Read more in Music at Boing Boing

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

TAGS: 

  • eldritch

     A strange, beautiful man in a strange, beautiful world.

  • theophrastvs

    ok… nicely melodic, but shouldn’t the distortedly projected female face have had something to sing or express at some point?  (perhaps some Bowienoscenti (or someone that rtfa) can even tell us who she is? “you @#$idiot, that’s his wife (and Bjork’s second cousin!)” but i thought he was…)

    • UnderachievingSheep

      I attempted a search this morning and could not find anything about her. Granted, this was 12 hours ago which, in internet time is as good as saying last month but in the short hours following the release of the video, she was still uncredited and unnamed. Maybe that has changed now.

      • Beanolini

        According to the Today programme, she is the artist Jacqueline Humphries, the wife of Tony Oursler.

    • GuyInMilwaukee

      But then we’d know where we are now. I like the question.

    • aperturehead

      Obviously the disembodied woman next to Bowie represents fashion model, actress and entrepeneur TWIGGY who was seen in the same position on Bowie’s “1973 album “Pin Ups”

  • Reginald Schultz

    Can we name every object seen?

    • oasisob1

      We have that capability within us all.

  • http://twitter.com/onecooldana onefancydana

    Brilliant video by Tony Oursler.  I knew I recognized that style!

    • angelsvsanimals

      I mean this with every ounce of respect when I ask you this: Why do you consider this video “brilliant”?

  • Strange Quark Star

    Ha, he lists and shows on that screen all the places I like to spend time at most in Berlin.
    Happy Birthday, Thin White Duke!

  • timquinn

    heartbreaking.

  • bigfatlamer

    I <3 Bowie but this is horrifying.

    Happy Birthday nevertheless.

    • tubacat

       Do you really <3 Bowie? Or just the soundtrack he provided during your formative years?

  • http://blog.doomsdayzen.com agonist

    Oh, thank God! I have been worried for a few years that Bowie had retired from music to pursue painting instead. I don’t even care what this sounds like; it’s new Bowie and going to #1 on my ipod playlist. I daren’t ask for a tour but….PLEASE TOUR, David Bowie!

  • fidel_funk

    Im i the only who gets reminded of The Mighty Johnny Cash song Hurt  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go when hearing/seeing this?
    Its kinda an “im dying and I know it” song

    • Boundegar

      You do know that’s not really a Johnny Cash song.

    • http://www.facebook.com/fidgit David Lawrence

      Squiffy song credits aside, I know what you mean.  Cash singing that song was very connected-with-his-end, an old man looking back on his life.  His voice sounds old.  In the same way, Bowie is starting to sound old.  It will be interesting to see if that’s something he affected just for this song, when the album releases.

  • Gloo

    I lost Bowie with Station to station, the last album I truly loved back then. Some of his later songs went to me through the radio or during evenings in places where the music was loud but I never felt the urge of buying an album again as i felt, back with Station to station. This song seems to me as a pathetic come back and as someone mentioned here earlier, about his possible reconversion as a painter, I wish he had made his mind and settled for the picturesque part of his art. As far as I know, a new album will be out this year and despite my disappointment with this song, I will keep hope it’ll be something fresh but I won’t hold my breath. Oh, and by the way, who’s the next Bowie ?

    • TheOven

      But I wouldn’t call this a comeback album. He’s Bowie, he never left. He just releases what he wants when he wants.Take it or leave it, he’s not doing this for us.

       *Oh, and by the way, who’s the next Bowie ?

      Lady Gaga?

      • Gloo

        He’s not doing this for us ?! Are you serious ? There would be no Bowie without us ! As any artist, he would be a nobody without the people listening to his music. And no matter how much I appreciate him, I don’t think he’s a living god… :o)

        Lady Gaga… Are you kidding me ? Regina Spektor or Tori Amos would’ve been a plausible response (for me) but Lady Gaga… sure she’s very popular and surely appears to be as eccentric as Bowie could have been in the seventies when impersonating Ziggy but, as talented as she can be (I don’t deny her a fair amount of talent) I don’t think she’ll ever have the touch Bowie had. Bowie’s a great song writer and the only acceptable comparison between the two is their talent of performer. Gaga’s a show girl but as far as I can evaluate her possibilities from how little I know of her work, she’s more limited at writing songs, both lyrically and instrumentally (not even quite sure she write her music ?). She’s a pop singer with more visual intelligence than her competitors but that’s it.

        • TheOven

          Oh Mr. Gloo, Bowie doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need either of us and you’re just propping your own ego up on his coat-tails if you think that his identity has anything to do with you, or me. Artists gotta art – don’t matter who’s watching. Sure, he likes us; his fans. He wouldn’t be millionaire successful without us, but he would still be an artist. Understand that he’s making art, be-it painting or music or poetry or even miming, because he wants to, not because of you or the fear that without you he’d be nobody. (What a foolish thing to say)

          Also, yes, I was joking about LaGaGa and agree with everything you said about that. Well, I don’t know Regina Spector and while I have have heard good things about Tori Amos, I can’t comment on their Bowie Nextness except to say they haven’t yet.

          Speaking of Gaga I kept (not any more though) expecting more from her and, like you say, she seems to just come out with mediocre music with stunning visuals. I feel like Bowie has something important to say and looked for interesting ways to put out that message where-as Gaga has lots of ways to be creative but nothing really to say. 

          • Gloo

            Sorry to insist Mr. TheOven but no, what I said has nothing (or little) to do with my ego. I don’t evaluate an artist by my perception of his art (that would be too reducing). Art has no real meaning other than in the eye (or hear, in this case) of the person who watch or listen. Yes, that relies on me (as a spectator), in a certain way, but not only me and my ego. Bowie would not exist as an artist if nobody was there to tell him he loves or hates his performance. As you say, he would probably write songs and sing but you’re wrong if you think that we, as a crowd, have nothing to do with how and why he creates. Then sure, he would sing in his bathroom as many others do but nothing could differentiate him from the mass. That’s no philosophy but just a matter of fact. The artist doesn’t ascend to mastership without others to motivate him, appreciate or slander his work. Who could progress without that ? Most artists I met are never satisfied with their production, neither are they simply able to evaluate the quality -or flaws- of their work ; they tend never to be objective with themselves. 

          • TheOven

            I have three things to say about that:
            Yes, taking credit for Bowie’s music is ego. Just the tiniest bit, but you admit as much. Which is fine. You deserve it! You’re deserve to take credit for his financial successes and popularity because without (a lot of) fans, he’d not be famous or rich. Well, not for music anyway. I hear he’s quite the business man as well.I’ll give you this much; he’d probably be a Jones and not a Bowie. So I can maybe concede that point on a technicality. “Bowie” might not exist if not for Mr. Goo (I’m assuming a lot there, you may be a woman.), though a man named Jones would still be creating art – with or without you.Artists have to art. Of course we influence each other back and forth, but this is a bonus and not required. I offer Henry Darger off the top-of-my-head, as proof of the concept. And there are many others who create and produce astounding artworks for no audience whatsoever. Of course if people take note, that feeds back into the artist’s life and they change accordingly. But this does not make a nobody into a somebody: a non-artist into an artist. It simply adds to the experiences of the artist.

            But I know what you mean.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        I would definitely say that Lady Gaga is the next Bowie. Some people will have apoplexy over that notion, but they’re just the next generation of people who hated Bowie because, damn it, the Beatles were edgy enough for any sane person and a real performer doesn’t need to rely on cheap tricks like costumes and makeup.

        • TheOven

          Like a meat dress?

          • Gloo

            The meat dress was just a cliché and she made it a political act. That was more ridiculous than brillant by my book but I suppose that impressed and triggered something on some ? ;o)

        • Gloo

          The Beatles were edgy for some person who didn’t understand their music and took offense of the way they dressed and looked. That was just an easy excuse to justify how impervious to change they were, without being really able to understand what they felt or admit the lack of understanding. Being provocative his probably a way to mark how differently you think than your elders ? But when provocation has become a norm, what can you do ? Pushing the limits further is only an admission of helplessness and a form of recognition for a certain lack of talent and creativity, aside from being the most obvious way to effortlessly gaining the interest of the mass. That’s how I see the phenomenon but I may be wrong, as I’m surely not an expert :o)

          • Gloo

            Nostalgia… I just checked my video archive and found that I still own a copy of the 1973 Hammersmith Odeon concert : Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars. I’ll be watching that in a few moments and think again, about creativity and aging ;o)

            By the way, what a show that was !

            As a side note, am I the only one to think that this Disqus thing is problematic ? Maybe I’m too old myself but I often have problems adding a comment. The process for logging in is also curious ; I mean, that’s very different from what I find on most other sites and I don’t like it. Maybe it’s just me and my clumsiness ? Sorry if there’s a better place for posting such ramblings and recriminations.

          • Antinous / Moderator

            No, it’s not just you.

  • http://synerdata.net/ Gordon Stark

    Absolutely gorgeous!
    Happy birthday David.

    Don’t stop singing.

  • angelsvsanimals

    This video makes me feel like I’m at some snooty hole in the wall art studio in SoHo where everyone’s wearing black & lamenting on how powerful & brave Bowie is for putting himself out there like this. And there I am, standing in the back eating some turd of an appetizer trying to hold my laughter, thinking, “Oh come on. Are you guys SERIOUS? They look like a pair of midget Bigfoot.” My only hope is that Bowie is somewhere laughing as well as he cashes your 99 cent iTunes purchase.

  • http://plagmada.org Tim H

    “This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it from your country on copyright grounds”

  • Noddy93

    besides loving the song, something i didn’t expect….. my biggest take away from this video is “Damn! The make-up department for The Hunger NAILED IT!”