The world at large was shocked to learn that pop and music Icon David Bowie passed away after an 18 month battle with cancer.
There are some of us here at The Outerhaven that have lived during one of the many high points of David Bowie’s career… Mainly the 1980s. During this time a lot of people of that generation were first exposed (in more way than one) to Bowie in the 1986 Jim Henson live action movie Labyrinth. Labyrinth is a cult classic, a story of a young girl (played by a 15 year old future Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly) trying to rescue her baby bother from Jareth: The Goblin King (played by Bowie… In some very tight leggings) while going through the usual coming of age BS that inhabits films of the era.
Now this movie is pop culture. I dare you to walk into any convention and yell the words: “You remind me of the babe…” And I’ll guarantee you that you’ll get the whole beginning to Bowie’s song Magic Dance from this film. I DARE YOU!
Of course, as was customary in the over developed video game industry of the time, there was a video game produced of the movie. This was actually one of the very first video games made by Lucasfilm (Later split off to become the legendary Lucas Arts company) for the Commodore 64. The game itself was pretty stock stuff for the time beginning with a word specific RPG element that moved into some surprisingly well done bit-graphic images for the actual Labyrinth itself. These days you can find the game online through archives and the like, or you can just watch a Let’s Play of the game on Youtube.
But of course, David Bowie was more known for his music styling. The man was a walking cartoon with his Ziggy Stardust persona during the 1970s. The weird alien-like Starman amazed audiences with not only his bizarre looks, but his music as well. Many of us would know the line “Ground Control to Major Tom” from the song Space Oddity. The the all time classic Heroes is another example of the man’s amazing work.
But I’m sure most of us will more recently from a couple of titles used in Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Man Who Sold The World & Diamond Dogs; a song that wasn’t used in the game but became the name of Snake’s unit for the game. Bowie has been references and influences for a lot of the Metal Gear franchise. Snake quotes the line “Can you hear me, Major Tom?” from Space Oddity when contacting Major Zero in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Major Zero changes his codename to Major Tom, again after the song Space Oddity.
David Bowie released his final studio album Blackstar on his 69th birthday, only 2 days before his tragic death.
Bowie was a legend who touched the word through many forms of media. We here at The Outerhaven send our prayers to his family at their time of grief as we look fondly on the man who fell to Earth, a Starman who came and met us and indeed completely blew our mind. May the Starman enjoy Mars, Jareth return happily to his castle for the 13th hour, and Bowie himself find eternal peace. Rest in Peace.
