DumpJack, Gar et al. listen to all things Bowie

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:05 am

DJ, if you were going to use a alternate cover, you should've used this one

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:05 am

Never seen either of those before.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:15 am

"Black Country Rock" is more rollicking metalish rock.

"After All" slows it down a bit, but doesn't make the record tedious. If I were to make a deep cut Bowie comp, I might put this on it. Dig it.

"Running Gun Blues" Probably the most glammy sounding song so far on the record. Kinda weird that its a Vietnam war protest song. Kinda see a connection here with Bowie fans Scissor Sisters. Not in sound, but with lyrical content.

"Saviour Machine" Redd Kross covered this once upon a time. I think I might like their version better.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:15 am

Drinky Wrote:

Never seen either of those before.

I saw the one I posted on a tee once. Its actually an early US pressing cover.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:23 am

"She Shook Me Cold" This sounds like some basement rock. I think this is the most rocking that I've ever heard Bowie. Dang. Its interesting to me that this is Bowie, because its so different than how I perceive him on record.

"The Man Who Sold The World" I think for my generation, this will forever be linked as a Nirvana cover, than a Bowie song. Its a fantastic song, but when Cobain did that unplugged version, it gave it a whole new life, and a new personality. In some ways, the Cobain cover is more poignant--but once again, I'm of the generation where Nirvana came and exploded on the scene.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:45 am

Flying Rabbit Wrote:

"All the Madmen" Loving the backing band on this. Mick Woodmansey on drums is on point here. Not to mention Visconti's bass. I don't even mind the moog interludes.

I think this is as far as I made it the last time I played The Man Who Sold the World. This is like poison.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:48 am

"The Superman" Maybe its me, but this is a weird closing to the record. I think if I had cracked this open and had it on in a more traditional medium without the B-sides/extra tracks I'd just be confused.

"Lightning Frightening" Bluesy, mostly instro jingle jangle of a song.

"Holy Holy" A-Side single recorded after the album was out. Apparently, this is his try at being Marc Bolan. Good, but I think the eventual B-Side of Black Country Rock might be better. Apparently, though I've never heard it--a more rocking version was recorded around the time of Ziggy.

"The Prettiest Star (Bolan version)" This is ok. I was expecting more.

"Moonage Daydream" The genesis of Ziggy. This and "HOTY" were both recorded initially under the name Arnold Corns.

"Hang On To Yourself" Love this version. Have never heard it before.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:49 am

DumpJack Wrote:

Flying Rabbit Wrote:

"All the Madmen" Loving the backing band on this. Mick Woodmansey on drums is on point here. Not to mention Visconti's bass. I don't even mind the moog interludes.

I think this is as far as I made it the last time I played The Man Who Sold the World. This is like poison.

Really? I actually kinda dig it. If I was a betting man, I would've guessed you'd have been into this.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:32 pm

It's like a meat pie. I love all the ingredients but it just doesn't work for me.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:26 pm

Yeah, it seems really odd to me that you'd have a problem with this album if you like any of the following ones.

Obviously it's not as good, but it is a good album. A considerable improvement over the previous one, easily. "Black Country Rock" is great. "Running Gun Blues" is a solid rocker, another good indicator of what's to come. Of course the title track is a highlight, but being the age that I am, I'm more partial to the Nirvana version. Some things like "After All" and "Saviour Machine" drag the album down a little, but it would still round out my top 10 David Bowie albums. Then again, there are only about 10 Bowie albums worth owning, anyway, depending on how you feel about Young Americans. We'll see if this exercise changes my opinion about that.

nobody · **Posted:** Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:07 pm

I might kinda have to go with Dump on this one, lots of good elements that don't really add up to me. I like a couple tracks and don't find this horrible like most of what came before, but I think the real quantum leap for Bowie is right after this album. Basically off this one I dig the title track and Black Country Rock with the rest just being sorta there.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:24 am

Quote:

After the freakish hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie returned to singer/songwriter territory on Hunky Dory. Not only did the album boast more folky songs ("Song for Bob Dylan," "The Bewlay Brothers"), but he again flirted with Anthony Newley-esque dancehall music ("Kooks," "Fill Your Heart"), seemingly leaving heavy metal behind. As a result, Hunky Dory is a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision: a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class. Mick Ronson's guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman's cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album. The subdued support accentuates the depth of Bowie's material, whether it's the revamped Tin Pan Alley of "Changes," the Neil Young homage "Quicksand," the soaring "Life on Mars?," the rolling, vaguely homosexual anthem "Oh! You Pretty Things," or the dark acoustic rocker "Andy Warhol." On the surface, such a wide range of styles and sounds would make an album incoherent, but Bowie's improved songwriting and determined sense of style instead made Hunky Dory a touchstone for reinterpreting pop's traditions into fresh, postmodern pop music.

Code:

http://tinyurl.com/3y6zs2n

tentoze · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:04 am

Other than "Andy Warhol" and Bowie's cover of Biff Rose's "Fill You Heart", you can keep this one.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:21 am

tentoze Wrote:

Other than "Andy Warhol" and Bowie's cover of Biff Rose's "Fill You Heart", you can keep this one.

I realize music is subjective, everyone has an opinion etc. etc. but how the fuck does anyone NOT like 'Queen Bitch'? This falls into the oft-used but usually off the mark 'you must hate music' catchall.

nobody · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:54 am

For me this is where it gets interesting. This one seems to me to be the point where he starts warming to the ideas of wholesale image/character changes and has a coherent feel to it. I kinda think that started with the last album where he took on a pretty specific vibe throughout that was different than his past, but this album for me more fully realizes that concept and simply has better songs to back it up. Also, while it is definitely poppier, in many ways it takes more chances. He's incorporating a whole lot more than simple bass guitar drums kinda things and taking chances while keeping things from falling apart and sounding too unfamiliar. Anyhow, I like this record a lot and think it marks the start of Bowie really making solid albums.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 1:17 pm

No time at the moment to comment, but I really dig this record. This is probably the earliest in the Bowie canon that I own on CD.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 4:58 pm

Bowie was interesting before, but this is where he officially becomes great, I guess. I'm so played out on some of the more well known - and best - tracks that it's hard for me to even really hear them anymore, sort of like listening to The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. "Changes" and "Life on Mars?" slipped right by me almost unnoticed, but who knows how many times I've heard those songs. They blew me away once upon a time. Fortunately "Andy Warhol" and "Queen Bitch" weren't on whatever best-of comp I originally had that introduced me to Bowie so I'm not quite as played out on them. (Confession: The first time I actually ever heard "Andy Warhol" was when Stone Temple Pilots covered it in their Unplugged session.) Those four songs are pretty much the album highlights. The rest is good, and I guess for the first time there's nothing overly weak or embarrassing. Still, it's not such an enormous improvement over his previous album that it deserves to be hailed as a classic while that one is ignored, which seems to be a pretty common tendency.

I'm wondering now if Ziggy Stardust really is better than this album, and it seems like it might be. I've previously considered this one to be the apex of his glam period, but maybe it isn't. We'll see.

tentoze · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:50 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

tentoze Wrote:

Other than "Andy Warhol" and Bowie's cover of Biff Rose's "Fill You Heart", you can keep this one.

I realize music is subjective, everyone has an opinion etc. etc. but how the fuck does anyone NOT like 'Queen Bitch'? This falls into the oft-used but usually off the mark 'you must hate music' catchall.

No, I just mostly hate THIS music. In my mind, Bowie was still wading in too many different streams at once, resulting in a muddy mess to my ears. But, that opinion isn't just limited to this album, either.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:58 pm

I played "Kooks" for my daughter when we drove her home from the hospital. Fucking love Hunky Dory

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Fri Oct 08, 2010 12:05 am

So, I sat down today and listened and pretty much as many of you said, this is where Bowie started to hit his stride. I own this, and have for a number of years (guessing since high school when I was raiding cheap vinyl dealers), and so I've had time to let this percolate in my system. "Life On Mars", "Queen Bitch" and "Changes" are almost stratospheric compared to the other tracks, but those are classics, so its almost unfair to judge the other songs next to them. That said, the rest of the record is solid and as Bowie has acknowledged, this is where the he first started realizing he had "fans". I think that speaks volumes for the record. Its a solid, solid record that was proceeded with an good record and then followed by a great record. Sandwiching between those two is going to garner some attention. I find it odd that there isn't a deluxe version of this, but there is of his first two records. Interesting. Surely there was extraneous material floating around, heck, some of it was on the previous deluxe versions. In any event, I'm really looking forward to Ziggy. My hard copy is lying around somewhere, so I'll probably dl the deluxe for added pleasure.

jewels santana · **Joined:** Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:36 pm **Posts:** 10198

my favorite Bowie album

DumpJack · **Posted:** Fri Oct 08, 2010 12:12 am

Quote:

Borrowing heavily from Marc Bolan's glam rock and the future shock of A Clockwork Orange, David Bowie reached back to the heavy rock of The Man Who Sold the World for The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Constructed as a loose concept album about an androgynous alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust, the story falls apart quickly, yet Bowie's fractured, paranoid lyrics are evocative of a decadent, decaying future, and the music echoes an apocalyptic, nuclear dread. Fleshing out the off-kilter metallic mix with fatter guitars, genuine pop songs, string sections, keyboards, and a cinematic flourish, Ziggy Stardust is a glitzy array of riffs, hooks, melodrama, and style and the logical culmination of glam. Mick Ronson plays with a maverick flair that invigorates rockers like "Suffragette City," "Moonage Daydream," and "Hang Onto Yourself," while "Lady Stardust," "Five Years," and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" have a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll. And that self-conscious sense of theater is part of the reason why Ziggy Stardust sounds so foreign. Bowie succeeds not in spite of his pretensions but because of them, and Ziggy Stardust -- familiar in structure, but alien in performance -- is the first time his vision and execution met in such a grand, sweeping fashion.

Code:

http://tinyurl.com/29xmo8g

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri Oct 08, 2010 4:57 pm

I think that this album is more consistent than Hunky Dory, but it isn't better. This one is more uniformly strong, more rocking from start to finish. Generally more powerful and to-the-point, I guess. But to draw some parallels, "Suffragette City", probably my favorite track on this one, is basically a lesser "Queen Bitch". "Starman" is a solid little mini-epic, but it's no "Life on Mars?" "Five Years" is a solid opener, but you can't even compare it to "Changes". Higher highs on Hunky Dory, for sure. This album holds together better, though, and makes for a more cohesive listen, I think.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

Drinky Wrote:

I think that this album is more consistent than Hunky Dory, but it isn't better. This one is more uniformly strong, more rocking from start to finish. Generally more powerful and to-the-point, I guess. But to draw some parallels, "Suffragette City", probably my favorite track on this one, is basically a lesser "Queen Bitch". "Starman" is a solid little mini-epic, but it's no "Life on Mars?" "Five Years" is a solid opener, but you can't even compare it to "Changes". Higher highs on Hunky Dory, for sure. This album holds together better, though, and makes for a more cohesive listen, I think.

Agree with alot of your point but I say Ziggy is a better album precisely because it is more cohesive/consistent. Of course, I'm just stating my preference for consistency over higher highs. I won't even bother listening to an album that I really dislike a few songs on no matter how much I do like the rest of them. I can see someone else reasonably preferring Hunky Dory for its higher highs. These two and Alladin Sane are the best Bowie has to offer IMO. I do seem to like the Man Who Sold the World much more than most of obner though. I haven't listened to it in a long time though and couldn't begin to argue its merits. I think one of the reasons I probably like it as much as I do though is because nothing from it made any of the Bowie comps I owned and played to death as a kid.

nobody · **Posted:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 2:58 pm

I kinda think you have to point to Ziggy as pretty much what made Bowie Bowie. This is where it all came together. The cohesive vision, the solid songwriting, the style, the concept. This was the pinnacle. Everything after was seen as how it related to Ziggy...well, at least until the Eno albums anyway.

DumpJack, Gar et al. listen to all things Bowie

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