It was a surprise to wake up to the news of David Bowie's passing. It was only a few days ago that I was waking up to see people celebrating his 69th birthday.
You know when people go on about how people's music shaped their lives or was a soundtrack to their lives? I heard it a lot when I was watching tribute pieces to the musician on the news. I didn't really think much about the part his music played to me until I was looking through his greatest hits album this morning.
'Ah.. Starman.. I remember that was when..'
'Golden Years - Oh yeah, this reminds me of the autumn of 1992 when UK Gold launched and the channel used 'Golden Years' as its theme.'
'Little Wonder. Used to love listening to this before going to college in the latter part of 1996.'
And then we got to my own personal favourite story concerning a David Bowie song.
Space Oddity.
You see, Space Oddity was one of the very first songs my nephew liked. I got him listening to David Bowie from an early age because he happened to be around me a lot when I was going through the Bowie Greatest Hits phase. He had a toy microphone and would sing along to the song. Fast forward two years later. My father and I were in our garden on a hot summer Sunday in 2005 and we could hear a party going on in the beer garden of a pub not too far away. My sister and nephew had gone to the party, so I knew they were there.
The music was really loud, but it wasn't loud enough to be distorted. I knew what was being played. The opening to Space Oddity kicked in and I turned to my dad and said 'they're playing Space Oddity now.'
And then the familiar voice echoed through the air 'Ground control to Major Tom..'
Only, the voice was not of David Bowie.
'It's Josh!' We chorused with a laugh.
That was his first stab at karaoke singing. He's eleven years older now and very keen into music. More than I ever was or will be. Bowie played a hand there. No doubt about it.
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