My Black Heart Machine

My Black Heart Machine

Now, it’s too late.

The lyrics of David Bowie's Blackstar song have been the focus of many obsessive fans since its release and much more since his passing. It can be interpreted in two parts: the first seems to point to a cryptic message regarding his death, the second a reflection on mortality written from the perspective of death mocking human life as "a flash in the pan".

In the villa of Ormen (the TUMBLR) Stands a solitary candle (the GIF in the Tumblr, evidence he’s referring to it) In the centre of it all, your eyes (literally YOUR eyes, the viewer of the Tumblr) ​ On the day of execution (euthanasia) Only women kneel and smile (he leaves a wife and daughter, happy to see his pain end) At the centre of it all, Your eyes (he’s saying: “It’s right in front of you. The video image of the blindfolded eyes adds: “but you don’t see it”.)

Michalina Woźniak

Lyrically, Bowie’s song Blackstar is divided in two main parts/points of view. The first part starts off with the now famous line “In the Villa of Ormen”, which turns out is a blog on Tumblr. In that blog you’ll find a gif of a candle melting as a clock next to it marks how time passes. An allusion to mortality. The second line in the song is “lies a solitary candle…” The third line, “at the center of it all, your eyes…” He’s again referring to the Tumblr. At the center of The Villa of Ormen, the blog, are YOUR eyes. He places US, the viewers of the blog, right in the middle of what he wants witnessed… What does he want witnessed? What does he want us to figure out? It might seem tasteless to suggest it but if you had terminal cancer, and you were a brilliant artist and you had “nothing left to lose” ( as the line in Lazarus states), would you maybe choose how to leave this world? I’ll return to is later. For now let’s move on to the second part of the song, in which the POV changes… and a little known song recorded by Elvis provides a clue…

The making of an affair with noise.

Noise Affair