News of music legend David Bowie passing away earlier this week sparked much conversation among the Global National team about which songs meant the most to them.
Bowie died Sunday at the age of 69, after a private 18-month battle with cancer.
READ MORE: Remembering David Bowie: a timeline of his music, life and love
His influence on music and culture won’t be forgotten and nearly five decades worth of music will continue to resonate with audiences around the world.
As fans continue to mourn his death, members of the Global National team took a moment to look back at the Bowie songs that meant the most to them.
Here’s Global National’s David Bowie playlist.
Dawna Friesen, Global National Anchor
I hear the first few notes of Let’s Dance and I want to obey his command. Under the serious moonlight.
Maybe it’s my favourite because I was about 20 when it was released — an age when everything seems possible and when my friends and I did a lot of dancing.
Maybe it’s because I was at the Serious Moonlight concert in Winnipeg in 1983, which for a kid from the farm was pretty exhilarating.
Who knows. Let’s put on your red shoes and dance the blues.
Ross Lord, Atlantic Correspondent
I am a “casual fan” of David Bowie, I suppose.
I only own one cassette and one vinyl album. No compact discs of Bowie.
Here’s what I like about them.
- Young Americans, for the controlled intensity.
- Five Years (recently re-recorded in fine fashion, by Nova Scotia’s Mo Kenney). Nice pacing, interesting imagery.
- Space Oddity, which always struck me as a folk song, but, conducive to far out thinking.
Jacques Bourbeau, Ottawa Bureau Chief
Diamond Dogs. It was the first Bowie album I bought (I now have a dozen or so) and I saw him perform the song in 1974.
It was one of the first concerts I attended, and I was about five rows from the stage. The show was as much theatre as it was a rock concert.
It certainly blew the mind of a 15-year-old.
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Mike Drolet, Toronto Correspondent
In the late 70s, I was just getting into music and my tastes were limited to what my parents were listening to. In terms of non-classical, that was Johnny Cash and Simon and Garfunkel.
I was maybe eight when my grandmother came over for my birthday with a present.
She had gone to the record store (that’s what they were called back then) and asked what musicians kids were listening to.
Thankfully, the salesperson steered her towards something interesting — David Bowie’s Heroes. I ran that cassette tape pretty hard.
Leslie Stojsic, Executive Producer
I vote for Little Fat Man Who Sold His Soul (a.k.a. his serenade to Ricky Gervais in an episode of Extras).
Mike Armstrong, Quebec Correspondent
I was going to pick Space Oddity (haunts me still) or China Girl (a massive hit right in my teenage years, but then I decided to make some Changes to my picks.
That Bowie song goes through my head every single day when anything “changes.”
If I’m planning on having a pizza, and the family decides on chicken, I hear “ch-ch-ch-changes”.
If the assignment desk in Vancouver calls and says “we need you to file on something else instead,” I hear “ch-ch-ch-changes”.
No song by any artist comes to mind as often, or as quickly, as Changes.
Honestly… all the time… every day.
Oh, and if you want a chuckle, watch Bowie and Jagger in the Dancing in the Streets video — without music. It always cracks me up.
Tom Clark, Chief Political Correspondent
China Girl.
I was in China then and it kind of made sense. Also, because we made a video for it, and it was so good I almost went into the music video business.
Until I watched the video again. Then I didn’t.
Doriana Temolo, Global National News Director
Young Americans.
When I hear that song I’m immediately transported back to much younger times hanging around with girlfriends I still see today.
Eric Sorensen, Senior National Affairs Correspondent
My first job as a radio DJ in Welland, Ont., Space Oddity was just re-released as a single, and Bowie did seem odd, all right.
He was instantly overtaken on the Top 40 charts by Tony Orlando and Dawn! Tie a Yellow Ribbon spent about two months at No. 1, which just goes to show our refined taste in music in the 1970s.
READ MORE: Was David Bowie’s last album, ‘Blackstar,’ a goodbye to fans?
Robin Gill, B.C. Correspondent/Weekend Anchor
I was 11 years old when my older brother introduced me to David Bowie.
My brother was always ahead of his time so I paid attention.
We played the album Station to Station over and over in the basement. Those were our Golden Years and we didn’t want to hear that life was taking us nowhere.
Reid Fiest, Alberta Correspondent
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.
I love this Christmas classic, performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby.
Mike Le Couteur, Ottawa Correspondent
Rebel Rebel.
That guitar riff at the start is so iconic and it was just one of those songs that you can’t help but singing along to.
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