I've recently rewatched Ashes To Ashes, at the end of which "Heroes" gets played over a defiant Gene Hunt standing outside the pub at the end of the final episode. The only Bowie in music library until yesterday was his keyboards on assorted Iggy albums, when I paid the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia a few pennies for "Heroes".
Funnily enough, I feel the same way about the Oasis track played at the end of "Our Friends in the North". That juxtaposition of well known music and great TV sometimes just gets right to you.
But back on topic-Bowie was one of those paradoxes of pop, metrosexual before it was even thought of , wierd yet likeable, space oddity yet totally human when interviewed. The Zowie Bowie clan at school had spiked hair, the flash slash on their school bags and book covers , yet no-one came near to the real thing.
Bowie was part of my life from the early 70's listening to Fluff Freeman do the top 20 countdown on Sunday evening as I crammed my homework into what was left of the weekend, through the late 70's and early 80's , sitting in tractor cabs with the radio at full blast with, Suffragette City,Ashes to Ashes, Boys (keep swinging) as the summers lasted forever and then into the 90's as his tone mellowed and he became almost a "National Treasure ".
His duet with Jagger for Live Aid is now legendary.
When I heard the first Bowie track on the car radio this morning , I realised just how short life is.