Hunky Dory ranked no. 88". Rolling Stone. 22 September 2020. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020 . Retrieved 8 November 2021. a b DeCurtis, Anthony (5 May 2005). In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life And Work. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 262–263. ISBN 978-0-634-06655-9 . Retrieved 14 May 2012. Walters, Barry (14 January 2016). "David Bowie, Sexuality and Gender: A Rebel Who Changed the Face of Music". Billboard. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022 . Retrieved 9 April 2023. Lyne, Charlie (6 February 2016). "The Linguini Incident: a Bowie re-release nobody needs to see". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019 . Retrieved 5 October 2019.

At the time Bowie told one reporter: “The publicity image of a spaceman at work is an automaton rather than a human being, and my Major Tom is nothing if not a human being. It comes from a feeling of sadness about this aspect of the space thing. It has been dehumanised, so I wrote a song-farce about it and to try and relate science and human emotion. I suppose it’s an antidote to space fever… Major Tom eventually gives up thinking completely… he’s fragmenting. At the end of the song his mind is completely blown. He’s everything then.” Bowie died of liver cancer in his New York City apartment on 10January 2016. [428] He had been diagnosed eighteen months earlier but had not made his condition public. [246] The Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove, who had worked with Bowie on his off-Broadway musical Lazarus, explained that he was unable to attend rehearsals due to the progression of the disease. He noted that Bowie had kept working during the illness. [429]Whitington, Paul (12 January 2019). "Sound and vision: the best and the worst of David Bowie's acting career". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019 . Retrieved 10 November 2019. Main article: Death of David Bowie A woman places flowers outside Bowie's apartment in New York on Lafayette Street the day after his death was announced. Tilden, Imogen (30 January 2018). "Philip Glass completes his David Bowie trilogy with Lodger symphony". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 January 2018 . Retrieved 31 January 2018. Station to Station no. 400". Rolling Stone. 15 September 2021. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021 . Retrieved 8 November 2021.

Pianist Mike Garson saw all the madness from an outsider’s viewpoint. “He wanted to move on to the next level with the Aladdin Sane album and maybe the songs were greater than the sum of their parts. The tours were unbelievable – it was like a new Beatles phenomenon. But Bowie was still pulling it off. He has innate talent. By the time of The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, which is his best record, he was into the Japanese Noh Theatre, the Kabuki masks and the Lindsay Kemp mime, as well as the pathos of French theatre. Ziggy was this doll he’d been playing with for years, a marionette that he suddenly brought to life.” Petridis, Alexis (11 January 2016). "David Bowie: the man who thrilled the world". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 January 2018 . Retrieved 7 February 2016. How to say: Bowie". BBC. 8 January 2008. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021 . Retrieved 16 September 2010. Arnold, Ben (1 February 2019). "David Bowie's son Duncan Jones slams plans for planned biopic about his dad". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019 . Retrieved 1 February 2019.Bowie was fully aware of his over-stretched limitations during these albums. Of the Aladdin Sane character he said: “He isn’t as clear cut and well-defined as Ziggy was. He’s pretty ephemeral. He’s also a situation as opposed to being an individual.” Collis, Clark (August 2002). "Dear Superstar: David Bowie". Blender. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008 . Retrieved 16 September 2010.