This song is, along with the rest of the album 'Blackstar', the final piece of art of David Bowie.
To understand these lyrics you will have to see them in context of his death.
On 8 January 2016, Bowie’s 69th birthday, the album 'Blackstar' was released. Only two days later, 10 January 2016, Bowie died from cancer. His passing came as a big shock for almost everyone, because Bowie did only tell a select group of people about his condition and kept it out of publicity.
On the album release, this song seemed just to be another enigmatic artwork of Bowie, maybe a new faze that he was going through. Until everything became clear when Bowie died and everybody found out that he was diagnosed with cancer 18 months before. Bowie knew he was dying when he wrote this song.
With this album and this song, he turned his death into art, to match his life as David Bowie.
Bowie’s death is the key to understanding this song. ‘Lazarus’, the song title, is a biblical figure that rose from the death, like Bowie in this song speaking to us from the death.
This song is, along with the rest of the album 'Blackstar', the final piece of art of David Bowie. To understand these lyrics you will have to see them in context of his death. On 8 January 2016, Bowie’s 69th birthday, the album 'Blackstar' was released. Only two days later, 10 January 2016, Bowie died from cancer. His passing came as a big shock for almost everyone, because Bowie did only tell a select group of people about his condition and kept it out of publicity. On the album release, this song seemed just to be another enigmatic artwork of Bowie, maybe a new faze that he was going through. Until everything became clear when Bowie died and everybody found out that he was diagnosed with cancer 18 months before. Bowie knew he was dying when he wrote this song. With this album and this song, he turned his death into art, to match his life as David Bowie. Bowie’s death is the key to understanding this song. ‘Lazarus’, the song title, is a biblical figure that rose from the death, like Bowie in this song speaking to us from the death.