FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Dear Tom => Topic started by: JonFromMaplewood on March 05, 2013, 12:42:27 PM
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Hi Tom.
Like most, my knowledge of David Bowie is limited to classic rock radio and owning Changes One and Changes Two.
(Well, I have a little more knowledge than that, owning some Mick Ronson and Klaus Nomi tracks and having seen him on his "Farewell" tour in '91).
Now I am ready to dive in whole-hog. Where do I start? Do I do this chronologically? Or should I skip some of the earliest stuff? What is the pinnacle? Or are there several pinnacles?
Please advise in all of your spare time.
Thank you,
Jon
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Others can chime in too. : )
I have a gift card and want to buy an album. But is it Ziggy? Diamond Dogs? The Man Who Sold the World? Where do I start?
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Start w/Ziggy. It's so good and doesn't really have radio hits that you are sick of and is kind of the perfect encapsulation of everything that is awesome about DB.
Then, Man Who Sold The World - this might be my favorite cuz it's the most hard-rock. Ronson just shreds all over this, it's so great.
Hunky Dory is next up - another perfect album but I could go several lifetimes without hearing Changes or Life on Mars again.
After that you can just skip to Low/Heroes/Lodger, "The Berlin Trilogy", they are all awesome, Lodger is especially overlooked. But they are dark records with lots of eerieness so if you are not a teenager it might not work.
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Scary Monsters is a favorite, for Robert Fripp's guitar work on there particularly. In addition to the ones you've heard ('Ashes To Ashes', 'Fashion') there are lesser known greats like 'Up The Hill Backwards' (nice combo of driving acoustic and Fripp's lead here), 'Teenage Wildlife' (Bowie's commentary re: New Wave and late 70's early 80's music) and the Tom Verlaine cover 'Kingdom Come'. Also in addition to Fripp there are strong players all around ('Professor' Roy Bittan, Pete Townshend, more).
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I agree with mostlymeat and Steve of B. That is good advice.
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My two cents:
In order, listen to:
1. Ziggy
2. Aladdin Sane
3. Hunky Dory
4. Station to Station
5. Heroes
6. Low
7. Scary Monsters
8. Lodger
If you're not sick of him by the time you finish listening to Lodger, go back and listen to Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Pin-Ups, and then everything else (although to be fair I've never listened to the first two albums or either Tin Machine album.
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"Candidate" off Diamond Dogs is my favorite Bowie song ever. Go figure.
Man Who Sold the World, Ziggy, Diamond Dogs, Aladdin Sane, Hunky Dory top tier
Station to Station, Heroes, Low, Lodger second tier (still very good)
Space Oddity, Scary Monsters, Young Americans, Pin Ups, Let's Dance I've only heard some songs from. None has quite moved me to listen to all of it. Anything newer might have a couple of good songs (I own Earthling, somehow).
I found that the songs off Changes___Bowie were good guides to the records overall. Ziggy, Diamond Dogs and Aladdin Sane are the full-on concept albums, but most of his stuff at least has themes running through it.
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Just to add to the mass of voices:
Start with either Hunky Dory or Ziggy Stardust. Those are the two strongest albums IMO. Aladdin Sane is also terrific but it also feels a bit like a Ziggy retread. Not bad at all, and arguably close to or equal in terms of song quality, but the concept feels very similar to Ziggy.
Low and Heroes are probably my favorites, though your experience with them will depend on your feelings about Eno. IMO, these should probably be jointly credited to Bowie and Eno.
Station to Station is another favorite, but again this will depend on how much you like krautrock.
I like Scary Monsters a lot, but it kinda sounds like the work of a crazy person. It's got this brittle, coke-saturated sound that can be either very compelling or incredibly off-putting, depending on my frame of mind.
I would personally steer you away from The Man Who Sold the World (very flat-sounding and badly mixed) and Diamond Dogs (very uneven), though I know they have their defenders. There are great songs on both, though.
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Wow, this is great stuff. Thanks everyone!
And MoS, I love Eno so I may check out Low and Heroes sooner rather than later.
I will probably start with Ziggy and Hunky Dory. Those are consistently mentioned by all. Then I will have to regroup and see if I am ready to go to Germany yet.
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Scary Monsters DOES sound like the work of a crazy person, but I'm sort of a fan of that genre (see also: Kate Bush's 'The Dreaming')
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I'd start with Tin Machine, myself.
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This shouldn't be considered a guide for anyone else, but for a long time the only Bowie I had time for was Low/Heroes/Lodger. Then I got the Rykodisc 2-disc Singles set and finally got it.
Sorry if this is too obvious but avoid Let's Dance.
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For me, the ideal gateway to Bowie's catalog would be Hunky Dory. I think it's probably his best and most varied album.
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For me, the ideal gateway to Bowie's catalog would be Hunky Dory. I think it's probably his best and most varied album.
Be careful! A song like "Fill Your Heart" can kill a certain type of potential Bowie fan's interest right quick.
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For me, the ideal gateway to Bowie's catalog would be Hunky Dory. I think it's probably his best and most varied album.
Be careful! A song like "Fill Your Heart" can kill a certain type of potential Bowie fan's interest right quick.
Or "Kooks." Ugh.
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For me, the ideal gateway to Bowie's catalog would be Hunky Dory. I think it's probably his best and most varied album.
Be careful! A song like "Fill Your Heart" can kill a certain type of potential Bowie fan's interest right quick.
True.
Then again, I'm not much of a Bowie fan. So I don't know if anyone should take my opinion seriously to begin with.
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For me, the ideal gateway to Bowie's catalog would be Hunky Dory. I think it's probably his best and most varied album.
Be careful! A song like "Fill Your Heart" can kill a certain type of potential Bowie fan's interest right quick.
I like Sgt. Pepper's despite "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (yecch) so I should be able to see past any "challenging" tracks.
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For they are free of thoughts unpure
And of thoughts unkind
Gentleness clears the soul
Love will clean your mind
And make you fa-reeeeeeee yeah!
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After the Ziggy Stardust album becomes one of your favorites of all time,
be sure to check out Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture soundtrack of
D.A. Pennebaker's film of the 1973 last concert of the Spiders at London’s
Hammersmith Odeon. It's Bowie at his Glam Rock best and it even has a
great version of Bowie's classic anthem "All The Young Dudes" that had
been a hit for Mott The Hoople, and was never released on any album
except Greatest Hits volumes.
Next try another live album from more recent times called David Bowie -
A Reality Tour, which covers a lot of material from his great last album
Reality, but also has a fantastic version of The Pixies 'Cactus' and another
Bowie anthem 'Under Pressure' which he did with Queen but here is sung
in a not to be believed duet with his bassist Gail Ann Dorsey. There's also
a sing a-long version of "All The Young Dudes" on this double CD set too.
Also don't forget to buy his new one "The Next Day".
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Wow, BrocRob, I didn't know there *were* late period Bowie fans.
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Great topic ! I have followed " A lad insane " since Ziggy . I have always loved the Live stuff .No fluff just the real goods ! Listen to David live , This was his transition from Diamond dogs to Young Americans . This tour bankrupted him , due to production costs . A real rocker !
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It will take a while to warm to it, but eventually I believe Station to Station will be your favorite.
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You could also consider the possibility of going in order from HUNKY DORY onward, straight through to SCARY MONSTERS. Listen to each one, hearing how the character of Ziggy evolved/devolved. Then hear him get into coke on DIAMOND DOGS and get soulful then get crazy then cool down and get NY arty. It's a really awesome journey and it's worth experiencing the way the man recorded it. Just my two cents!
Tom.
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Thanks, Tom. And thanks all.
I had already started by purchasing Ziggy, but will now go back and reevaluate. I started with Ziggy instead of Hunky Dory because I doubted I would ever return to an album - more than maybe once - that started with "Changes" because classic rock radio had utterly decimated that song for me. But I will reconsider in light of your suggestions.
With the Hunky Dory exception (Is that the name of a Robert Ludlum book? The Hunky Dory Exception?), I had planned to move chronologically from there, as everyone had made such strong arguments for every album all the way up to Scary Monsters.
As for buying Ziggy, I am so so so happy. There are tracks on there that I am thrilled to discover. "Hang On to Yourself" is amazing.
I'm looking forward to the long road ahead, wending its way through NY clubs, West Berlin, and the distant reaches of outer space.
And the set of Cat People.
-JfM
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Check out the Hang onto Yourself from the BBC set. Holy moley, it RIPS.