantly repeating “I can’t give everything away” possibly meaning that he regrets not being able to give more music to the world knowing he will soon die. ★ is a fitting farewell to one of the world’s greatest rock stars.