David Bowie has died

[chebby]

Should be getting my delivery of the 'Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars' motion picture DVD this afternoon. I had this years and years ago on VHS. Our daughters both loved it as kids. (Along with a VHS of The Cure!)

I know the cinematography and sound quality were a bit #### but it's a unique 'document' of Ziggy live in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon and it has lots of Mick Ronson camping it up and pouting in proper 1970s glam gear.

 

[Freddy58]

Should be getting my delivery of the 'Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars' motion picture DVD this afternoon. I had this years and years ago on VHS. Our daughters both loved it as kids. (Along with a VHS of The Cure!)

I know the cinematography and sound quality were a bit #### but it's a unique 'document' of Ziggy live in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon and it has lots of Mick Ronson camping it up and pouting in proper 1970s glam gear.

Yep, that was/is an awesome concert

 

[drummerman]

I have, over the last few days, trawled his music on Tidal.

Must admit, there are a few albums, mostly mid/later career, that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

I am not generally a pop music listener but some of his work is left field enough for me to like.

Perhaps I have misjudged the man and his music.

Strongly recommended for you from what I glean:

The obvious Low/Heroes. The Man Who Sold The World. Station To Station. Scary Monsters And Super Creeps (excellent, and rocks hard, Bowie wrings out the best from Robert Fripp).

Will listen into it, cheers

 

[drummerman]

I have, over the last few days, trawled his music on Tidal.

Must admit, there are a few albums, mostly mid/later career, that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

I am not generally a pop music listener but some of his work is left field enough for me to like.

Perhaps I have misjudged the man and his music.

Try and listen to the album 'Hunky Dory'... with the lights out. It is the most atmospheric album one could wish to hear. This album is probably the only LP from my whole collection I can listen from start to finish. Every track brings something different to the table.

Mmhh, so so that one but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Freddy58]

I have, over the last few days, trawled his music on Tidal.

Must admit, there are a few albums, mostly mid/later career, that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

I am not generally a pop music listener but some of his work is left field enough for me to like.

Perhaps I have misjudged the man and his music.

Try and listen to the album 'Hunky Dory'... with the lights out. It is the most atmospheric album one could wish to hear. This album is probably the only LP from my whole collection I can listen from start to finish. Every track brings something different to the table.

Yeah, a wonderful album to my mind. 'Quicksand' and 'Bewlay Brothers' really send shivers down my spine, but not one bad track, imo.

 

[tonky]

......is just hunky dory! Loved his early stuff - getting into - revisiting late 70s/80s Low - station to station etc stuff. Blackstar an album with hidden depths

Bowie - genius - legend - artist - will always live on.

tonky

 

[The_Lhc]

I'm with Drummerman, I don't mind Hunky Dory but I don't love it, it doesn't particularly speak to me.

Yesterday however I picked up Let's Dance (the album). Now, I don't care what anyone says, including Bowie, the title track is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, especially the album version (7m37s, who knew?), I listened to it three times in the car this morning. The rest of the album is excellent as well. Sure, maybe compared to the early stuff it's not ahead of its time like Oddity and so forth was but to be honest, as someone who wasn't there at that time that's impossible for me to judge and it's not experimental or avant garde or anything like that but it's just good, honest pop tunes and I like that. The Nile Rodgers production shines as well, real 80s basslines, it's all quality.

So there!

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

In a nutshell, Hunky Dory is a truly great album of any era, Let's Dance is just a very good 80s album.

So there!

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Yeah, a wonderful album to my mind. 'Quicksand' and 'Bewlay Brothers' really send shivers down my spine, but not one bad track, imo.

Absoloutely. 100% in agreement. I love that album.

 

[manicm]

I'm with Drummerman, I don't mind Hunky Dory but I don't love it, it doesn't particularly speak to me.

Yesterday however I picked up Let's Dance (the album). Now, I don't care what anyone says, including Bowie, the title track is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, especially the album version (7m37s, who knew?), I listened to it three times in the car this morning. The rest of the album is excellent as well. Sure, maybe compared to the early stuff it's not ahead of its time like Oddity and so forth was but to be honest, as someone who wasn't there at that time that's impossible for me to judge and it's not experimental or avant garde or anything like that but it's just good, honest pop tunes and I like that. The Nile Rodgers production shines as well, real 80s basslines, it's all quality.

So there!

Let's Dance is truly great, but I like Modern Love even more.

 

[iMark]

Scary Monsters And Super Creeps (excellent, and rocks hard, Bowie wrings out the best from Robert Fripp).

I like most of his albums from the 70s and 80s but Scary Monsters is for me his best album. There is no dud on it and it rocks from start to finish. And Fripp's guitar playing is mindboggling. Also the production is excellent.

Most underrated album? Stage. It only came good when Tony Visconti restored the original running order on the 2005 reissue. It's a great live band, Bowie is in excellent voice and Adrian Belew on lead guitar is almost as good as Fripp.

 

[Freddy58]

I see it this way. Folks will disagree which is his best work. This to me, just reinforces his broad appeal. Something for everyone. Well, some, at least.

 

[The_Lhc]

I listened to Low yesterday, very interesting, although I can quite understand why people wouldn't like it. I doubt my missus will find much to appeal there.

 

[James7]

A couple of weeks on and I still feel a bit dazed. His curiosity and determination to continue evolving is what sets him apart for me, and I am not surprised to see huge differences of opinion regarding his best work. He could be uncompromising at times and listening to Blackstar it strikes me that this is a challenging album that won't necessarily win many friends but I don't suppose that was the intention. Personally I have enjoyed Blackstar, and I like much of his less accesible stuff of the past too, his Berlin albums for example, but I also love albums like Hunky Dory that are an easier listen. Heathen and Reality I think two of his most undervalued albums - after what had been quite a quiet decade or so that early 2000s period saw Bowie absolutely back on top form.

 

[matt49]

I listened to Low yesterday, very interesting, although I can quite understand why people wouldn't like it. I doubt my missus will find much to appeal there.

Low is, I think, a lovely album. It's melodic, moody and has a really interesting edginess. Of the three 'Berlin period' albums, Low tends to win with the critics. But Heroes is also wonderful: the high-tempo counterpart to Low's moodiness.

A couple of weeks on and I still feel a bit dazed. His curiosity and determination to continue evolving is what sets him apart for me, and I am not surprised to see huge differences of opinion regarding his best work. He could be uncompromising at times and listening to Blackstar it strikes me that this is a challenging album that won't necessarily win many friends but I don't suppose that was the intention. Personally I have enjoyed Blackstar, and I like much of his less accesible stuff of the past too, his Berlin albums for example, but I also love albums like Hunky Dory that are an easier listen. Heathen and Reality I think two of his most undervalued albums - after what had been quite a quiet decade or so that early 2000s period saw Bowie absolutely back on top form.

I'm really enjoying Blackstar. I must check out Heathen and Reality.

The general view is that Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust are his very best. I wouldn't disagree with that. I have a particular soft spot for Station to Station: the title track is amazing, the switch from the Germanic 'motorik' intro to the funky passage is just perfect, and I think the edgy funk of Golden Years and TVC15 works brilliantly.

For me the best 'side' of Bowie is side 1 of Diamond Dogs. I just adore the sequence: Diamond Dogs - Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise) - Rebel Rebel. The last of these is (for me) the perfect Bowie song: that guitar riff is one of his very best musical moments and one of the all-time great riffs. Through the whole sequence he lets rip: no prisoners.

EDIT: I also really rate The Man who Sold the World. The opening track, Width of a Circle, is a real rocker, and the title track, famously covered by Nirvana, is great too.