Day 357 | Dollar Days

As if there were not enough hints in the Blackstar album about Bowie’s impending death, he includes the related, explicit line in this song, “I’m dying too.”  This is not the song from the album that’s received the most attention, but I think it holds the key to what Blackstar is all about.  The singer will never see the English evergreens he’s running to.  He’s falling down.  Whatever “dollar days” exactly means, they end with “final checks” (is this some sort of reference to Bowie’s intent to produce until the end? Perhaps this is meant as a companion to “I Can’t Give Everything Away”).  As for “I’m dying too” – there’s a little ambiguity as to whether the word is “too” or “to.”  I first heard the song before Bowie died and before I knew he was dying, too.  So I heard it as “to,” as a continuation of the sentiment about running to evergreens – he can’t reach the trees, but it’s nothing to him, nothing to see, though he’s paradoxically dying to get to those trees.  It’s the kind of sequence I didn’t think much about during the few days between hearing the song for the first time and learning that Bowie died.  Once the sad news reached me, I immediately speculated (on Facebook no less) about the whether or not he meant “too.”  At this point, I’m fairly certain there is no coincidence here.  “To” doesn’t make any sense in the context of the past two lines, and although Bowie is always good for non-sequiturs, the line, and the song as a whole seem more likely to be a kind of perverse Easter egg.  Album: Blackstar