St. Vincent’s subtle ode to David Bowie
It’s no secret that Annie Clark, known to most as St. Vincent, is a devout David Bowie fan. The influence of the glam rocker is ingrained into her artistry, palpable from the moment you hit shuffle on her discography or lay your eyes on her equally boundary-pushing style.
From forging personas for herself to outright covers of his work, many of Clark’s odes to Bowie and his artistry have been loud and apparent, but there’s one that’s slightly more subtle. Her iconic 2017 single ‘New York’ includes a line that shares the sadness she felt upon the death of the Starman one year earlier.
One of her signature tracks, ‘New York’ finds Clark ruminating on lost love on 8th Avenue. Over a gradually building soundscape of keys, synths, and strings, she declares, “New York isn’t New York without you, love.” The song seems to be about a personal loss, a break-up or the loss of a friendship, but Clark has also suggested that the song is about the loss of collective heroes.
While explaining the track during a conversation with Song Exploder, Clark recalled how 2016 was rife with the loss of musical icons. “2016 was like the Earth was like, ‘Let’s purge the Earth of geniuses,’” she stated. The likes of Leonard Cohen, George Michael, and Prince all passed away in the same year, but Clark seemed most shaken by the death of Bowie.
“It’s very silly to make something like David Bowie’s death about me,” she admitted, “I mean, it has nothing to do with me, but I will say I was really affected and I cried – I cried for somebody I didn’t even know. I don’t know if I’ve done that before. A lot of people were affected by his death.”
The death of Bowie certainly did affect many, and it partly inspired the final moments of ‘New York’. “I have lost a hero,” she sings in a subtle ode to her artistic influence and hero Bowie. It’s a gorgeous but understated tribute, one that seems to have been inspired by an amalgamation of losses.
Clark maintained that the song was not “just about our big heroes,” and it’s clear from the emotion in her lyrics and vocals that there is also a personal element to the story. ‘New York’ finds beauty in its universality, able to be applied to the loss of a friend, a lover, a beloved celebrity, or all of the above.
It remains one of the greatest entries into contemporary art pop and a subtle ode to Bowie.
