David Bowie — Storyteller

Remembering a Master

On January 10th, a master storyteller began a new adventure. His body of work stands as a course study in storytelling.

Bowie had a long career with numerous albums that topped the charts in the UK (and to a lesser extent the US). He also had numerous movie roles to his credit.

Two themes emerged throughout. The first was fantasy, illustrated by Space Oddity, Glass Spiders, and Labyrinth. The second was change, from his myriad of persona (Ziggy, Thin White Duke, etc) to the song Changes released in 1971, Bowie seemed to change styles more successfully than most other artists. But the master storyteller seemed to understand things a bit more clearly:

I don’t have stylistic loyalty. That’s why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.

Bowie was not set in his style, but rather his craft. He was a builder of stories. He saw them as a way to influence the world. They were a way for an inarticulate human to make a difference and they had a life and power well beyond him.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it — it’s no longer my piece of writing.

Bowie’s work will live on. He knew it would. His final album was released on Friday. One more story to tell before his last great adventure.