Day 355 | Dancing Out In Space

I’ll start by admitting that it is not my original observation that this song is about dying.  I probably would not have arrived at that in my own, but it makes sense.  Not the most linear of songs, it contains hints with references to ghosts, drowning, and George Rodenbach. Who is George Rodenbach? I had to look it up, but it turns out he’s a 19th century poet and writer whose works inspired the movie Vertigo, which is to say it is about someone who can’t let go of a dead loved one.  The review I read that made the death connection made the point that, “to dance out in space is to expire out in space.”  That makes me think of some of Bowie’s earlier imagery, starting with Major Tom floating to oblivion, and the line from, “Slip Away,” that goes, “out in space it’s always 1982.”  I also think of the image of the little astronaut vanishing into space in the video made to accompany the Blackstar song, “I Can’t Give It All Away” by Jonathan Barnbrook, who did art for the album.  So yes, I think this song, which is not one of Bowie’s heavy, menacing rumination about death, is nonetheless about death, and possibly about his own death.  Album: The Next Day