David Bowie: Difference between revisions

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Over the years, Bowie made numerous references to religions and to his evolving spirituality. Beginning in 1967, he became interested in [[wikipedia:Buddhism|Buddhism]] and considered becoming a Buddhist monk.<ref>{{cite news |title=Thurston Moore Reflects on David Bowie |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/62878-thurston-moore-reflects-on-david-bowie/ |accessdate=24 September 2019 |publisher=Pitchfork |date=12 January 2016}}</ref> After a few months' study at Tibet House in London, he was told by a [[wikipedia:Lama|Lama]], "You don't want to be Buddhist.{{nbsp}}... You should follow music."<ref name="newsday.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/stardust-memories-without-tibet-house-david-bowie-never-may-have-gotten-ziggy-with-it-now-the-pop-star-returns-the-favor-by-performing-at-the-annual-benefit-concert-1.396658|title=Stardust Memories – Without Tibet House, David Bowie never may have gotten Ziggy with it. Now the pop star returns the favor&nbsp;...|work=[[wikipedia:Newsday|Newsday]]|accessdate=11 January 2016}}</ref> By 1975, Bowie admitted, "I felt totally, absolutely alone. And I probably was alone because I pretty much had abandoned God."<ref name=Arena1993/> In his will, Bowie stipulated that he be [[wikipedia:Cremation|cremated]] and his ashes scattered in [[wikipedia:Bali|Bali]] "in accordance with the Buddhist rituals".<ref name="lifetimeinterest">{{cite news |last1=Sawer |first1=Patrick |last2=McNulty |first2=Bernadette |title=David Bowie's lifetime interest in Buddhism to culminate in Bali scattering of his ashes |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/12131199/Bowie-wanted-ashes-scattered-in-Bali.html |accessdate=24 September 2019 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=30 January 2016}}</ref>
Over the years, Bowie made numerous references to religions and to his evolving spirituality. Beginning in 1967, he became interested in [[wikipedia:Buddhism|Buddhism]] and considered becoming a Buddhist monk.<ref>{{cite news |title=Thurston Moore Reflects on David Bowie |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/62878-thurston-moore-reflects-on-david-bowie/ |accessdate=24 September 2019 |publisher=Pitchfork |date=12 January 2016}}</ref> After a few months' study at Tibet House in London, he was told by a [[wikipedia:Lama|Lama]], "You don't want to be Buddhist.{{nbsp}}... You should follow music."<ref name="newsday.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/stardust-memories-without-tibet-house-david-bowie-never-may-have-gotten-ziggy-with-it-now-the-pop-star-returns-the-favor-by-performing-at-the-annual-benefit-concert-1.396658|title=Stardust Memories – Without Tibet House, David Bowie never may have gotten Ziggy with it. Now the pop star returns the favor&nbsp;...|work=[[wikipedia:Newsday|Newsday]]|accessdate=11 January 2016}}</ref> By 1975, Bowie admitted, "I felt totally, absolutely alone. And I probably was alone because I pretty much had abandoned God."<ref name=Arena1993/> In his will, Bowie stipulated that he be [[wikipedia:Cremation|cremated]] and his ashes scattered in [[wikipedia:Bali|Bali]] "in accordance with the Buddhist rituals".<ref name="lifetimeinterest">{{cite news |last1=Sawer |first1=Patrick |last2=McNulty |first2=Bernadette |title=David Bowie's lifetime interest in Buddhism to culminate in Bali scattering of his ashes |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/12131199/Bowie-wanted-ashes-scattered-in-Bali.html |accessdate=24 September 2019 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=30 January 2016}}</ref>


After Bowie married Iman in a private ceremony in 1992, he said they knew that their "real marriage, sanctified by God, had to happen in a church in Florence".<ref name=PJ>{{cite web |last=Johnson|first=Bridget|url=https://pjmedia.com/faith/2016/1/14/why-david-bowie-knelt-and-said-the-lords-prayer-at-wembley-stadium/|title=Why David Bowie Knelt and Said the Lord's Prayer at Wembley Stadium|work=[[wikipedia:PJ Media|PJ Media]]|date=13 January 2016|accessdate=18 January 2016}}</ref> Earlier that year, he knelt on stage at [[wikipedia:The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert|The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert]] and recited the [[wikipedia:Lord's Prayer|Lord's Prayer]] before a television audience.<ref name="LA Times Mercury"/><!-- Per source: "with the potential to reach 1 billion viewers". -->{{efn|Asked why he knelt and prayed, Bowie said he had a friend who was dying of AIDS. "He was just dropping into a coma that day. And just before I went on stage something just told me to say the Lord's Prayer. The great irony is that he died two days after the show".<ref name=Arena1993/>}} In 1993, Bowie said he had an "undying" belief in the "unquestionable" existence of God.<ref name=Arena1993/> In a separate 1993 interview, while describing the genesis of the music for his album ''[[wikipedia:Black Tie White Noise|Black Tie White Noise]]'', he said " … it was important for me to find something [musically] that also had no sort of representation of institutionalized and organized religion, of which I'm not a believer, I must make that clear."<ref>[[wikipedia:Simon Bates|Simon Bates]] radio interviews, [[wikipedia:BBC Radio 1|BBC Radio 1]], 29–31 March 1993</ref> Interviewed in 2005, Bowie said whether God exists "is not a question that can be answered.{{nbsp}}... I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm ''almost'' an atheist. Give me a couple of months.{{nbsp}}... I've nearly got it right.{{'"}}<ref name="DeCurtis2005">{{cite book|last=DeCurtis|first=Anthony|title=In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life And Work|url=https://archive.org/details/inotherwordsarti0000decu|url-access=registration|accessdate=14 May 2012|date=5 May 2005|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-06655-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/inotherwordsarti0000decu/page/262 262]–263}}</ref>
After Bowie married Iman in a private ceremony in 1992, he said they knew that their "real marriage, sanctified by God, had to happen in a church in Florence".<ref name=PJ>{{cite web |last=Johnson|first=Bridget|url=https://pjmedia.com/faith/2016/1/14/why-david-bowie-knelt-and-said-the-lords-prayer-at-wembley-stadium/|title=Why David Bowie Knelt and Said the Lord's Prayer at Wembley Stadium|work=[[wikipedia:PJ Media|PJ Media]]|date=13 January 2016|accessdate=18 January 2016}}</ref> Earlier that year, he knelt on stage at [[wikipedia:The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert|The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert]] and recited the [[wikipedia:Lord's Prayer|Lord's Prayer]] before a television audience.<ref name="LA Times Mercury">{{cite news|first=Jeff|last=Kaye|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-22-ca-497-story.html|title=(Safe) Sex, (No) Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll : A Star-Filled Send-Off to Freddie Mercury|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=22 April 1992|accessdate=11 January 2016}}</ref> Four days later, Bowie and Iman were married in Switzerland. Intending to move to Los Angeles, they flew in to search for a suitable property, but found themselves confined to their hotel, under curfew: the [[1992 Los Angeles riots]] began the day they arrived. They settled in New York instead.<ref>Buckley (2005): pp. 413–14</ref><!-- Per source: "with the potential to reach 1 billion viewers". -->{{efn|Asked why he knelt and prayed, Bowie said he had a friend who was dying of AIDS. "He was just dropping into a coma that day. And just before I went on stage something just told me to say the Lord's Prayer. The great irony is that he died two days after the show".<ref name=Arena1993/>}} In 1993, Bowie said he had an "undying" belief in the "unquestionable" existence of God.<ref name=Arena1993/> In a separate 1993 interview, while describing the genesis of the music for his album ''[[wikipedia:Black Tie White Noise|Black Tie White Noise]]'', he said " … it was important for me to find something [musically] that also had no sort of representation of institutionalized and organized religion, of which I'm not a believer, I must make that clear."<ref>[[wikipedia:Simon Bates|Simon Bates]] radio interviews, [[wikipedia:BBC Radio 1|BBC Radio 1]], 29–31 March 1993</ref> Interviewed in 2005, Bowie said whether God exists "is not a question that can be answered.{{nbsp}}... I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm ''almost'' an atheist. Give me a couple of months.{{nbsp}}... I've nearly got it right.{{'"}}<ref name="DeCurtis2005">{{cite book|last=DeCurtis|first=Anthony|title=In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life And Work|url=https://archive.org/details/inotherwordsarti0000decu|url-access=registration|accessdate=14 May 2012|date=5 May 2005|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-06655-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/inotherwordsarti0000decu/page/262 262]–263}}</ref>


"Questioning [his] spiritual life [was] always&nbsp;... germane" to Bowie's songwriting.<ref name="DeCurtis2005"/> The song "[[wikipedia:Station to Station (song)|Station to Station]]" is "very much concerned with the [[wikipedia:Stations of the Cross|Stations of the Cross]]"; the song also specifically references [[wikipedia:Christian Kabbalah|Kabbalah]]. Bowie called the album "extremely dark{{nbsp}}... the nearest album to a [[wikipedia:Magick (Thelema)|magick]] treatise that I've written".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cavanagh|first=David|title=ChangesFiftyBowie|journal=[[wikipedia:Q (magazine)|Q]]|date=February 1997|pages=52–59}}</ref><!-- Cites previous 2 sentences. -->{{efn|He later said he was influenced by his cocaine addiction and the "psychological terror" from making ''The Man Who Fell To Earth'', marking "the first time I'd really seriously thought about Christ and God&nbsp;... I very nearly got suckered into that narrow [view of] finding the Cross as the salvation of mankind".<ref>{{cite book|last=Egan|first=Sean|title=Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters|publisher=Souvenir Press Ltd|year=2015|isbn=978-1569769775|page=116}}</ref> }} ''[[wikipedia:Earthling (album)|Earthling]]'' showed "the abiding need in me to vacillate between [[wikipedia:atheism|atheism]] or a kind of [[wikipedia:gnosticism|gnosticism]]{{nbsp}}... What I need is to find a balance, spiritually, with the way I live and my demise."<ref name=Q97X>{{Citation | last=Cavanagh | first=David | title=ChangesFiftyBowie | journal=[[wikipedia:Q (magazine)|Q magazine]] |date=February 1997 | pages=52–59}}</ref> Released shortly before his death, "[[wikipedia:Lazarus (David Bowie song)|Lazarus]]"—from his final album, ''[[wikipedia:Blackstar (album)|Blackstar]]''—began with the words, "Look up here, I'm in Heaven" while the rest of the album deals with other matters of mysticism and mortality.<ref>{{cite web|last=Clement|first=Olivia|url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/look-up-here-im-in-heaven-poignant-lyrics-to-bowies-lazarus-signal-his-farewell-378793|title='Look Up Here, I'm in Heaven' – Poignant Lyrics to Bowie's 'Lazarus' Signal His Farewell|website=[[wikipedia:Playbill|Playbill]]|date=11 January 2016|accessdate=18 January 2016}}</ref>
"Questioning [his] spiritual life [was] always&nbsp;... germane" to Bowie's songwriting.<ref name="DeCurtis2005"/> The song "[[wikipedia:Station to Station (song)|Station to Station]]" is "very much concerned with the [[wikipedia:Stations of the Cross|Stations of the Cross]]"; the song also specifically references [[wikipedia:Christian Kabbalah|Kabbalah]]. Bowie called the album "extremely dark{{nbsp}}... the nearest album to a [[wikipedia:Magick (Thelema)|magick]] treatise that I've written".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cavanagh|first=David|title=ChangesFiftyBowie|journal=[[wikipedia:Q (magazine)|Q]]|date=February 1997|pages=52–59}}</ref><!-- Cites previous 2 sentences. -->{{efn|He later said he was influenced by his cocaine addiction and the "psychological terror" from making ''The Man Who Fell To Earth'', marking "the first time I'd really seriously thought about Christ and God&nbsp;... I very nearly got suckered into that narrow [view of] finding the Cross as the salvation of mankind".<ref>{{cite book|last=Egan|first=Sean|title=Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters|publisher=Souvenir Press Ltd|year=2015|isbn=978-1569769775|page=116}}</ref> }} ''[[wikipedia:Earthling (album)|Earthling]]'' showed "the abiding need in me to vacillate between [[wikipedia:atheism|atheism]] or a kind of [[wikipedia:gnosticism|gnosticism]]{{nbsp}}... What I need is to find a balance, spiritually, with the way I live and my demise."<ref name=Q97X>{{Citation | last=Cavanagh | first=David | title=ChangesFiftyBowie | journal=[[wikipedia:Q (magazine)|Q magazine]] |date=February 1997 | pages=52–59}}</ref> Released shortly before his death, "[[wikipedia:Lazarus (David Bowie song)|Lazarus]]"—from his final album, ''[[wikipedia:Blackstar (album)|Blackstar]]''—began with the words, "Look up here, I'm in Heaven" while the rest of the album deals with other matters of mysticism and mortality.<ref>{{cite web|last=Clement|first=Olivia|url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/look-up-here-im-in-heaven-poignant-lyrics-to-bowies-lazarus-signal-his-farewell-378793|title='Look Up Here, I'm in Heaven' – Poignant Lyrics to Bowie's 'Lazarus' Signal His Farewell|website=[[wikipedia:Playbill|Playbill]]|date=11 January 2016|accessdate=18 January 2016}}</ref>