David Bowie and the History of Grand Farewells
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3 min readWhen David Bowie died on Jan. 10, 2016, he left behind a massive body of work created over nearly 50 years. His final album was released just two days before his death, and that was no accident. Bowie knew his time was growing short – he had been fighting cancer for 18 months when he died. And he created his last album with his own mortality in mind.
Bowie’s "Blackstar" features the lead single “Lazarus,” and that song begins with the line, “Look up here, I’m in heaven.” It’s not the only song on the album that dwells on death, and the consensus is that "Blackstar" is an impeccably timed swansong, one that Bowie intended to drop as close to his death as possible.
Bowie said goodbye in an extraordinary way, but he’s not the only artist who consciously created a parting gift to fans. Here are a few others – musicians, actors, and even a cartoonist – who offered last words with their last works.
1. John Wayne. The ultimate man’s man, star of countless westerns and war movies, died in 1979 of stomach cancer. His final role, as gunfighter J.B. Books in "The Shootist," came three years earlier in 1976. It was a powerful performance, one that earned Wayne critical praise. And it featured a crucial revision by Wayne himself, who insisted on a change to the ending, which had his character shooting another man in the back. Wayne told the director, “Mister, I’ve made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it.” His demand was met and the change stuck.But perhaps more remarkable than Wayne’s spot-on revision of the film was the uncanny similarity between the actor and the character he played. Books, too, was dying of stomach cancer, according to the script. He was facing his final days and trying to live them with dignity. Wayne was sick enough when production began that no one sought him out for the role, but he campaigned for it, knowing he could bring his own personal experience to it and make it richer than any other actor could. He was right, and the film serves as a uniquely powerful eulogy to the superstar.
2. Warren Zevon. Like Bowie, Zevon – best known for “Werewolves of London” – knew the end was coming when he began working on his last album, The Wind. He was diagnosed with inoperable peritoneal mesothelioma – a cancer of the abdominal lining – in 2002, telling his good friend, David Letterman, that he hadn’t been to the doctor in 20 years before his diagnosis.
Though the cancer was inoperable, Zevon could have received treatment to prolong his life. But he skipped treatment in favor of recording a final album, worried that radiation would make him unable to work. What he created with "The Wind" was a thoughtful finale to his career. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” nodded at Zevon’s mortality, but it’s the closing tune, recorded at home after he was too sick for studio work, that's the real heartbreaker: “Shadows are falling and I’m running out of breath,” it begins. “Keep me in your heart for a while/If I leave you it doesn’t mean I love you any less/Keep me in your heart for a while.” The album was released just two weeks before Zevon’s 2003 death.
3. Johnny Cash
... (remaining coverage for each personality continues as above)
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