SOHO — The news of David Bowie's death devastated many fans across the world — and nowhere was that more evident than outside his SoHo home on Lafayette Street.
Heartbroken New Yorkers came to leave flowers, records, articles torn from music magazines, photos, notes and letters, hand-drawn signs and other mementos all day Monday.
Many stopped and knelt in front of the growing mountain of tributes that became an altar to the man who was, as East Village resident Gerri McGlone said, "the most unique of them all."
"There'll never be one again, and there wasn't one before," said McGlone, 53, openly weeping behind big, round black-framed glasses, bright red hair protruding from under a fuzzy, black cat-eared hat.
McGlone is a lyricist and said she had "been writing a lot this morning."
"[He was] just an incredible influence and inspiration," she said. "The most influential man in music, probably, in my lifetime."
She said she still remembered the first time she heard his music.
"I was probably about 7 years old, I had a cousin who was a music head in Scotland, where I'm from," she said, tears welling up anew. "And every time we went to his house to visit family he'd be playing David Bowie and Roxy Music."
Bowie's influence was difficult for some to put into words.
"God, I don't even know where to begin," said Chelsea resident Michelle Pedone, 46, after leaving red roses. "Bowie meant so much to me. He's given the world so much with his art."
Pedone was sporting a track jacket emblazoned with Bowie's face on her back, a gift given to her recently by a friend.
She said she happened to be watching a Bowie documentary Sunday night and went to bed thinking of him, not knowing he had died.
"I've never felt this way about a celebrity death before," she said. "But I feel like I lost a family member."
