Osama Bin Laden - A Career Retrospective

Now that he’s dead all we have are the memories. But what memories? Memories like the corners of my mind. I think of him now in slow motion, running through cornfields, the wind in his beard as we raced breathlessly down to the riverbank, “our spot.” Bin Laden, like any long-surviving band or singer, inhabited several incarnations throughout his career. Here are just a few of those.

Student punk: Osama cut his teeth at the King Abdulaziz University, where studying economics and business administration was the Saudi equivalent of being in Oi Polloi.

Fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan: Difficult second album? No fucking way. Following in the footsteps of fellow politicos U2, Osama got serious and committed himself to the cause, raising money for the Mujahideen and prostituting himself for a shot at the American market. It was the 80s, Osama was following Madonna's "pop chameleon" model, and the Americans were loving his commercial integrity.

Hating the US from ’88 till whenever: Disillusioned with the US, Osama returns to his rebel roots, founding Al-Qaeda and taking his newly stripped-down and directed sound back to his delighted original fan base (extremist Muslims).

African period: Ask Damon Albarn or Paul Simon – every artist needs to go “where man began” for inspiration. Osama found his in the desert blues of Sudan but where he went, others followed, and the mainstream American co-option of Sudan led to Osama’s flight from the polyrhythmic sound of African gunfire he’d so dearly grown to love.

9/11: The big concept album. The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon rolled into one. It came together better than Osama had ever expected, but while it delighted the true believers – the guys who’d been with him all along – its awful, pompous horror appalled critics and made him a Pariah. He went into hiding, defiantly claiming to be working on a sequel.

The wilderness years: Struggling for inspiration and battling addiction, Osama spent his last years in a Brian Wilson meets The Eagles style meltdown. A sequel to 9/11 never materialised and rumours of lost tapes and secret sessions proved to be unfounded.

Death: Osama finally dies in bloated obscurity and a private burial is held. Is his legacy destroyed, or in death will his fans venerate him and forget how his career trailed off into mundane pomposity – Lennon style? Initial reactions on social networking platforms have been devastating. Perhaps now he's gone, his closest followers will release the 9/11 follow-up posthumously, 2Pac style.

OSCAR RICKETT