Photo: WENN
David Bowie, AKA Ziggy Stardust, AKA the Thin White Duke, has just debuted the title track to his new album, Blackstar, and according to saxophonist Donny McCaslin, one of the album’s collaborators, the title track is about ISIS.
As Rolling Stone reports, Bowie told McCaslin that the track was about the terrorist group, repeatedly referring to a “solitary candle”. This, however, was news to Bowie’s drummer, Mark Guiliana and the album’s producer, Tony Visconti.
Blackstar’s lyrics include: "How many times does an angel fall? / How many people lie instead of talking tall? / He trod on sacred ground, he cried loud into the crowd / (I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangstar)"
Although unsure about the meaning behind Blackstar, Visconti, who also produced Bowie’s 2013 The Next Day, did confirm that the lyrics on Bowie's new album are predictably artistic. “He also took some words from A Clockwork Orange," says Visconti. "The lyrics are wacky, but a lot of British people, especially Londoners, will get every word."
Visconti also cites Kendrick Lamar as a heavy influence on the album’s creation. "We were listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar… We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn’t do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. The goal, in many, many ways, was to avoid rock 'n' roll."
The full album will be released on 8 January 2016, on Bowie’s 69th Birthday. The album will be the 25th studio album released by the ‘Space Oddity’ songwriter. Bowie hasn’t played live since his ‘Changes’ duet with Alicia Keys in 2006 and unfortunately, Visconti has confirmed that Bowie has no plans to break this abstinence.
