Carl Wilson on Bowie: "He was one of the great pop manipulators"

Carl Wilson, freelance writer and Slate music critic, joins guest host Tom Power to comment on the singular importance of David Bowie's work. 

Wilson, who spent the morning in disbelief, notes that the timing of Bowie's death is rather eerie — just days after his 69th birthday, so soon after Blackstar, and on the heels of his final release, Lazarus. 

"It's kind of uncannily perfect in a tragic kind of way," he says.

Wilson remembers Bowie simultaneously as a plastic pop culture figure and a complex musical mind. Operating between the established and the avant garde, Bowie was a translator from the underground to the overground, says Wilson. The artist was a father figure to all those who grew up in search of the strange. 

WEB EXTRA | David Bowie's final record was an intentional nod to his fans, producer Tony Visconti has confirmed.