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When he unexpectedly announced he was retiring, many of his millions and millions of worldwide fans cried - tears of shock. It was a nearly inconceivable loss. Then, after almost completely disappearing for a decade, he came back, totally unexpectedly, with one of his most awesome studio albums ever, The Next Day, and the same now elated fans cried again - tears of joy this time. Then, in short order, he produced another breakthrough album ★ (pronounced Blackstar, arguably his masterpiece) along with accompanying videos which stylishly depicted his own death, released them on his sixty-ninth birthday, then died two days later (did he yell "KAAAAA!"? I sure hope so ...) (it's OK to cry - tears of love and gratitude).
I was flipping through TV channels, not paying attention ... then suddenly I was bolt upright: "news had just come over"
I'm not going to repeat here everything that every newspaper and news program on the planet (print, online, and broadcast) has already copiously lavished on him. And to be sure, I'm not a music critic (I've listened most of his records - but certainly not all of them). What I would like to say something about, is what in my view made him outlandishly extraordinary as a human being in a genre in which merely being extraordinary is simply the token required to get in through the turnstile.
