David Bowie was nothing short of a certified music legend. In a career that spanned 54 years, Bowie became one of the 20th century’s most forward thinking and influential artists with his release of iconic albums such as ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Space Spiders from Mars’, ‘Aladdin Sane’ and ‘Heroes’. Before his untimely death in 2016 from Liver cancer, he released another classic album in ‘Lazarus’ which went to further prove his status as a global music legend.
Yesterday, it was announced that there would be a release of a live album from 1995 called ‘Ouvrez Le Chien’ (which translates to ‘Open the Dog’, not too sure what it means either) which documented a show from Dallas, Texas. This is the first time that the show will have been released onto streaming services. Ahead of the release the track ‘Teenage Wildlife’ has been made available.
DAVID BOWIE OUVREZ LE CHIEN (LIVE DALLAS 95) will be made available on all streaming services from 3rd July. TEENAGE WILDLIFE from the album is available to stream from 26th June…which it possibly is where you are now. (https://t.co/VEYJUv641B) More here https://t.co/LOdezqI129pic.twitter.com/biW5D1yhdu
— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) June 25, 2020
This is now the second live album to be released in 2020 as he had a 1999 ‘LiveAndWell.com’ was released last month. Fun fact, this was released originally onto the ‘Bowienet’ an internet provider he set up in 1998. But this is a trend I could fully get behind, if 2020 is now the year of Bowie live albums then it’s better than getting nothing as, personally, Bowie is one of those artists whose music never seems to age. It stays as fresh as the day it was released.
His last album before he died, ‘Blackstar’, showed that he was still as fresh of an artist as he was 50 years prior with the album being met with very positive reviews and being nominated for a Mercury Award. The album holds themes of death and mortality which became much more eerie when he died two short days after the release from Liver cancer which he kept a secret to the public.
Having been in the business for as long as he had, people usually find it hard to stay relevant in their latter years but it seems that Bowie never had those issues. This is only testament to him and his ingenuity which saw him reinvent himself multiple times over his career. Even today, there are archived videos which show how forward thinking he was on subjects such as the internet or racial injustices in the business he was in. It’s safe to say; David Bowie was nothing short of a genius.
