I heard the news today…* New Donny McCaslin video; Terry Burns-themed exhibit; Bowie.Fest.Cov; Simon Critchley interview; “As the World Falls Down” cover plus features, profiles, lists AND MORE!
Welcome to my weekly roundup of Bowie news! Read on for summaries of Bowie-related stories that posted this past week, and click on the bolded story names to link to the original articles…
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NEWS
Donny McCaslin released video for “Pony Up.” The new video, directed by Douglas Sloan video, selected for the Coney Island Film Festival, is showcased within a highly regarded event celebrated for its location, reputation, and endorsements from prominent filmmakers. The title of this summary links to information about the festival itself. McCaslin was Bowie’s key collaborator on Blackstar, and if you like his style of playing the saxophone on that album, you’ll like his solo work.
David Bowie, My Brother: An exhibition. The Turin exhibition “David Bowie, my brother” presents Bowie’s work through a non-linear, thematic lens centered on his relationship with his brother, Terry Burns, showing how that influence—shaped by literature, jazz, visual art, and mental illness—permeated both his artistic evolution and songs like “All the Madmen.” The exhibit will be on view at the Musa Art Gallery (Via della Consolata 11/E, Turin, Italy) from April 17 to July 12, 2026.
Online sales of items linked to Bowie currently unavailable to customers in Northern Ireland. Customers in Northern Ireland are unable to order Bowie-related and other museum merchandise because major British institutions have halted shipments due to complications from European Union regulations.
Stockport station commuters might notice something special. A public art installation at Stockport station in Greater Manchester, England celebrates the town’s musical heritage, including a commemorative plaque marking the night Bowie slept there after missing a train following a sold-out show.
Elton John pays tribute to Bowie?. This curious story is almost certainly a ten-year old account of John performing a mashup of “Space Oddity” and “Rocket Man,” however it popped up as if new, on an (apparent) online magazine that I had never before encountered. So, it probably shouldn’t be here in the news section…
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FEATURES AND REFLECTIONS
BOOK REVIEW: Bowie Odyssey 76. Simon Goddard’s Bowie Odyssey 76 places Bowie’s return to Britain as the Thin White Duke amid the racial and political turmoil of 1976, framing his Berlin-bound awakening with Iggy Pop and the creation of The Idiot and Low as both a critique of his flirtation with fascist imagery and a defining moment of his artistic reinvention.
Earl Slick and KillerStar. The longtime Bowie guitarist joined KillerStar, a band featuring several of Bowie’s former collaborators, emphasizing that the group creates original music influenced by Bowie rather than functioning as a tribute act.
What life was like the last time we went to the moon. 1972 was a defining cultural moment in which Bowie introduced Ziggy Stardust amid a broader landscape of influential music, film, and fashion marked by bold, synthetic styles and iconic figures.
Inside Danny Boyle’s Southbank takeover. Danny Boyle is staging a large-scale immersive event at London’s Southbank Centre inspired in part by Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust alongside other youth-driven cultural movements to celebrate creativity and challenge the influence of tech giants.
Blackstar, 10 years later. Bowie, facing death from liver cancer, created Blackstar as a deliberately experimental and unflinching final statement on mortality, using jazz, hip-hop, and art-rock influences to confront his own impending death, explore the tension between dread and acceptance, and invite his audience into a last, intimate reflection on artistic legacy and the meaning of his life’s work.
Tony Visconti reveals Bowie’s reaction to Holy Holy. Tony Visconti recalls that Bowie was not enthusiastic about the formation of the band Holy Holy, while also reflecting on their long collaborative relationship, Bowie’s trust in his production work, and his continued emphasis on musical experimentation over technical control.
The Greenwich Village studio that crafted Patti Smith’s Horses and Young Americans by Bowie. Jimi Hendrix’s creation of Electric Lady Studios left a lasting artistic sanctuary that shaped countless iconic recordings, including Bowie’s work on Young Americans, embodying a quiet but transformative force within New York’s creative world.
60 Years, Bowie Made His Solo Debut. In 1966, Bowie released “Do Anything You Say,” his first solely credited song, which failed to chart both initially and upon reissue during the Ziggy Stardust era.
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PROFLIES
David Bowie. This brief profile of Bowie appears in the online edition of Rolling Stone. The context in which this appeared is not obvious from the piece alone.
Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour recalled a standout moment from her career when she joined Freddie Mercury, Bowie, and others on stage at a 1985 London charity event, describing it as an unforgettable and surreal experience.
Chris Jericho. Pro wrestler Chris Jericho emphasizes that, like Bowie, constant reinvention—balancing a recognizable core with new creative directions—is essential to staying relevant and avoiding becoming a nostalgia act.
Gary Numan. Gary Numan recalls being expelled from a Bowie filming session during a period of Bowie’s perceived insecurity, which shattered his idol worship and reframed Bowie as human despite his stature.
Ken Jennings. During a break from Jeopardy! filming, Ken Jennings traveled to London where he visited museums and made Bowie-related stops including a Brixton mural and the David Bowie Museum.
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LISTS
David Bowie on film: his best movie appearances. This is a top ten list of Bowie’s films, with brief descriptions of each of the listed movies.
7 Artists Who Redefined What It Means To Be Cool. Before Bowie, rock stars were expected to be relatable, but Bowie rejected that in favor of being unknowable, using characters like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke to continually reinvent himself and establish reinvention as essential for artists.
17 might-have-been classics that never saw the light of day. Before creating Station to Station, Bowie explored a raw, funk-driven “plastic soul” sound on The Gouster, an early version of Young Americans that reflected his transition from glam rock toward a more experimental style.
3 Famous Classic Rock Songs That Everyone Knows, but No One Listens to Closely Enough. “Life On Mars?” combines striking melody and theatrical style with lyrics that, despite their surreal imagery, offer a relatable reflection on everyday frustration and disillusionment.
3 Landmark Future-Changing Moments in Popular Music That No One Ever Talks About. Before introducing Ziggy Stardust, Bowie helped pioneer the use of a fully realized musical alter ego as a performative identity, establishing a model that influenced later artists across multiple genres.
15 Musicians With Magnetic Stage Energy. Bowie approached performance by fully inhabiting evolving personas, transforming each tour into a distinct artistic identity that kept audiences uncertain and engaged.
Five songs that were written moments before death. Released alongside Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, Bowie’s “Lazarus” and the Blackstar album confront mortality in a haunting and more secretive way, with Donny McCaslin recalling the emotional impact of hearing Bowie perform a track that gave his saxophone a prominent role.
3 Classic Rock Songs From the 1970s With Bridges We Adore. “Changes” reflects Bowie’s mastery of transformation, both as an artist and within the song itself, whose shifting structure helps define his lasting impact as a music and fashion icon.
Terrible songs on great albums. Against the glam brilliance of Ziggy Stardust packed with Bowie classics like “Five Years,” “Starman,” and “Rock’n’Roll Suicide,” the plodding “It Ain’t Easy” feels like an out-of-place misstep, especially given that Bowie had stronger original songs available. I get it, but “terrible” is a little harsh.
5 Classic Rock Choruses. Bowie’s catalog is full of choruses that deliver an immediate adrenaline rush, and “Suffragette City” stands out as an electrifying example whose infectious chorus, driving piano, and sharp guitar work still hit with full force.
If You Grew Up In The 80s, These 9 Songs Probably Raised You To See The World A Little Differently. The moment the bassline of “Under Pressure” begins, hearing Bowie and Freddie Mercury sing together takes me (well, not me, but the person who wrote this list) back to the backseat of my mother’s car and makes me feel at home again.
10 Near-Perfect Vampire Movies That No One Remembers Today. According to this list, nobody remembers The Hunger. Really?
5 albums from 1976 that changed music. Bowie proves his mastery of reinvention by transitioning into the Thin White Duke on Station To Station, a musically diverse and complete work that blends funk, post punk, and glam while pointing toward his later Berlin period, with standout tracks including “Golden Years,” “TVC15,” and “Wild Is The Wind.”
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THIS WEEK IN THIS BLOG
March 29: Last Week’s News
March 30: David Bowie Cover of the Week— Rachel Piper sings “As the World Falls Down”
March 31: BOWIE.FEST.COV Coming Soon!
April 1: BowieBuddy AI Chatbot Ready for Liftoff
April 2: 1550 Years Later, Rome Falls Again
April 3: Simon Critchley preview
April 4: Simon Critchley on Mysticism and David Bowie’s Spiritual Searching
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CHURNALISM
This section separates genuine Bowie news and original writing from recycled “churnalism” stories with vague click-bait headlines that often repeat familiar information but may still be of interest if readers have not seen them before.
1972 Anthem ‘Became Humanity’s Theme Song’ 43 Years After Its Release. Parade continues its trend of reporting on other publications’ lists as if they were news stories. In this case, the “news” is that American Songwriter, itself a prime practitioner of churnalism, named “Starman” as the theme song of humanity. Parade has become the ouroboros of churnalism.
The artist Iggy Pop called the light of his life. Bowie’s collaboration with Iggy Pop, beginning with Raw Power and culminating in their Berlin period, reflected a shared drive for artistic catharsis and resulted in both groundbreaking music and Bowie’s decisive role in rescuing Iggy from personal and professional collapse.
How Bowie conquered time to write the song that gave him an audience. Bowie’s song “Changes” marked a turning point in his early career by embracing a hybrid musical approach and a philosophy of constant reinvention that helped him find a broader audience and define his artistic identity.
The “rivetingly depressing” John Lennon song David Bowie fell in love with. Bowie expressed deep admiration for John Lennon, whom he regarded as a mentor, and was particularly drawn to the stark emotional honesty of Lennon’s song “Remember,” which he found compelling in its bleakness.
Lexi’s struggles. Bowie’s daughter Lexi Jones has spoken about her struggles with mental health, addiction, and identity, shaped by growing up in the shadow of famous parents and compounded by her father’s illness and death, while later finding clarity through an autism diagnosis and using her experiences to advocate for others.
Why the Nine Inch Nails Audiences Were a Nightmare for Bowie. Bowie described his 1995 tour with Nine Inch Nails as initially difficult due to unresponsive audiences unfamiliar with his work, though he ultimately found his footing and came to enjoy the experience.
The one genre David Bowie couldn’t stand listening to. Bowie refused to be confined to any single genre, constantly reinventing his sound from glam rock to Berlin experimentation to the jazz-infused Blackstar while embracing nearly every style except country, which he felt he had nothing meaningful to contribute to.
The one artist that made David Bowie love rock and roll. Bowie’s originality, first fully revealed through “Space Oddity” and shaped by collaborators like Tony Visconti, Mick Ronson, Brian Eno, and Nile Rodgers, was rooted in an early ambition inspired by Little Richard’s fearless outsider persona and the boundary-pushing spirit of 1950s rock and roll icons.
Bowie’s 1971 Classic Hit Is the Most Important Song He Ever Recorded. Bowie continually reinvented himself through a series of bold alter egos, and although “Changes” from Hunky Dory initially failed to chart in the UK, it ultimately came to define the enduring evolution at the core of his music.
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And with that, “we’ve finished our news…”*
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*“I’ve heard the news today” is Bowie’s adaptation of the Beatles lyric, which is heard in “Young Americans.” **“We’ve finished our news” is a line from, “Oh You Pretty Things”