Auce Audio: "Lazarus" - David Bowie

I'm gonna be honest, when people tell me to "get over 2016" I will always reply to them, "Sure, let's see you how you handle the loss of one of the people who inspired you." I understand that everybody dies, right now anyway, but that doesn't mean that we can not feel sad about it, especially if that person helped you become who you are, even if indirectly. 2016 stands to me as a year that many of the most iconic musicians died, but the year began with the passing of one of my biggest inspirations, one of my idols and the one artist who kick started my passion for music, I don't think I'll get over David Bowie's passing.

I've wanted to review a song by David Bowie for a while, but the problem was picking the song. Remember, Bowie is often called a 'Musical Chameleon', meaning that he often switched musical styles between albums and songs, we get more pop sounding songs like "Let's Dance", punk with "Rebel, Rebel", funk with "Fame", and a more slower style with "Life on Mars?", all of them amazing tracks. However, Bowie is not the first musical chameleon I've talked about, as by definition, Queen and Pink Floyd are also musical chameleons and I've looked at both of the previously, and that actually helped me decide on a song to talk about.

Previously, I talked about the Queen song "The Show Must Go On", talking about how it was like Freddie Mercury's Epitaph, for although he was dying, he still knocked the ball out of the park with the song, which made it Queen's best song looking at it from a technical point of view. So, I felt that it was fitting to look at one of Bowie's last singles for this blog, which in some ways is similar, but different in the right ways, so let's talk about "Lazarus".

The beat does begin familiar, sounding like "1901", but "1901" had a more electronic beat to it where this is more slow rock, kind of like something from Coldplay's Viva La Vida. The instrumentals at the opening are actually pretty good despite this, and there is some trumpet or something that kind of drones adding a very melancholic sound to it. As for the opening vocals, they sound very much like Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" in tone, like this guy who lived this full life and is ready to lay down, he may have been ready, but we weren't.

There is this kind of cool, but also kind of distracting electric guitar sound that happens almost every time Bowie sings a verse. I don't know what it is, but it just kind of adds and also takes away from the mood, but that is just one bit. The instrumentals almost entirely make this song by setting the mood and atmosphere of the song nicely. However, the other thing that makes this song are the lyrics. Lyrically, this is more like Johnny Cash's "Hurt", a more depressing look upon life and quite melancholic. The opening lyrics also help with the mood and tone of the song brilliantly, with the line "I've got scars that can't be seen" being one of those lyrics that can mean many things, I feel it more means that he has pains we never focused on, which at the time could have been his cancer, but could go further than that.

I also don't know what it is about drums and drum machines, but they somehow add to the really melancholic sound. I mean "The Sound of Silence" and similar songs always somehow seem to benefit from having soft drum beats, I don't know why.

I feel like this was David Bowie's epitaph, similar to "The Show Must Go On", although where that one was more "I accomplished this and I'm not going down easy" tone-wise, this one is more "I'm ready" tone-wise, again similar to Johnny Cash's "Hurt". It's so weird to think that it's already been a full year since his passing, but Major Tom has sadly taken off, and although I wouldn't call "Lazarus" his best song, it was definitely a good song to leave on.

I'll miss ya Bowie. I'm the Entity of Darkness, and my best music memory, is playing "Let's Dance" on DDR.