Today, as we mark the 9th anniversary of David Bowie’s departure for the Western Lands, I’ve been thinking about how he managed his final act.

He’d arranged well in advance for Blackstar to be released on his 69th birthday (no snickering), January 8, 2016. Although none of us knew it, he was desperately ill at the time. But somehow he managed to stick around till two days after that.

I wonder if, in those two days, he somehow managed to enjoy what he had wrought while in the process of dying? I’d certainly like to think so. The notices were glowing, even without the cheat of people knowing he was sick.

I’ve never been a great partisan of Blackstar (I still think The Next Day is the better album) but I’m listening to it right now and it sounds great. And I love knowing that David controlled his own narrative right up to the end.

Against my better judgment I clicked just now on link to a People article about Mr. B. Among many another things, it mentions that he regularly Skyped (this being pre-Zoom) with Gary Oldman, and on their last call they had technical difficulties. So Starman’s last message to Oldman was “Fuck off!”

His last song, if you think about it, said a polite version of the same thing. “I can’t give everything away,” he told us. I won’t be telling you how I did my tricks; thanks for coming, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Maybe he’ll tell us all about it on the next Bardo. Until then we’ll just have to do the best we can.