Kevin's Watch

So, for the past few months I've decided to give Bowie a try beyond "Space Oddity"... so from getting his "Best of" album, I've grown into a sort of controlled obsession. To the point that I've seen Labyrinth for the first time earlier this year.

Anyhow, here's what I've listened to thus far (in order that I've listened to) and a sort of review:

"Best of": This was a good way to get into Bowie. It pretty much has the "essentials" as far as a cursory glimpse over his career and change in sound. It also has "Under Pressure" and "Dancing in the Streets" with Jagger!

"Young Americans": The title song is by far and away the star here... particularly in its longer form. This album took me a couple of listens to get into, and I'm still not too enamoured with "Fame", but this album is what tipped me from a casual listening to Bowie to obsession, since it was... different. It's interesting to have an artist that continually changes his sound.

"The Next Day": This album continues the trend of having to listen to a couple times before gaining an appreciation. For a couple of months, this was my work soundtrack but I have not played it much outside of a work environment.

"Let's Dance": I read somewhere that Sarge Null considers this the least appreciated (and good) Bowie work. I can see why, it essentially launched Bowie into super stardom and was followed by what I understand to be frivilous money-making albums... as a result, it may be that some give this a pass because it's "mainstream"... but it is really quite brilliant and has grown on me greatly. It also use to have my favorite Bowie song, "Modern Love"... which is no longer my favorite, but that's a later story.

"Scary Monsters": Bowie reminds me a lot of Syd Barret in this album, particularly in the title song.

"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust etc": It's good. I'm not obsessed with it though. Particularly since shortly after I got this I went ahead and got:

"Station to Station": Which is my favorite Bowie album and song at the moment... from the first listen to now. I know it is from a dark time of Bowie's life...but I find it to be lots of fun.

"Low": The First of the Berlin trilogy, as smug critic bastards like to say. It's a pretty good album, but I'm not sure if the individual parts can stand on their own... they seem to work the best together.

I imagine next I'll check out "Heroes", but that's not guaranteed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8f_XCH3zmM

Bowie brings out the best in everyone!

Orlion wrote:"Station to Station": Which is my favorite Bowie album and song at the moment... from the first listen to now.

yes, Yes, YES. Bear in mind when considering my agreement with this that I first heard Station to Station over thirty-five years ago when it first came out and I was still at University. Was moderately unimpressed with Bowie prior to that...but the songs on this album are still my favorites of his work.

Orlion - some nice reading...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity_(song)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Tom

Bowie's a funny one. I can appreciate his contribution to music, but I don't care for the bulk of his work.

I do love SRV's guitar work on "Let's Dance", and I think "Time Will Crawl" is an outstanding song on a mediocre album.

RE "Let's Dance": I wish I could find the slower, movie version of "Putting Out Fire", and I don't know if "China Girl" comes across well these days.

Don't leave "Never Let Me Down" off of your tour.

I can't say I am much of a Bowie fan, but my wife and her friend are pretty big fans, her friend more so.
I did see him on his Glass Spider tour, and found the whole display pretty ridiculous. This was shortly after becoming obsessed with the album Hunky Dory, which is probably my favorite from him. But aside from individual songs, I'm strangely enough again agreeing with Cail that I don't care for the bulk of his work. But maybe I've not listened to enough of it, as like any experimental artist has its peaks and valleys, which of course differ from one person's tastes to the next. I don't remember what they said their favorites were, but Station To Station and Low were mentioned among the tops for them.

I went and saw the Glass Spider tour solely due to the fact that Peter Frampton was in the touring band. The spectacle was ridiculous, the music was quite good.

I saw Bowie during the Sound+Vision Tour on May 4 1990, front row, with Adrian Belew on guitar. Pretty damn awesome.

Yeah, I discovered Adrian Belew through Bowie... so there's always that for a plus

There are two main critiques I have for Bowie... one of which I've all ready mentioned as a positive for me. He is always changing his style. Though this means he will potentially always be relevant, it also means that if you liked his style in, say, Station to Station, you are out of luck for any new material that is similar. As a result, I imagine most people do not "like the bulk of Bowie's work", simply because there might be one or two of his albums that have a style they like but the rest of his discography is varied from Kether to Malkuth.

The second critique is that he does not seem to be involved in the production of his albums at times as other artists are. There are several interviews I've read where Bowie has stated, "Well, these songs didn't turn out as I wanted... guess I should have been more involved in production... oh well". This means that the work suffers as a result.

And a bonus critique: Bowie loves doing covers, and they are almost always the weakest song on his album... incidentally, I have little to no interest in listening to Pin Ups.

My critique is that he just doesn't write engaging songs. Bowie shares a lot in common with Queen, but has lacked the talent - as a vocalist, a songwriter, and a musician - to carry off thematically similar music. And Mick Ronson is no Brian May.

Interesting statement about production (I've never heard that before). I think Bowie could have been great with a better producer, but a lot of his stuff just sounds lazy.

Orlion wrote:Yeah, I discovered Adrian Belew through Bowie... so there's always that for a plus

There are two main critiques I have for Bowie... one of which I've all ready mentioned as a positive for me. He is always changing his style. Though this means he will potentially always be relevant, it also means that if you liked his style in, say, Station to Station, you are out of luck for any new material that is similar. As a result, I imagine most people do not "like the bulk of Bowie's work", simply because there might be one or two of his albums that have a style they like but the rest of his discography is varied from Kether to Malkuth.

The second critique is that he does not seem to be involved in the production of his albums at times as other artists are. There are several interviews I've read where Bowie has stated, "Well, these songs didn't turn out as I wanted... guess I should have been more involved in production... oh well". This means that the work suffers as a result.

And a bonus critique: Bowie loves doing covers, and they are almost always the weakest song on his album... incidentally, I have little to no interest in listening to Pin Ups.

Yea...Belew. And while I agree with Cail's "Ronson ain't May" there's quite a list of other players to go with Belew.
[[heh, I also semi-agree with vocal talent mention. I think he's got an interesting voice...but I wouldn't call him a singer.]]

I do like the style changes...though I've got a thing. In a Rush thread, I think it was Cail's Big Honkin' one, someone said something about style clusters with Rush albums and quality within the clusters [roughly that, anyway]. I have that with Bowie...I'll like a small set...2 or 3 in a row...then a real stink bomb will get released.

I didn't know that about the production, either. But I'm not surprised considering other things he's said.

And covers...yea...there MIGHT be one somewhere in his work that I like[d]...but if there is, I can't think of it right now.

wayfriend wrote: I wish I could find the slower, movie version of "Putting Out Fire"

Is this the version you're talking about?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLowvnCvRk

I love Bowie up till his 'Let's Dance' days. Anything before that is usually great. He did do a new song a year or so ago that was fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE On relisten, the video might make it more fun than the music would have it, though.

His old stuff before ziggy stardust is good, too. I have an album of that old music. Here is a fun one from it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE

Ananda wrote:I love Bowie up till his 'Let's Dance' days. Anything before that is usually great. He did do a new song a year or so ago that was fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE On relisten, the video might make it more fun than the music would have it, though.

His old stuff before ziggy stardust is good, too. I have an album of that old music. Here is a fun one from it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE

Those are both the same song One of best ones from his newest albums IMO... and I haven't even seen the video yet!

Now, are you saying you liked "Let's Dance" or not? Inquiring minds want to know

Orlion wrote:

Ananda wrote:I love Bowie up till his 'Let's Dance' days. Anything before that is usually great. He did do a new song a year or so ago that was fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE On relisten, the video might make it more fun than the music would have it, though.

His old stuff before ziggy stardust is good, too. I have an album of that old music. Here is a fun one from it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7dMBcg-gE

Those are both the same song One of best ones from his newest albums IMO... and I haven't even seen the video yet!

Now, are you saying you liked "Let's Dance" or not? Inquiring minds want to know

Oups
This was the old song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgLy2PAJRiQ

And, no, I don't love the Let's Dance stuff much. Though, the cat people theme song was still fun.

I've always liked the tone and melody of "Rebel Rebel" and enjoyed Bowie's work with Stevie Ray Vaughan, but that's about it.

Well, David Bowie has re-invented himself again with his new album "Blackstar". My verdict? My cat and I like it, I'm not sure how it will go for the majority of people. It's a lot of improv/experimental jazzy stuff with an ethereal uneasiness prevailing the entire album. It's certainly an experience, but may not have the replayability of Young Americans or Scary Monsters... in other words, after the novelty of it wears off, you might only be able to listen to it when you're in the "right mood".

Godspeed, David.

What a sad day.