David Bowie/Tear Jerker

This glam-rocker-and-much-more-besides can certainly do some Tear Jerkers. In chronological order:

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• "Space Oddity". The tale of a routine space mission, accompanied by sad music and Major Tom philosophizing -- and then "Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you" "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere...I am floating 'round my tin can..."
  • The true tragedy of this is that the song is two-layered: one is the implied suicide by Major Tom. The other is that the song was released at the very end of The Sixties: depending on interpretation, its either about drugs or technology, the two great hopes of the Space Age that never delivered on their Utopian promises. "And I think my spaceship knows which way to go..."
  • Peter Schilling's "Major Tom", a sequel of sorts to this song, can be even more of a Tear Jerker...
  • In addition to being a Tear Jerker, the song can also be Nightmare Fuel -- especially when Mission Control is calling out desperately to Major Tom and being completely unable to do ANYTHING. That level of utter helplessness is horrifying in every possible way.
  • There's a Masters of Song Fu challenge that deals with reinterpreting this song, and both have an undertone of loneliness. From Jeff MacDougall's take: "I'm high!/ Can you see me?/ I'm the blink in the night sky./ I'm not afraid./ Everything's clear./ Tell my wife no need for tears."
  • Now in children's book form! And yes, it is somehow more heartbreaking.
  • This sums up exactly why listening to the song can really reduce people to tears...
• The imagery in the first verse of "Life on Mars?" (Hunky Dory) is decidedly heartbreaking. It doesn't help that the song is used in some of the more emotionally charged moments of the TV series of the same name.
  • If one wasn't affected by "Life on Mars?" before, the certain associations it acquired in the series finale of the eponymous TV show can add a profound sense of sadness to the song.
  • As if the original version wasn't sad enough, the one Bowie performed on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson is simply devastating.
    • And topped even that performance when he sang at a hurricane Katrina benefit concert in 2005. Only a year after his heart attack, a worn-out looking Bowie sang alone on stage with just a piano accompaniment. Ever the showman, his hand was bandaged and his eye was made up like it was bruised- to reflect the pain and loss of the victims. This particular troper was in tears!
• The final song of Ziggy Stardust, "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide". The chorus of "Give me your hands!" before the Last-Note Nightmare...
  • The first song, "Five Years", can be pretty depressing too.
  • "Ziggy Stardust" itself is pretty sad too, when one considers it's about his decline and demise. Made even worse by the Stage live version, which sounds like something fit for a funeral.
• ""Heroes"" is more poignant than gloomy, but still a tearjerker.
  • Peter Gabriel's cover more so.
• "Ashes to Ashes" (Scary Monsters) -- there's something about its understated melancholy that gets to some people.

"I never done good things
I never done bad things
I never did anything out of the blue..."

• • Some more depressing lines -- which reference "Space Oddity" -- include:

"I heard a rumor from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true
(Later in song) Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low"

• Here's Bowie's take on Bertolt Brecht's "The Drowned Girl" -- a cruelly detailed recounting of a demise.
• "Strangers When We Meet" is a rather strange example. While it works as a Tear Jerker at the end of 1. Outside musically, its text adds even more to the creepiness of this album if you consider that it's supposed to be sung by the Minotaur character.
• Many songs from Hours..., especially this live version of "Seven."
  • "Thursday's Child", particularly the video, is another sad song -- but is, at least, hopeful.
• Many songs from Heathen are tearjerkers, especially the title track.
  • The live version of "Slip Away" is particularly heartbreaking, considering it opens with a clip from The Uncle Floyd Show, the song's subject matter, which is - in a weird way - a mediation on death.

Did you ever stop and think if there wasn't an Uncle Floyd show, what everyone else would be doing?

• Reality runs headlong into this.
  • "The Loneliest Guy." Even the title is depressing.
  • The final track, "Bring Me the Disco King", may go down as his bittersweet, introspective swan song...
  • And if we're talking about Reality, we can't forget Days. "Do I need a friend? Well, I need one now..."
• Lazarus. If you've seen the video you know exactly what this troper is on about. Especially poignant since it was released four days before he died.