Music Friday Tribute: David Bowie Thrilled Us Throughout His 'Golden Years'

David Bowie fans from around the world shed a collective tear on Sunday when they learned of his passing from liver cancer at the age of 69.

The singer-songwriter-actor-producer leaves a legacy of timeless songs that spanned five decades. One of our favorite Bowie songs, "Golden Years," fits in perfectly with our theme for Music Friday when we regularly feature tunes with jewelry, gemstones or a precious metals in the title and lyrics.

Released by Bowie as a single in 1975, "Golden Years" was reportedly inspired by the glitzy nostalgia of "On Broadway," the jazzy 1963 classic by The Drifters. Interestingly, Bowie originally offered it to Elvis Presley to perform, but when the King of Rock and Roll took a pass, Bowie decided to perform it himself. The song was featured on his 1976 Station to Station album and became an international hit, reaching #10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and #8 in the U.K.

Bowie's ex-wife Angela Bowie has claimed to be the subject of the song (although a counterclaim was made by former Bowie backup singer and girlfriend, Ava Cherry). Bowie implores his love interest to revel in these "golden years" — a time of untold fame and fortune. He sings, "Golden years, gold whop whop whop / Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel / Come get up my baby / Look at that sky, life's begun / Nights are warm and the days are young."

To promote the release of the song, London-born Bowie was invited to sing "Golden Years" for a live Soul Train audience. Somewhat overwhelmed by the prospect of being on a nationally televised program in the U.S. — which included a live interview by larger-than-life host Don Cornelius — Bowie did a bit of drinking before the show to calm his nerves. The result was an uneven performance with Bowie seemingly stumbling over his own lyrics. Fortunately, he was simply lip-syncing, so the audio track remained flawless.

"Golden Years" became one of Bowie's signature songs and he played it regularly on his tours in 1983, 1990 and 2000.

Bowie went on to have a stellar career, which included a 1996 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, he placed #39 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time, and two years later he won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Please check out the clip below of a youthful, but somewhat inebriated, Bowie singing "Golden Years" on Soul Train in 1975. Still a classic...

"Golden Years"
Written and performed by David Bowie.

Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Look at that sky, life's begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
Come get up my baby

There's my baby, lost that's all
Once I'm begging you save her little soul
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings, angel
Come get up my baby
In walked luck and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine
Come get up my baby

I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years, gold
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Some of these days, and it won't be long
Gonna drive back down where you once belonged
In the back of a dream car twenty foot long
Don't cry my sweet, don't break my heart
Doing all right, but you gotta get smart
Wish upon, wish upon, day upon day, I believe oh Lord
I believe all the way
Come get up my baby

Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these golden years

There's my baby, lost that's all
Once I'm begging you save her little soul
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Come get up my baby

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Run for the shadows, run for the shadows
Run for the shadows in these golden years

I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop
Golden years, gold whop whop whop

Credits: Images via DavidBowie.com.

Singer Ray J Delivers Emotional Proposal to Princess Love With 8-Carat Cushion-Cut Sparkler Worth $130,000

Singer and reality star Ray J proposed to girlfriend Princess Love the day after Christmas with a fabulous 8-carat cushion-cut diamond ring worth $130,000. In describing the halo-style stunner, Ray J told OK! magazine, "It's classic and fit for a princess."

The proposal came as a complete surprise to Love. The couple had scheduled a trip to Arizona, but as they walked on the tarmac toward a private plane, Ray J got down on one knee and popped the question. To make the scene even more romantic, Ray J had invited Love's best friends and parents to hide in the plane and witness the proposal first hand.

The emotional Ray J, who was born William Ray Norwood, Jr., and is the younger brother of singer Brandy, admitted that he lost his composure at the moment of truth. "I pulled out the ring, and I started crying," he told OK!.

Overjoyed by the perfect proposal, Love became emotional, as well. "I cried like a baby," she said. “He couldn’t have done it better.”

“I wanted to go all out," the 34-year-old singer told OK!. “She is the most important person to me.”

New York-based celebrity jeweler Richie Nektalov of Leon Diamonds said Ray J made his choice in an instant.

"As soon as I took it out of the safe, Ray J said it was the one, that she deserved it," he told OK!.

On Tuesday, both Ray J and Love were on their respective Instagram pages posting multiple shots of the ring. In one shot, Love is wearing two large rings, the cushion-cut engagement ring on her left ring finger and a double-halo pear-shaped diamond ring on her left index finger.

OK! reported that the new engagement ring is a replacement for a smaller "friendship ring" Ray J had given her earlier. Might the pear-shaped diamond ring be that friendship ring?

Ray J and Love have been dating for at least a year and were featured on VH1's reality show, Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood.

Credits: Instagram/rayj; Instagram/mzprincesslove

Esperanza Update: $8 Amateur Diamond Mining Adventure Could Turn Into $1M Bonanza

An $8 amateur diamond mining adventure could turn into a $1 million bonanza for Coloradan Bobbie Oskarson.

When Oskarson plucked an odd-shaped pebble from the dirt at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park she could have never imagined that the stone might make international headlines, have its own Facebook page and sell eight months later for as much as $1 million.

Originally 8.52 carats in weight and the shape of an icicle, “Esperanza” was transformed by Master Diamond Cutter Mike Botha into a unique 4.65-carat teardrop “triolette.” It possesses the highest possible grades for color (D) and clarity (IF – Internally Flawless). Today, the Esperanza (which means hope in Spanish) is billed as the most valuable diamond ever discovered in the U.S.

Botha’s 147-facet triolette is a shape of his own design. It resembles a teardrop and merges the elements of both emerald and trapezoid shapes. The diamond boasts 842 followers on Facebook.

Esperanza is set vertically in a stylish platinum pendant designed by Ian Douglas of The Inspired Collection, Wellington, New Zealand. The pendant is accented with 10 Canadian-sourced Sirius Star® diamonds and hangs from a diamond-adorned platinum chain.

After special appearances at jewelry stores in North Little Rock, Ark., Newport Beach, Calif., Phoenix, Houston and Jacksonville, Fla., the gem will be sold during an open bidding process that's set to end on February 15. The lucky winner will own a scintillating piece of Americana perfectly timed for gifting on President's Day.

Bids will be accepted in person at the Black, Starr & Frost retail locations in Newport Beach and Phoenix. Out-of-town bidders are encouraged to make inquiries to vice president/managing director Adam Graham at this email address: adam@blackstarrfrost.com.

Gem experts have had a hard time placing a value on Esperanza because there is nothing like it. It's a truly unique American treasure. While it's the fifth-largest diamond ever found at Crater of Diamonds, it is, by far, the most perfect in terms of color and clarity. It also boasts a totally unique cut. The process of cutting and polishing the stone took 130 painstaking hours.

Back on June 24, 2015, Oskarson of Longmont, Colo., had paid only $8 to do a bit of amateur mining at the park with her boyfriend and, within 20 minutes, came away with a gemstone that could fetch upwards of $1 million.

The park offers visitors the opportunity to search in the eroded surface of the eighth-largest, diamond-bearing deposit in the world. Any diamonds or semi-precious stones found in the 37 1/2-acre plowed field are theirs to keep.

As we edge toward February 15, it will be interesting to see if an Arkansan will win the bidding battle for Esperanza.

“It could easily be sold and sent off to Saudi Arabia,” Joan Ellison, a public information officer for the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, told talkbusiness.net. “We have some people in Arkansas who have the means to step up and buy it so that it doesn’t leave our state.”

Photo credits: Crater of Diamonds State Park; Stanley Jewelers.

Indian Police Authorities Force Jewelry-Swallowing First-Time Thief to Eat 48 Bananas

Mumbai police authorities went bananas last week to retrieve a 25-gram gold neck chain from the belly of a thief.

Gopi R. Ghaware, 25, didn't know how bad his week was about to become when he decided to swipe a gold chain from the neck of a woman at a local fish market. The woman screamed, Ghaware fled, and an enraged crowd of shoppers took off after him.

Within a short time, Ghaware had been tackled and roughed up by the peeved patrons. Authorities arrested the perpetrator and brought him to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries. During the melee, the gold chain had disappeared, but a routine X-ray taken at the hospital revealed something suspicious in Ghaware's stomach.

Ghaware, who had no previous criminal record, confessed to police that he had, in fact, swallowed the chain. A second X-ray confirmed that the chain was still in his system, according to NDTV.

This is when his nightmare went from bad to worse.

On Thursday night, police authorities stood watch as they forced the suspect to consume 48 bananas — a process that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. An unpeeled banana weighs approximately 4 ounces, which means that Ghaware consumed 192 ounces, or 12 pounds of bananas.

In a video distributed to news agencies, the perpetrator is shown sitting cross-legged in a cell as he eats banana after banana.

By early on Friday, the banana laxative had done its job and the chain successfully passed from Ghaware's system. But the humiliating saga continued when he was ordered to clean and disinfect the chain.

According to UPI, the gold chain was returned to its rightful owner, who promptly brought it to a local jeweler. There, she exchanged it for a similar, pristine version.

Ghaware was placed under arrest and is awaiting his day in court.

Credits: ABP News/YouTube video screenshots; Banana shot via Bigstockphoto.com.

Famous 'Subway Garnet' Is Relegated to a Storage Drawer at the American Museum of Natural History

Once the pride of Manhattan, the "Subway Garnet" — a 9 pound 10 ounce reddish-brown crystal of the almandine variety — is currently relegated to a storage drawer on the fourth floor of the American Museum of Natural History. To add insult to injury, there's mounting evidence that it shouldn't have been called the Subway Garnet at all.

In a recent article in The New York Times, George Harlow, the curator for the earth sciences department at the museum, explained why the Subway Garnet has been out of the public eye.

He said that only 2 percent of the vast collection is on view, so any visiting geologist who wants to see what may be the most famous example of January's birthstone must make an appointment with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The Museum's mineral and gem collections total in excess of 100,000 specimens.

While it had been a museum headliner starting in the late 1960s, today the seven-inch-wide stone is nearly forgotten.

And what about the name? Legend states that the Subway Garnet was discovered by a city worker in 1885 near the corner of 35 Street and Madison Avenue in New York City during the excavation for the New York City subway system. Early accounts of the garnet's discovery and the timeline of the New York City subway system seem to contradict two key "facts" about the gem.

First, the New York City subway official broke ground in 1900, 15 years after the discovery of the Subway Garnet. It was very unlikely it was found during a subway-related excavation. It was much more likely that it was found during a sewer excavation. Perhaps, the name "Sewer Garnet" didn't carry the right ambiance for the rare gem, which boasts 24 natural facets.

The New York Times recently reported that the massive crystal was, in fact, found eight feet underground during a sewer excavation in August of 1885. William Niven, the owner of a business that sold gemstones and minerals, claimed that he picked up the garnet as he was passing by the site, just after an unnamed laborer dumped it on the street during the excavation. Dr. Niven then sold it for $100 to mineralogist George F. Kunz.

Also, early reports of the garnet's discovery seem to point to a different location of origin on 35th Street. Mineral expert John Betts discovered documentation from an 1885 meeting by the New York Academy of Sciences that reported on "a large almandine garnet, seven inches in diameter, and nine and one-half pounds weight, found during the past week in an excavation on 35th street, between Broadway and Seventh avenue."

The gem eventually made its way to the New York Mineralogical Club and then, in 1968, to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where it was displayed proudly at the entrance to Mineral Hall. Sadly, the excitement faded and the Subway Garnet was demoted to a storage drawer out of the public's view.

There is still hope that the Subway Garnet will see the light of day and regain its old luster, according to Harlow.

“Nothing’s been finalized, but I believe plans are afoot,” Harlow told The New York Times. “I’d certainly like to see it available to the public before I retire.” Harlow has been with the museum for 40 years.

Credits: Facebook/American Museum of Natural History; Illustration via the New York Academy of Sciences Transactions 5 (1886).