(Source: Far Out / Reddit)
A true artist breathes his work in and out with every breath. With every heartbeat he creates, refines and develops, waiting to transform his latest thought into an outward expression of his being. Perhaps only the greatest artists do this even in death. In this respect alone, David Bowie can perhaps be considered one of the greatest musicians of all time.
Of course, he released countless singles and albums throughout his life that will live on in the pantheon of pop music. Bowie lived his life through his work like few other artists, and his music experienced highs and lows alongside its creator, while he experienced personal triumphs and struggles. But perhaps his finest moment on record was Black Star The album was released almost simultaneously with his sad death in 2016.
The record should rightly be considered one of the finest works of art of this century. It is a bold piece of art and one that confirmed Bowie’s status as an ultra legend like no other record before it. However, it wasn’t the first time Bowie had spoken about his own mortality and in “Heathen (The Rays)” Bowie allowed his subconscious to open up and reveal his true thoughts about crossing over to the other side.
Released as the title track of his album, the track drips with brutal sentimentality. Bowie, who never put too much effort into constructing his lyrics and once much preferred the semi-random “cut-up method” of William S. Burroughs, said of this track: “The words appeared out of nowhere. I just couldn’t control them.”
While the track addresses his own mortality and even pays tribute to the then recently deceased George Harrison by singing his lyric “All things must pass,” the melody was born in a moment when Bowie was watching a deer grazing on the mountainside: “The words just bubbled out of him and I realized what it was about… not a dialogue between man and his God, between man and life itself.”
For Bowie, the song was about “coming to terms with the realization that life is finite and that he can already feel life itself leaving him, fading out of him, age weakening him.”
Bowie reaffirmed the song in 2002, sharing that it was perhaps the most difficult song for him to fully commit to because it addresses such a harsh reality: “Heathen is about knowing you’re dying. It’s a song about life, where I’m talking to life as a friend or lover. I couldn’t change a word when I sang it into a tape recorder.”
Perhaps for this reason, “Heathen (The Rays)” became one of the most difficult songs Bowie ever wrote: “Funny thing is, there are songs you really don’t want to write. I didn’t like writing ‘Heathen’. There was something so ominous and final about it.”
Yet throughout his life, music has always offered him a way to express himself and understand the world. “But I couldn’t stop, they just flew away. It’s a strange feeling, like something else is guiding you, although it’s more like it’s forcing you,” he continued. “On the other hand, I want my music to awaken the spirits within me.”
The song allowed Bowie to understand life and death in their most comprehensive form. He said: “We make so many circles on this straight line that they say we travel. The truth, of course, is that there is no journey. We arrive and we leave at the same time.” One might suspect that it was this knowledge that allowed the artist to make his parting gift so poetic and poignant.
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