Lara Rae's Ode to David Bowie

Lara Rae shares her thoughts on David Bowie's legacy:

Popular art lost an icon this week with the death of David Bowie. I say art as opposed to music as his life was a great work of art.

While David Bowie's various musical personas inspired so many from Radiohead to The Smiths to Bjork and Madonna, it was the impact of Bowie's artist spirit – Divine in its incorporation of the masculine and feminine that moved so many.

How often did that divine voice make life tolerable? Not just as a vocalist who could rival Johnny Mathis in a cover of Wild is the Wind- or as a stage screen and voice actor – but most importantly when this man born Davey Jones – likely one of the most ubiquitous names in the U.K – spoke as Bowie.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Others he said from the podium of the 1975 Grammy Awards a shout out to my scattered tribe, a reminder we and I was not alone in our otherness or locked out forever - if Bowie was a role model- from enjoying a successful and remarkable life.

And although ever the gentleman – like me he seems to have hated being called "sir" turning down in 2003.....Her Majesty's honorific.

It's the tune Rebel Rebel that popped into my head when my daughter texted me of his death. A death that brought my daughter, my mother, and myself to tears.

Not sure if you're a boy or girl – check – Not the only song to deal with gender variance but what makes it unique is the singer – Bowie – doesn't seem to care if this hot tramp he loves is a boy or a girl. The song echoes a song by Jane formally Wayne County – the first transgender rock star who along with film composer Wendy Carlos showed me at around age 10 that men could become women and importantly have a happy life.

Bowie crossed the gender line but more importantly he blurred it. Now in some ways the line is almost fading away. Same sex, different sex, one gender, two genders, or maybe as may genders as their are people. 

But there are really only two kinds of romantic love – healthy and unhealthy. May all of you be blessed with the former in the years ahead.