Celebrating David Bowie, born 8th January 1947.
This is the first of three 12-song selections over the next three days, a daunting task when you consider how many superb songs emerged over a five decade career.
I've loosely divided each into a twenty-year span: today is the 60s and 70s; Friday covers the 80s and 90s; Saturday will look at the 00s and 10s.
Rather than attempt (and fail) to cover key songs or albums, I've taken a far more arbitrary approach, picking 12 songs that I simply fancied hearing again and thought might work well together.
To manage your expectations, there's absolutely nowt from The Man Who Sold The World, The Lodger, Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory or Low. A third of the selection is from the 1960s, a couple of singles, a third aborted single plus one of my favourite songs from Space Oddity.
A few songs and versions remained undeservedly unreleased until the 1990s/2000s and the extensive curation of Bowie's catalogue.
And whilst I don't have Netflix and haven't seen a single episode of Stranger Things, apparently "Heroes" was featured in the final episode, so that's my accidental effort to remain relevant to "the kids". Although I plumped for the bilingual version, not the original!
If today's selection courts controversy, tomorrow should be interesting as it arguably covers Bowie's most commercially successful yet most critically panned period. This last statement may be completely inaccurate, but I found much to love in my dozen picks.
1) Conversation Piece (Single Version) (1969)
2) Rosalyn (Cover of The Pretty Things) (1973)
3) Let Me Sleep Beside You (Rejected Single Version) (1967)
4) Blackout (Album Version) (1977)
5) It Ain't Easy (Album Version) (1972)
6) Rubber Band (Single Version) (1966)
7) It's Gonna Be Me (Original Version) (1974)
8) God Knows I'm Good (Album Version) (1969)
9) "Heroes" / "Héros" (English / French Version) (1977)
10) Right (Alternative Early Version) (1974)
11) Golden Years (Single Version) (1975)
12) Panic In Detroit (Re-Recorded Version) (1979)
1966: Rubber Band EP: 6
1969: Space Oddity: 8
1970: The Prettiest Star EP: 1
1970: The World Of David Bowie: 3
1972: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars: 5
1973: Pin Ups: 2
1975: Golden Years EP: 11
1977: "Heroes": 4
1982: "Heroes" EP (Germany 12"): 9
1991: Young Americans (Expanded Edition): 7
1992: Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (Expanded Edition): 12
2016: The Gouster (previously unreleased, 1974) / Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976): 10
Bowie is the girt that keeps giving for me. There's the route one hits; there's the more difficult 70's albums and then there's the later period stuff that I don't listen to enough. On the first anniversary of his death two of my ex-students invited me up to Brixton to see the mural, where he went to school, where he lived - a fab day out.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of him
ReplyDeleteA wonderful compilation of his early recordings, Khayem. And thank you for adding only a few of his popular songs. Waiting for the next editions.
ReplyDeleteCalling this 'a daunting task' is the understatement of the year........
ReplyDeleteI put a Bowie ICA together a couple of years ago, starting with the 1969 Conversation Piece and concluding with the 2002 re-recording. I love both of them (and also both versions of Silly Boy Blue).
ReplyDelete