Matthew Seligman, who played bass for David Bowie, died of coronavirus complications on Friday. He was 64.
His longtime friend and fellow musician Thomas Dolby shared details about Seligman’s death in a Facebook post, saying he suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke on Friday. He had also been in an induced coma for two weeks after testing positive for coronavirus in St. George’s University Hospital in London.
Dolby posted a photo of Seligman with lyrics from his song “I Love You Goodbye.”
“Some words are sad to sing. Some leave me tongue-tied. But the hardest words I know are I love you goodbye,” he wrote.
Seligman joined Bowie during his 1985 Live Aid performance and played bass on the soundtrack for his 1986 film “Labyrinth.” He was also a member of the ’70s rock band called the Soft Boys, replacing previous bassist Andy Metcalfe in 1979. Band leader Robyn Hitchcock also remembered Seligman in a Facebook post.
“Everybody goes, but none of us were expecting Matthew to leave us so abruptly, forever. It is strange and very sad to be talking of him in the past tense,” Hitchcock wrote. “I first met Matthew in 1976 in Cambridge, just before the beginning of the Soft Boys. He had nice dark hair and was very charming, with a slight break in his voice. A joyous and funky bass player, he made ‘Underwater Moonlight’ an exuberant LP to record and listen to. His manic bass run at the end of ‘Insanely Jealous’ and his stately propeller dive into the last chorus of the title track, as well as the insistent groove he brought to ‘Kingdom of Love’ are some of the finest bass playing I have ever witnessed.”