David Bowie, who’s 70th birthday will be celebrated at The Wiltern on January 25th with friends and other musicians, was not expecting Blackstar to be the final album, as said by the release of a new documentary called David Bowie: The Last Five Years.
Blackstar was the twenty fifth album by Bowie, releasing on January 8, 2016. The beginning of this project began as soon as Bowie’s previous album was released. For the production of the album, he had producer Tony Visconti and recruited a jazz band led by Donny McCaslin. Blackstar had some questioning along with the release as it was released two days before David Bowie’s death. During his last years, it had been said that Bowie’s years has been marked with “a burst of creativity” as shown by his song Lazarus, which was a part of the Blackstar. While producing this song, the artist had received that news that the cancer he was fighting was severe.
David Bowie: The Last Five Years is a documentary directed by Francis Whately, who has also directed David Bowie: Five Years in 2013, and focuses on Blackstar, The Next Day, which is his 2013 album, Lazarus, also known as Bowie’s stage musical. Along with the background of each event, there will also be never before heard audio, which will include Bowie’s recording sessions, and interviews with Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti, musicians who collaborated with Bowie on The Next Day and Blackstar, the albums’ graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, the producer and cast of Lazarus, and others.
According to SPIN, the director had stated ““I still don’t know if he started making Blackstar before he knew he was ill, or after. People are so desperate for Blackstar to be this parting gift that Bowie made for the world when he knew he was dying but I think it’s simplistic to think that. There is more ambiguity there than people want to acknowledge. I don’t think he knew he was going to die.”
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