David Bowie at 69, the Most Influential Living Musician

Springsteen fans are all over the map on what Bowie song Bruce will do in tribute to him Saturday at his tour opener.
The more popular choices are Heroes; Rebel, Rebel; Suffragette City; and Bruce's own It's So Hard to be a Saint in the City (which Bowie covered). Other suggestions include Modern Love, Ziggy, TVC 15 (which Roy Bittan played on), and Rock n' Roll With Me.

 

Modern Love would've been perfect if Clarence were still alive.

 

When word is finally confirmed that he took his own life, I'd think Rock and Roll Suicide would be the appropriate choice.

 

Go on...

 

"Saint in the City" or "Growin' Up" would faintly smack of Bruce paying tribute to himself, too. He'd be better off doing a Bowie original.

I'd vote for "Heroes" and a straight segue into "The Ties That Bind" to kick off The River show.

 

It's a"thing" online:

Using David Bowie to Promote Assisted Suicide, by Wesley J. Smith, National Review

I doubt it. I think if that was Bowie's intention, he'd have arranged an announcement to that effect.

 

This is probably the best place to put "tribute" clips:

Madonna does pretty well on "Rebel Rebel" in Houston (NSFW language):

Elton John in L.A. with a well-conceived but way-too-diddly medley of "Space Oddity" and "Rocket Man," which should have worked, but really didn't:

 

Bruce just played Rebel, Rebel as the encore opener in Pittsburgh (watching/listening via Periscope). He went from that into his own Bobby Jean

 

Not a tribute but I had never seen it until it was linked in a Bowie thread.

 

Bowie was an influence - on one respect, anyway - on the Sex Pistols: Steve Jones stole their microphones from him.

Canuckistani MTV clone devoted lots of their programming to Bowie yesterday, loads of videos, interviews and a great doc focusing on five years of his career from the 70s/early 80s. Man, Mick Ronson was a great fucking guitarist.

 

WBEZ's Sound Opinions did a Bowie episode this week.

Worth listening to:

Show 529: Remembering David Bowie

You can also listen to it on their podcast.