Line #28 TearJerker/DavidBowie


1	Bowie had a huge affinity for portraying tragic characters in his work, and as a result, he inevitably had a number of {{Tear Jerker}}s. In chronological order:
2	----
3	* Bowie came to this trope early. His very first single under the Bowie name, the 1966 release "Can't Help Thinking About Me", is about a young man who's being forced to leave home for an uncertain future because he's "blackened the family name".
4	-->"Oh, but it's too late now\
5	I wish I was a child again\
6	I wish I felt secure again\
7	I can't help thinking about me..."
8	* "Space Oddity". The tale of a routine space mission, accompanied by sad music and Major Tom philosophizing -- and then "Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you" "Heeeeeeere... Am I floating 'round my tin can..."
9	** In some recordings of the song, the last few lines are omitted, leaving "[[PleaseWakeUp Can you hear me, Major Tom?]]" as the last vocals before the song ends, invoking an UncertainDoom feeling that's arguably even ''worse''.
10	** In the original music video, as Bowie sings that line, his face shows [[http://imgur.com/6ttaFX4 genuine sadness and concern]], it looks almost as if he's about to start crying.
11	** The true tragedy of this is that the song is two-layered: One is the implied suicide by Major Tom. The other is that the song was released at the very end of TheSixties: Depending on interpretation, it's either about drugs or technology, the two great hopes of the Space Age that never delivered on their Utopian promises. "And I think my spaceship knows which way to go..."
12	** What makes it all hit harder is that the song starts out very positive, with Ground Control praising Tom for having made it to the stars, talking about the fame that awaits him for completing the mission... before Tom goes into an existential crisis and subsequently dies.
13	** Music/PeterSchilling's "Major Tom", a sequel of sorts to this song, can be even more of a TearJerker...
14	** If you take the interpretation that Major Tom's capsule malfunctioned completely, enjoy imagining his slow, asphyxiating death... Alone.
15	** There's a Masters of Song Fu challenge that deals with reinterpreting this song, and both have an undertone of loneliness. From Jeff [=MacDougall=]'s take: "I'm high! / Can you see me? / I'm the blink in the night sky. / I'm not afraid. / Everything's clear. / Tell my wife no need for tears."
16	** [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/30/space-oddity-david-bowie-andrew-kolb/ Now in children's book form!]] And yes, it is somehow ''more'' heartbreaking.
17	** Now that Bowie is no longer with us, these two lines take on a new, very poignant meaning...
18	*** "Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still, and I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much."
19	*** [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments "She knows."]]
20	*** Itself heartbreaking, since it implies that either Tom's wife was present at Ground Control, or someone in Ground Control knew Tom very personally and was trying to reassure him in the face of imminent death.
21	* "God Knows I'm Good", from the ''Music/SpaceOddity'' album. There is something very sad about the tale of a hungry old lady, forced to compromise her values by shoplifting just so she can eat while rationalizing (hoping?) that God will forgive her for it. Even worse, the story is RippedFromTheHeadlines.
22	* Also fom ''Music/SpaceOddity'': "The Wild-Eyed Boy from Freecloud", which has both a DownerBeginning (the titular "missionary mystic of peace/love" awaits his execution by ignorant villagers) and a DownerEnding (the GeniusLoci mountain where the Boy lives saves him with an avalanche that destroys the village -- which is the last thing he wanted).
23	* The imagery in the first verse of "Life on Mars?" (''Music/HunkyDory'') is decidedly heartbreaking. It doesn't help that the song is used in some of the more emotionally charged moments of the [[Series/LifeOnMars2006 TV series of the same name]].
24	** If one wasn't affected by "Life on Mars?" before, the [[SuicideIsPainless certain associations]] it acquired in the series finale of the eponymous TV show can add a profound sense of sadness to the song.
25	** As if the original version wasn't sad enough, the one Bowie performed on ''Series/TheTonightShow'' with Creator/JohnnyCarson is simply [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMZ0-nJ0Ipo devastating.]]
26	** And topped even that performance when he sang at a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIFmNRDuM3Y hurricane Katrina benefit concert]] in 2005. Only a year after his heart attack, a worn-out looking Bowie sang alone on stage with just a piano accompaniment. Ever the showman, his hand was bandaged and his eye was made up like it was bruised -- to reflect the pain and loss of the victims.
27	* The final song of ''[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]]'', "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide". The chorus of "Give me your hands!" before the LastNoteNightmare...
28	** The first song, "Five Years", can be pretty depressing too. (The take of Bowie used for the closing repetitions of the chorus sounds the way it does because he was in tears as he sang.)
29	** "Ziggy Stardust" itself is sad too; after all, it's about his decline and demise. Made even worse by the ''Stage'' live version, which sounds like something fit for a funeral owing to the synthesizers.
30	* The entire second half of ''Music/{{Low\|DavidBowieAlbum}}''. Four slow, quiet, somber, mostly instrumental, intensely saddening songs. Especially "Subterraneans".
31	** "Subterraneans" and "Warszawa" only get even more tear-jerking when you read about the real-life conditions that inspired them (respectively, the plights of East Berlin and Warsaw at the time of the album's recording). As is usual for these things, Website/{{Wikipedia}} has more details.
32	* [[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "'Heroes'"]] is more poignant than gloomy, but still a tearjerker.
33	** Music/PeterGabriel's cover (memorably featured on ''Series/StrangerThings'') more so.
34	** Played at the end of ''Film/LoneSurvivor'' to a montage of real-life deceased soldiers even ''more'' so.
35	** Used ''very'' effectively at the end of the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''.
36	** The German version that plays at the end of ''Film/JojoRabbit'' can have this effect as well, especially when you take that movie's [[MoodWhiplash last third]] into consideration.
37	** Music/{{Motorhead}}'s [[https://youtu.be/J06yQb4lbPk cover]]. Especially noteworthy since Lemmy and Bowie died within weeks of each other.
38	* "Ashes to Ashes" (''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'') -- there's something about its understated melancholy that gets to some people.
39	-->"I never done good things\
40	I never done bad things\
41	I never did anything out of the blue..."
42	** Some more depressing lines -- which reference "Space Oddity" -- include:
43	-->"I heard a rumor from Ground Control\
44	Oh no, don't say it's true\
45	(Later in song) Ashes to ashes, funk to funky\
46	We know Major Tom's a junkie\
47	Strung out in heaven's high\
48	Hitting an all-time low"
49	* Here's Bowie's take on Creator/BertoltBrecht's "The Drowned Girl" -- a cruelly detailed recounting of a demise.
50	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkwQHG3JSdg "Strangers When We Meet"]] from both ''The Buddha of Suburbia'' and ''1. Music/{{Outside}}'' is a rather strange example. While it works as a TearJerker at the end of the latter '''musically''', its '''text''' adds even more to the creepiness of this album if you consider that it's supposed to be sung by the Minotaur character.
51	* The album version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOZrGHmMl4o "Dead Man Walking"]] from Music/{{Earthling}} is a high-energy ear worm. However, [[RearrangeTheSong the acoustic]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22ImOPXOnw version]] makes the lyrics present in the original a clear case of LyricalDissonance.
52	-->"And I'm gone, like I'm dancing on angels\
53	And I'm gone, through a crack in the past\
54	Like a dead man walking"
55	* Many songs from ''Hours...'', especially this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR86Vs7RJsU live version of "Seven."]]
56	** "Thursday's Child", particularly the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S227FFNwl8 video]], is another sad song -- but is, at least, hopeful.
57	* Many songs from ''Music/{{Heathen}}'' are tearjerkers, especially the title track.
58	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZN3oUUrokg The live version of "Slip Away"]] is particularly heartbreaking, considering it opens with a clip from ''The Uncle Floyd Show,'' the song's subject matter, which is - in a weird way - a mediation on death.
59	--> Did you ever stop and think if there wasn't an Uncle Floyd show, what everyone else would be doing?
60	** The opening track, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjyC4pzOsOg "Sunday"]], was heart-wrenching enough when it was released. Then Bowie died on January 10th 2016, which fell on a ''Sunday''.
61	* ''Reality'' runs headlong into this.
62	** "The Loneliest Guy." Even the ''title'' is depressing.
63	** "Looking For Water" has this gutpunch of a line. It's doubly depressing if you interpret it as being about [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.]]
64	--> ''Well I lost god in a New York minute''\
65	''Don't know about you but my heart's not in it.''
66	** "Days". "Do I need a friend? Well, I need one now..."
67	** As it became clear that nothing would bring him out of his retirement in TheNewTens, the final track, "Bring Me the Disco King" went down as his bittersweet, introspective swan song...and then, nearly ten years later, ''The Next Day'' said otherwise.
68	* The sudden relaunch of the official website, the announcement of ''The Next Day'', and release of its first video on January 8, 2013 jerked a lot of tears worldwide. That "Where Are We Now?" turned out to be such a poignant song/video -- specifically the full-body reveal of a melancholy-looking Bowie on the "As long as there's me" line -- only made it worse.
69	* His death makes certain lyrics in his last album, ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'' (especially in the TitleTrack), haunting due to the factor that his cancer had been diagnosed 18 months before the album's release.
70	-->''Look up here, I’m in heaven\
71	I’ve got scars that can’t be seen\
72	I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen\
73	Everybody knows me now\
74	This way or no way\
75	You know, I’ll be free\
76	Just like that bluebird\
77	Now ain't that just like me?'' ("Lazarus")
78	:::The video for "Lazarus", with Bowie singing from a hospital bed, is starting to take on an eerie resonance in the wake of his death. At the end, he locks himself in a closet, one can easily see it as a coffin or a gateway to the afterlife.
79	** If only to concur with how much of a (only just) retroactive tearjerker these lyrics were, Creator/TheBBC released a sequel to their ''"David Bowie: Five Years"'' documentary which they titled ''"David Bowie: The Last Five Years"''. Set to images of fans attending his memorial, were those (and the next few) lines from ''Blackstar''. Just Bowie's (acapella) singing, the images and nothing else besides spoken audio quotes from the man himself for the first minute.
80	** "Dollar Days" has its share of tearjerking lines, such as "If I never see the English evergreens I'm running to, it's nothing to meet, it's nothing to see" which could be seen as an afterlife, or him missing his home country which he would never visit again.
81	** The lyrics of the final track, "I Can't Give Everything Away", as well as the general feel of the song itself, are especially this after his death. The song could be interpreted as his final farewell message to all of his fans over the years.
82	-->''I know something is very wrong\
83	The pulse returns for prodigal sons\
84	The blackout's hearts with flowered news\
85	With skull designs upon my shoes\
86	Seeing more and feeling less\
87	Saying no but meaning yes\
88	This is all I ever meant\
89	That's the message that I sent\
90	I can't give everything\
91	I can't give everything\
92	Away...''

Context TearJerker / DavidBowie