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Celebrating David Bowie with some of the man’s sexiest songs

"Heroes"

This Friday (February 16), Celebrating David Bowie rolls into the area for an exclusive performance at The Chevalier Theatre in Medford, and the trail of spider glitter can be seen from here to Mars. The tour features members of Bowie’s bands over the years, led by pianist and longtime collaborator Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Gerry Leonard, and Carmine Rojas, who combined have more than 30 years experience recording, writing, and playing live with the late music, pop culture, and life icon.

Celebrating David Bowie brings together a rotating cast of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists, all with one common tie: Honoring the man they knew on stage and off. It’s about the music, and what it meant to people.

“There’s never going to be another David,” Garson recently The NME. “I appreciated David for all of the years that I worked with him, but not like I do now… You can’t compare anyone to David, but you just need to keep rotating and finding great singers to do the best they can. Every once in while, you do… I’m learning as master of ceremonies how to conduct these things.”

With that in mind, and since it’s Valentine’s Day week (heh), we’ve pulled together a few Vanyaland voices for our picks citing Bowie’s sexiest songs. It might be the most daunting task we’ve ever approached. We’re certain every person reading this has their own list, likely with little crossover, and that’s what made Bowie so special; an artist so personal, yet shared by so many. Feel free to @ us, to admonish us, or peacefully supply your own; what’s sexy to one might not be sexy to another, and vice versa. How you celebrate David Bowie is solely up to you.

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“Heroes”

Heloise and Abelard. Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Tony and Maria. Henry and Glenn. There’s nothing sexier than forbidden love, and Bowie’s consummate encapsulation in “’Heroes’” has resonated across generations since its release four decades ago. While inspired by an illicit affair between producer Tony Visconti and a backing singer from Bowie’s recording crew (Antonia Maass), as a whole it’s an overarching tale of two lovers split by the Berlin Wall. Bullets flying overhead between East and West Germany? It doesn’t matter; “’Cause we’re lovers, and that is a fact/Yes we’re lovers, and that is that.” It’s probably the most covered Bowie song, with everyone from Nico to Oasis to Local H to Celtic Frost (!) to Depeche Mode taking a stab at it with varying degrees of success. Yet few have been able to grasp the unrestrained emotion present in the original, especially when the second half kicks in and the despair in Bowie’s vocals are electrifyingly heart wrenching. — Michael Christopher

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