I'm writing this in tears. I don't really know what to say because it's midnight here in LOS ANGELES and I'm not quite able to process this yet. So excuse me while I ramble. There was no warning, just an awesome and somewhat ominous album dropped on the world three days ago, on his 69th birthday. I've listened to "BLACKSTAR" several times in the past three days (and most of "SCARY MONSTERS" on Saturday, just because), and it's kind of great, and I may be underrating it by saying "kind of." Lyrics are never the first thing I listen for, and I'd be lying if I suggested I knew what any of it is about, but fragments of images of death and reflections and endings, and maybe beginnings too, are running through my head right now. Also, "Where the f*** did Monday go?" People can make legitimately great and interesting and challenging music into their late 60s (and beyond), but for whatever reason, few major rock stars do. There were lost years, musically speaking, somewhere in the middle, and he kept an unusually low profile for many of those years. We now know he battled cancer for the last year and a half, and we bore witness to an extraordinary burst of creativity at the very end. We'll piece together meaning from all this in the days, weeks and years to come. For now, we will just keep listening to "HUNKY DORY" and "ZIGGY STARDUST" and "STATION TO STATION" and "LOW" and "LODGER" and "SCARY MONSTERS" and "THE NEXT DAY" and... It was a dark weekend all around. RIP OTIS CLAY, RED SIMPSON and JOHN BERRY... And DAVE GROHL and SLASH say goodbye to LEMMY.