More about: David Bowie

It's one thing to leave a mark on the world, it's something truly spectacular to launch a thread that runs through absolutely everything. As the world becomes awash with tributes to the late, great David Bowie, the mourning is so widespread and the loss so significant for one very simple reason: it's near impossible to meet an individual who hasn't either been touched by his music, or by an artist he helped to shape. 

The world learned of the loss of The Thin White Duke this morning, after Bowie succumbed to an 18 month battle with cancer - just days after celebrating his 69th birthday on the day that he released his best album in decades, the bold and effervescent Blackstar. 

"He always did what he wanted to do," wrote the album's producer, longtime Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. "And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life - a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry."

'Tomorrow belongs to those can hear it coming' - that was Bowie's marketing mantra around the release of "Heroes" in 1977, and his general philosophy for all that he did. Who knew that even in death, Bowie would be three steps ahead. Only now, are the signposts on Blackstar that Bowie was saying goodbye so beautifully clear, achingly apt, and painfully bittersweet. 

"Look up here, I'm in heaven," he pines on 'Lazarus', "I've got scars that can't be seen - I've got drama, can't be stolen...Everybody knows me now". it seems like he's penning his own euology, before the final full stop comes on closing track 'I Can't Give Myself Away': "Seeing more and feeling less, saying no but meaning yes  - this is all I ever meant, that's the message that I sent."

David Bowie, the man who fell to Earth, who used himself as a canvas, who lived his life as an enigma and ever-evolving art project, even managed to make his death a part of his grand vision. Produced in secrecy, his final farewell would contain flourishes of what made his past glories so resplendent, but ultimately prove to be a brave and bold leap into the breach. With new ground trodden, this would be his final evolution. As Visconti says, his final gift to us - and what a gift it is. 

But is it really a goodbye? It may sound hackneyed to say, but while his body has left us, he was never really 'human' to the world at large. Since he stopped touring especially, his presence was felt the most through his art and charisma alone.

From the V&A exhibition to the Radio Soulwax 'Dave' mini-movie and the worldwide celebration every time he drops a star-studded music video, Bowie's absence has proven to be more of a presence, letting his art and legacy do the talking without entering the public realm. He made Arcade Fire's Reflektor even MORE of an event, forced LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy to come out of remix retirement and put him back in vogue, proven the muse to the latest and most successful incarnation of St Vincent and far beyond.

Here stands Bowie - drawing on the images and sounds of the past, gripped by the present and still looking and sounding like he's from the future. No one is more in demand than Bowie. Over the last few years alone, he's dominated the media and public consciousness, and appeared on so many magazine covers - without even uttering a word. No interviews, no public or live appearances, no constant Tweeting about what he's had for lunch - and yet he's dominated every sphere of culture.

That will never change. I did shed a tear when I heard the news of his passing this morning. As a single force in music, he meant and achieved more than any other. As well as both defining and defying countless genres, his every evolution held a whole new world. He had a song for every high and every low, for every birth, death, wedding, union, rebellion, friendship, loss, war, celebration, act of love, act of lust. While we will not hear anything new from him, his vast body of work and artistic spirit remains. David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947, and died on 10 January 2016 - but David Bowie lives on. An idea cannot be killed. 

More about: David Bowie