Best tunes of 2003: #8 David Bowie “Days”

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We’re pretty sure it was Victoria’s idea. It sounds like something she might have come up with and has definitely had similar ideas a few times during our many years together.

She surprised me one day early in 2004 by asking if I would be interested in seeing David Bowie in concert. Neither of us could tell you how she heard that he was coming to town on his latest tour and playing the arena out in Kanata that used to be called the Corel Centre, but perhaps she heard mention of it on the radio. Of course, I was always game to see live music, but even more so if it was an artist I enjoyed. And though I honestly had never considered seeing Bowie live before, was really only casual fan at that point, knowing his hits and appreciating his contributions to modern music, I was most definitely in. Victoria invited a new friend from work, Eileen, who we are still friends with today, and her husband Tom* and we made a night of it, heading out for dinner first, at Johnny Farina’s on Elgin Street for pizza.

It was such a great night. Memorable in so many ways. It was probably our first trip out to Kanata, not knowing that we would buy a house spitting distance from the arena a handful of years later. We were introduced to The Polyphonic Spree, the 24 member psychedelic symphony led by sometime Tripping Daisy frontman, Tim DeLaughter, because we managed to get to the arena early enough to our seats to catch the lion’s share of their opening set. And of course, the biggest highlight was seeing Bowie himself, performing live on his last ever tour, a set representative of the many phases of his storied career. He made an even bigger fan out of me and played a whole bunch of tunes that Victoria didn’t know she knew and definitely didn’t know he wrote and performed.

I mention all this because this particular night is the sole reason “Days” ever came to my attention and has found itself at the number eight position on this list of my favourite tunes of 2003.

As I started doing at some point, possibly with this very concert, I wanted to ensure I was prepared for the show, beyond the best of compilation I already had in my compact disc collection. I borrowed a handful of Bowie’s more recent albums, including 2002’s “Heathen” and 2003’s “Reality”, from the Ottawa Public Library to familiarize myself with them and was pleasantly surprised at how easily I connected. There were, of course, a bunch of early standouts: “Slip away” and “Everyone says ‘hi’” from the former and “Never get old” and this one, “Days” from the latter, most which he performed at the concert.

“All you gave
You gave for free
I gave nothing in return
And there’s little left of me”

Track seven on David Bowie’s twenty-fourth studio album is steeped in themes of mortality, as are most of the songs of “Reality”. It’s so much self-reflection and realization, feelings of regret, like he’s looking back at his life and all the women he’s loved and lost, all the wrongs he wishes he could right. It begins with a lackadaisical bongo beat, synth washes, and expansive acoustic strums. Once the song kicks in to a higher gear after the first chorus, some alien percussive keys take over, all atmospheric and gossamer light. There’s so many layers of synths, like an alien angel choir, and Bowie is leading it all with that inimitable voice, layers upon layers to peel away, like the pages on a day calendar.

And looking back at this song, this night, those memories, twenty years later, I feel like I can better pick up what David Bowie is laying down.

*Who is sadly no longer with us.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.