Two major rock stars passed away in recent weeks. One was Glenn Frey, who along with Don Henley was one of the leaders and main songwriters of the Eagles. Since I did a brief post on my favorite Eagles songs not that long ago, I won't attempt to do a retrospective on Frey for now. Instead, I'd like to do my own brief (and wholly inadequate) tribute to the even more influential rocker who died not long before Frey: David Bowie. First off, I have to admit that my knowledge of Bowie is much more limited than it should be. For a long time, the only CD of his music I had was a Changesbowie compilation CD. It was only in the last few years that I acquired copies of Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and even more recently I was given a copy of 'Hours...', though I've only listened to it once in the brief time I've had it. Of course even aside from what is on the CDs I own, I've heard a few other Bowie songs over the years, and I'm fairly familiar with the basic outline of his career, particularly up to the early 1980s. But while I know bits of trivia about him, such as the fact that his first single, "Liza Jane", was released under the name Davie Jones [Bowie's birth name was David Jones] and the King Bees, or that he was one of the first to attempt to put English lyrics to the French song "Comme d'habitude", later adapted by Paul Anka as "My Way", there's still far too much of Bowie's music that I've never heard, making it impossible for me to do a proper retrospective covering his whole career. Instead, I've just selected ten favorites from the songs I know well. Rather than attempting to rank them, I've just listed them chronologically. If I really had to pick a single song as my favorite Bowie song, "Life on Mars", "Starman" and "Space Oddity" would be my most likely choices, but several others among these might also come out on top. I should also note that I could easily have put a few other songs from Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust in this list, as there are a lot of good ones on those albums, but I decided two songs from each was enough. There's also a good chance that after I've gotten a chance to listen to more of his most recent work I'd want to include at least one song from his last couple of albums. After his death I listened to 2013's "Where Are We Now" and his very last single "Lazarus", both of which struck me as quite good, but I'd prefer to listen to them more than once before I decide how I rank them in comparison to the songs listed here.
Twelve Classic David Bowie Songs
Space Oddity (Bowie) (1969) David Bowie
The Man Who Sold the World (Bowie) (1970) The Man Who Sold the World
Changes (Bowie) (1971) Hunky Dory
Life on Mars (Bowie) (1971) Hunky Dory
Starman (Bowie) (1972) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Suffragette City (Bowie) (1972) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Rebel Rebel (Bowie) (1974) Diamond Dogs
Young Americans (Bowie) (1975) Young Americans
"Heroes" (Bowie/Eno) (1977) "Heroes"
Ashes to Ashes (Bowie) (1980) Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Let's Dance (Bowie) (1983) Let's Dance
Modern Love (Bowie) (1983) Let's Dance
Special Mention:
All the Young Dudes (Bowie) Mott the Hoople (1972)
Under Pressure (Queen/Bowie) Queen & David Bowie (1981)
