Days before his passing from this Earth in Manhattan on Sunday, January 10th, David Bowie released his song “Lazarus” on the album Blackstar.
Lazarus died and was resurrected by Jesus. He told Lazarus’ sister Martha not to be fearful, “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?” He then went to the tomb, where her brother was buried, and called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” His friend emerged from the tomb in grave clothes to the astonishment of the onlooking crowd.
In “Lazarus,” Bowie enigmatically enters a room and then leaves through a wardrobe’s doors. The device is similar to the one C.S. Lewis used in his children’s tale The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lewis made the wardrobe the doorway to an alternate reality with a supernatural parable of resurrection and life. In 1986 the singer acted and performed several songs for Jim Henson’s movie “Labyrinth” which utilized inspirations from Lewis’s stories for children. In “Lazarus,” Bowie asks the listener, “Look up here, I’m in heaven” and just before he exits through the wardrobe doors, he exclaims, “Just like that bluebird, oh, I’ll be free!”
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A beautiful article