Life Highlights: 9/11 Memorial

Tried to wax eloquent on what I saw today at the 9/11 Memorial and Battery Park.  But Bowie did it better.  In lieu of reading my own writing, I encourage you to participate in his.  All the photos I took today are captioned with his lyrics.

Listen:

"Heathen" (2002): Although the album has been seen by critics to be Bowie’s response to the events of 9/11, Bowie has commented that, “It was all written before-every single song...I don’t want it to reflect that situation particularly at all, because in fact that crock of songs came out of a general feeling of anxiety I’ve had in America for a number of years. It wasn’t that localized - bang! - thing that happened in September”.  Despite this remark, however, after listening to the chillingly prophetic lyrics and reverent, religious sound, one can not help but agree with fans that think it's eerily in line with the events of the fateful day.  Bowie would later go on to describe the album as one in which he, "went in with the idea of creating a personal, cultural restoration. I wanted to capture everything - all the ideas, all the techniques that I’ve used over the years - while working within this prism called the zeitgeist. In the process, I wanted to create a timeless piece that didn’t owe to the past, present or future, but just floated in its own autonomous kind of place.”



"Reality" (2003): The perfect follow-up to the foreboding gravitas of "Heathen", "Reality" is a New Yorker's nod to the fact that life really does move on.  The energy and vitality and spirit of the city was merely revived (never dampened), and this album goes on to prove it.  Bowie would go on to describe the album as one in which he's, "...grabbing these artefacts [metaphysically, in his songs] and putting them together in a quite substantial manner so that their’s something there that I recognise as a truth. It’s just a human trait to want to continually make a bridge between separate things, to want to forge links. It comes from our desperate need to find a truth to get us through to the next day. But these days, everything we create and put together as true is almost immediately debunked. That’s what’s so slippery. I suppose the positive thing about creating these anchors and watching them be torn apart is that the process helps us understand the chaos that is the actuality of our existence."  Although he later added, "the whole thing has a subtext of 'I’m taking the piss, this is not supposed to be reality'".

"See the great white scar/Over Battery Park/Then a flare glides over/But I won’t look at that scar/....All the corners of the buildings/Who but we remember these/The sidewalks and trees/I’m thinking now" [x]

"Silver leaves are spinning round/Take my hand as we go down and down and down/Looking for water/And I lost God in a New York minute/Don't know about you but my heart's not in it" [x]

"I still don't remember how this happened/I still don't get the wherefores and the whys/I look for sense but I get next to nothing/Hey boy welcome to reality" [x]

"You promised me the ending would be clear/You'd let me know when the time was now" [x]

"I don't sit around and wait/I don't give a damn/I don't see the point at all/No footprints in the sand/I will give You all my love/Nothing else is free/Open up Your heart to me/And I would be Your slave" [x]

"Like a slow burn leading us on and on and on/Like a slow burn twirling us round and round and upside down/There's fear over head/There's fear over ground" [x]

"I'm jumping tracks, I'm changing towns/We Never talk, anymore/Forever I will adore you" [x]

"Nothing remains/We could run when the rain slows/Look for the cars or signs of life/Where the heat goes/....(In your fear) In your fear (Seek only peace)/Of what we have become (In your fear)/(Seek only love) Take to the fire (In your fear)/Now we must burn (Seek only peace)/All that you are (In your fear)/(Seek only love) Rise together (In your fear)/Through these clouds (In your fear)/As on wings" [x]

"All I've done I've done for me/All you gave/You gave for free/I gave nothing in return/And there's little left of me" [x]

"Please don’t tear this world asunder/Please take back this fear we’re under/I demand a better future/....Please make sure we get tomorrow/All this pain and all the sorrow/I demand a better future/....Give my children sunny smiles/Give them moon and cloudless skies/I demand a better future" [x]

"Steel on the skyline/Sky made of glass/Made for a real world/All things must pass/Waiting for something/Looking for someone/Is there no reason/Have I stared too long/You say you'll leave me/And when the sun is low/And the rays high/I can see it now/I can feel it die" [x]

Bonus: Bowie's performance of Simon & Garfunkel's "America" and his own "'Heroes'" at the Concert for New York City in 2001