The lyric: "Something happened on the day he died / Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside" - Blackstar (2016)

The conspiracy theory: Because David Bowie's work was always loaded with extra meaning, narrative strands and the presence of stage personas, it has a way of humouring those looking for conspiracy theories. With the album Blackstar, released two days before the announcement of the star's death, the theorists hit the mother lode.

Elvis Presley, with whom Bowie shares a birthday and who was an influence on the younger star, had himself recorded a forgotten song called Black Star. "When a man sees his black star," the song declares, "he knows his time has come." Coincidence?

Meanings of the term black star include a scientific stage between the collapse of a star and a black hole, a hidden planet, and a cancer lesion. Some even took the physics analogy to be knowledge of a cosmic apocalypse. UFO obsessives and those who believe in a hidden planet have claimed that Bowie's lyrics are further proof of a collision between Earth and what has been called Planet X or Nibiru. Kameran Falley, who said he has previously worked as a banker for the Illuminati, said in a video: "If you look at the end of the lyrics, there is the date of when the 'dark star' is meant to come and 1 August, 2016 is the date." The first object known to have passed through a black hole has just been spotted. Spooky…

The truth (as far as we know it): Longtime producer and friend Tony Visconti was responsible for giving interviews surrounding the album, and described it as Bowie's "parting gift". It was recorded in 2015, but released on Bowie's birthday. Nobody in the public sphere knew he was suffering from cancer, but he and those around would have known for a long time. So, of course the album is packed with references to Bowie's death: a "day of execution" and falling angels. In Lazarus, he seems to be looking down on his own career and illness from "heaven": "Look up here, man, I'm in danger, I've got nothing left to lose."

Bowie stage managed his music around his death to speak of something that only became apparent after his passing, and would become his final masterpiece of art. As he sings on Lazarus from the album: "Ain't that just like me?"