Ten Of The Best: David Bowie (5)

So many rock and roll icons have been taken from us recently, but for me David Bowie's death was the greatest shock. However, my goodness, didn't he leave with a bang, with such a theatrical flourish! Blackstar is simply one of the best albums he ever made (and that's saying something) — dark but not hopeless, innovative and genre-busting as always.

Bob Dylan Was Here

Between Kinsale and Bantry lies the small town of Clonakilty. We stopped for lunch at De Barra's and took a brief nostalgia trip. This bar and music venue will forever be associated with Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix's bass player. Noel played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience from the band's inception in 1966 until 1969. In 1972 he retreated to Clonakilty in West Cork and remained there till his death - from a haemorrhage caused by cirrohsis of the liver - in 2003. Enlarge the pic to see the Noel Redding plaque in the doorway ...

Inside the pub, the guy in the checked shirt is talking about a Bob Dylan gig he went to in Cork on 16 June this year ...

Among the many photos on the pub wall, there's one of Bob with his arm round Noel (I'm guessing this may be the early 1980s?). The picture was taken not far from here. If you look closely you can spot Eric Clapton in the picture beneath it ...

We found another photo of Bob too, taken about twenty years later, just before Noel's death at the age of 57 ...

Of course that's David Bowie in the lower two pics. Apparently he was pretty much out of it when he signed the bottom photo, which is why it's largely indecipherable. Elsewhere there were photos too of Roy Harper, who lives nearby. I seem to remember that one of his albums was recorded live at De Barra's.

Changes

Changes by David Bowie

I still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time