John Lennon’s murder shocked the world in 1980. Exactly three years later, on December 8th, 1983, Lennon’s close friend and fellow British rock legend David Bowie paid tribute to the fallen star with an enigmatic tribute performance that’s still moving fans to tears more than 40 years on.
David Bowie’s live cover of Lennon’s “Imagine” has gone viral, amassing over 894,000 views within four years of being uploaded to YouTube. But what started out as a tribute to John Lennon quickly became a tribute to David Bowie; the ultimate flashback to some of the greatest pop/rock stars to burst out of the UK. Music Man readers can watch Bowie’s incredible performance in the video below.
This isn’t a straight and simple cover of Lennon’s greatest hit. Instead, Bowie introduces his rendition with some rare anecdotes of his late Beatles friend. Sitting on the stage, Bowie recalls an incident where he asked Lennon how he writes his songs, with Lennon replying: “It’s easy. You just say what you mean and put a backbeat to it,” before hilariously comparing Bowie’s music to “rock ‘n’ roll with lipstick on.”
Then, Bowie reveals that the last time he saw John Lennon was in Hong Kong – the very city this 1983 clip was filmed in – followed by a poignant story of asking Lennon to try on a “Beatles jacket” at a market stall, only to realize, “The jacket didn’t fit properly. It looked like John had outgrown it.”
After announcing the third anniversary of Lennon’s death, Bowie’s band unleashes their interpretation of “Imagine,” resized across a brass section and topped by a grand piano, Bowie’s vocals snatching all attention as he lets Lennon’s iconic lyrics live on.
Any rock fan will be amazed at how well Bowie’s voice translates to this ballad, reinterpreting the melody with his raspy voice and making it sound completely his own. But as stunning as Bowie’s performance is, the star appears glazed with grief, brief expressions of pain overcoming him mid-performance as he intermittently wipes tears from his eyes, before soldiering on through the hit.
For a singer often compared to an extraterrestrial, Bowie’s pure humanity shines vibrant through this clip, and fans were quick to pick up on this in the YouTube comments of this viral clip. As another fan wrote, “Watching this absolutely destroyed me. David looks absolutely devastated and seeing him generally sad is heartbreaking. I think John’s death affected him a lot more than he let on. They were really really good friends and seeing David teary and looking up for John killed me. May they both rest in peace.”
Following Bowie’s own death in 2016, this clip has become a testament to Bowie’s talent as much as Lennon’s, with one YouTube fan commenting, “Bowie, your tears are our tears for the two geniuses of music. Bowie and Lennon forever in our hearts.”
