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Where next for Bowie?

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I’ve never been a great David Bowie fan. There, I’ve said it. But I have watched the Five Years documentary on the i-Player recently – twice, and I really enjoyed it, especially the squirmworthy seriousness with which Bowie took himself in early interviews. I’ve long had a few Bowie albums but never really expanded or explored beyond the obvious. So, I really like Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, and the catsuited swagger of the glam years, but other than Aladdin Sane and TMWSTW the remainder of my acquaintance with the great man rests largely on compilations. The electronic spareness of the Berlin albums has never appealed to me, and I hated Let’s Dance, though I’d be lying if I said I’d listened to any of those albums all the way through.

So what should I do? I want to like Bowie, I really do, but I’m not sure if the game’s up and I should just stick to what I know in my little glam bubble. Now that the dust has settled, what is the AW’s opinion of what else I should try? Tigger? Anyone?

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Comments

  1. It seems that you don’t have Station To Station, which is probably his best album. It’s the perfect amalgamation of all the Bowie influences: it’s European-American, Experimental-populist, music-lyrics.

    I see Blackstar as a STS companion album (I know I’m not the first person to come to that conclusion). Blackstar, irrespective of its circumstances, is a great record.

    And here’s my go-to playlist of Bowie 1993-2003, which might be of use.

    • I can’t be doing with Blackstar. I’ve tried. it’s got moments, but not enough.

      However, I’m with the Doc (and Mosely down there) on Station to Station; it’s where it’s at. The opening track takes a bit to get going but the wig-out towards the end (with E-Streets Roy Bittan giving it welly) is a joy to behold.

      Station to Station is one of those albums – it never lets up and (ho-ho) will never let you down.

  2. I think two albums are you next port of call then: Station to Station – my favourite Bowie album of all time and a great mixture of krautrock, soul and well just Bowieness. Has his best singing of any album on it IMHO. And Scary Monsters, the last album where you could say he was ahead of everyone else. Twitchy funk pop, catchy as hell.

    • Seconded.

      Also, maybe give the Berlin trilogy a go one at a time. Low is better (in my book) than Heroes (title track aside). Lodger’s my least fave of the three (it was largely recorded in Switzerland with the ‘Stage’ touring band).

      I listened to everything back-to-back with Fenton Minor on the school run. Some albums I’d not heard for 20 years but my opinions didn’t change.

  4. Go for something less obvious.

    My youngsters know nothing about Bowie and they really enjoy Reality and Heathen. Reality is actually a fun album, full of hooks and tunes. Of course, some of his quirks are present but less so than other albums. For those who doubt his ability to cover other’s songs, there are quite a few good ones on these two albums. He made them in the knowledge that nobody much was listening. His older audience had moved on and a younger one hadn’t yet tuned in. He sounds happy with nothing to prove, accepting of his age and his place in the musical cosmos. He isn’t plotting a ‘comeback’ as he was with The Next Day nor making a final statement as in Blackstar. They are albums that raise the spirit.

    Station To Station is the absolute classic you haven’t heard yet. Each of the six tracks are entirely different to each other but the intensity across them is remarkably consistent, especially when you consider his prolific drug use at the time.

    I also have a deep love of Young Americans and great affection for some of his nineties albums, but I’m something of a Bowie nerd.

  5. Yep, Station To Station and Low. Those should keep you going for a bit. Also, I don’t know if the Soulwax Bowie mix is still on YouTube, but it’s amazing, mixing the well-known with the more obscure, plus a few Bowie-related other artists chucked in. I’m sure a fellow AWer would be able to assist you with, er, locating it.

    Edit: here it is on Vimeo!

  7. Station to Station is your next best bet. Fantastic album and possibly my fave of his. (Though it changes monthly).

    I think The Next Day is really strong. Prefer it to Blackstar. After that I’d say Scary Monsters is a good call.

  8. STS of course.

    2nd level options I would recommend would be Scary Monsters or Heathens for more straightahead “alt-rock”, and perhaps Outside (ignoring the cameo tracks) is also a stone classic if you are feeling adventurous.

  12. Toy. No, really. For one thing it really is “full of tunes and hooks”. For another, it’s a moving personal look back across his life. He brings a beautiful melancholy to I Dig Everything and other songs from his early days. I shaved the first ballsaching three minutes or so off the start to Uncle Floyd AND VIOLA a perfect Bowie album.

  13. Of the later albums, in addition to those mentioned I would add ‘…hours’ and Black Tie White Noise, both full of melody and ‘tunes’ but also retaining that essential Bowie unpredictability and strangeness. I would highly recommend The Buddha Of Suburbia too, but if you don’t like Low, chances are you won’t get on with this.
    Regarding Blackstar, I personally think it’s bloody marvellous.

  15. Thanks folks, there are some good recommendations here, so it’ll be a session on Spotify later with Station To Station, Scary Monsters and Diamond Dogs. After that I may just have to concede defeat and stick to my jangly Beatlesque pop.

    • Yes, Mr Mutt, you’re going to spend the evening listening to “Station To Station” on “Spotify”, and this whole thread has not been a pained plea for permission from your peers to indulge in hitherto unexplored areas of sexual pleasure.
      There you were, apparently happy in your “MWSTW -> Aladdin Sane” world. Oh, you’d heard about the pleasures of “The Berlin Trilogy” and that there were actually people out there who regularly partook in the “80s and 90s stuff”, but you couldn’t even imagine how people enjoyed doing that. Still, those images hovered at the back of your mind for decades until “Five Years” brought the whole thing to the boil once more. You watched it again and now you knew you had to taste the “albums, soundtracks and live recordings” you’d denied yourself for so long. But one obstacle remained – the good opinion of your peers. Now, having cleared that hurdle you are free to “listen to Station To Station on Spotify” (let’s call a spade a spade: buy nipple clamps, an adult sized babygro and buy out the custard pie shop) tonight. Happy trails!!!

      • Strange as it may seem, Mr Sewer, I’ve never heard any of those albums before, and if I catch your drift that I could have listened to them on Spotify or anywhere else at any time without the ringing endorsement of my AW peers, then you are of course correct. But there are some artists that we all have a mental block with and need a bit of encouragement. Bowie’s always been one of those for me. But I’ve taken a mental note to grow a pair and will soon start wading through other unforgivably undiscovered artists without the aid of counselling support.

  16. If the Berlin trilogy does not appeal (it didn’t to me either), may I suggest the remastered issue of ‘Stage’ – a mix of the earlier stuff that appeals to you plus the ‘bleak’ stuff powered up. This album really demonstrates what a powerful live performance Bowie and his then touring band could produce.

    Search some of mooche’s posts for his impassioned recommendation.

  17. Nothing much to add to the expert opinions above (but I will add another vote for Scary Monsters) but this might be of interest. It’s a personal Best Of list that Jon Savage put together as part of the Bowie tribute issue of Mojo.

  20. Not a massive fan, but I do own them allDavid Bowie discography for me ceases to be interesting, or attention grabbing, after Lodger.
    I want to like Scary Monsters And Super Creeps, but no joy yet.
    And the rest of the 80s output just exists.
    However, Tin Machine (for all its nay-sayers) did seem to spark something and things went upwards in my ears.
    I really believe Heathen is a truly great album

  21. I’ll say Reality, too. It was one of many I realised I’d never heard at all (after he died) so I Spotified it and, like Tigs said, thought it was a fun album. I haven’t seen the dvd, but bri says he’s having a ball there too. I like happy Bowie.

  22. I have been with Bowie since that night I saw him at the Toby Jug in 1972 (see my avatar). That terrible day in January an old friend asked me which two albums I would pick if I could only have two. I replied without hesitation (surprising myself) “Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs”. I stick by that. You already know HD, so why DD? It’s simply that every time I play it I love it a little more and find something new to appreciate. It also helps that I have a first pressing UK vinly, which sounds simply crashingly beautiful. All subsequent versions disappoint sonically.

    It has taken me a long time to forgive Bowie for breaking up the Spiders From Mars I now realise. I suffered some kind of trauma that night at Hammersmith (yes I was there too) and my judgement of post Spiders records was coloured by that. Bowie’s death lifted that somehow. It replaced it with another trauma of course but I think I finally forgave Bowie for breaking up the band that day. And Diamond Dogs is an absolute gem of perfection. It is one of only two concept albums by anyone that works completely. Blows Against the Empire is the other one.

    The sequencing is breathtakingly perfect I think and Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing is the crown jewel among many gleaming gems. It surpasses the song STS in my opinion. “Let’s buy some drugs and watch a band and jump in the river holding hands” is probably my favourite line in any song.

    Diamond Dogs then – a masterpiece that will repay a lifetime of study with enhanced joy each time I hear it.

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