The other day, David Bowie celebrated his 66th birthday. No a wholly remarkable event in itself, seeing as he'd celebrated 65 birthdays previously, but this was a special one for fans and those who've followed his career with interest over the past 40 or so years. Mr Bowie announced that a new album was to be released in March, "The Next Day" and unveiled a new single immediately, "Where Are We Now?" on iTunes along with an accompanying promo video. "Well, that's nice" you might say, "but so? Rock stars do that all the time." Ah. Not so in this case.
David Bowie had, to all intents and purposes, disappeared for the past 8 or so years. His last studio album "Heathen" was released in 2003. His last live tour appearance was 2004. Since then... nothing, bar a cameo "acting" appearance as himself in Ricky Gervais's mediocre comedy "Extras". Nada. Zilch. Not a peep. No public appearances of note. A polite refusal was given to Danny Boyle when asked to perform at the London Olympic ceremony. Rumours went about him having had a stroke and/or some serious illness preventing him ever working again. Effectively, the longer the silence, the more it seemed he'd retired, though no statement had ever been made to explicitly say this. He'd become a mystery.
So when people woke up on the 8th of January to hear the surprise announcement of an album and single, it was BIG news. In fact it was on the bloody news bulletins. This came from absolutely nowhere. How it was kept quiet in this day and age is a miracle. In a world when the slightest thing is hyped beyond all expectation, what Bowie achieved here is... well, textbook Bowie. And it was quite comforting in a way. It felt right. It wouldn't have mattered if the new single had been crap, which it isn't by the way, because it just felt good that he was back.
So why am I blathering on about Dame David here? This is a nostalgia blog, I hear you shout (as if anybody actually reads this anyway). Well, let's go back to Christmas 1981. You may recall that Record Tokens were all the rage back then, as they were always a good default present for someone who was music mad but you had no idea what to buy them. Such as myself, troublesome child that I was. I had a token burning a hole in my trouser pocket. Not literally, that would be awful. But what to buy? Well, being down with ver kids I'd already bought a copy of the top album of the time "Dare!" by The Human League, and having received a copy of the underwhelming Adam And The Ants' "Prince Charming" for my birthday, there was little else jumping out at me from the racks of Soundtrack record emporium in downtown Fleetwood. You might ask why I didn't save the token and wait for something I did want to be released. And that would be a sensible question - however I was 11 and the idea of waiting don't really make sense. I HAD to use it. Durrrr.
But there was this Bowie album. Now, my Dad had a copy of "Changesonebowie" on cassette, a compilation of Dave's greatest hits going up to about 1976, which was all okay I wasn't mad keen - mainly because I was only about 8 when I first heard that album, and I only really liked "Space Oddity" and "Laughing Gnome". One of which wasn't on that album. Can you guess which one? So why on Earth did I decide to buy the second Bowie compilation, "Changestwobowie"?
Several reasons, none of which are anything along the lines of trying to make a connect between myself and my father, so you can take your psychology hat off right now, dear reader. The main reason for purchasing being that it had a track I always loved on it. "Sound and Vision" came out in 1978 and it was just one of those tracks that gave me goosebumps, like "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer or "Wombling Free". Okay, maybe not the latter. I think it might have been the synths. I loved a bit of synthesizer. Still do. So it had that track to start with. Plus the pop-tabulous "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion", his recent-ish singles from the "Scary Monsters" album, which were bloody fab. That was enough for me to hand over the readies. And what a winner it was. Okay, "Aladdin Sane" was a bit odd but hey! I like odd. "Oh! You Pretty Things" was jolly enough but then there was "Starman", a song which I'd never heard stumbled across before, and it was fantastic. The rest were okay but I think I wore out the grooves on that track and "Sound and Vision". A record token well used, I'd say.
This album connected as it had Bowie tracks on it I'd actually heard on the radio - therefore they belonged to me, they were MY Bowie tracks - my era, if I'd have thought of things like that back then. From thereon, I wouldn't call myself a fan as such - there were always too many songs which I didn't care for too much, and his acting attempts were a bit dodgy but I'd always be interested in what he's doing. Even during the terrible "Glass Spider" era in the late 1980s, and the films such as "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" and the wig-fest that was "Labyrinth".
So, as you didn't ask for it, here's my Top 10 Bowie tracks... as of this moment. It might be different next week. Anyway, it's not what you'd expect. Unless you know me. In no particular order...
1. "Sound and Vision"
Why? Because! Oh, you want a bit more? Err, okay... it's got great drums, it's bouncy, easy to sing along to, doesn't outstay it's welcome, and it's just great pop. Always sounded great as a backing track for "Tonight's Programmes on BBC1" type trailers in 1978. Franz Ferdinand covered this a few years back with Girls Aloud doing the "doo-do-doo" backing vocals, which really is as good as pop gets. Truly.
2. "Absolute Beginners"
It's a shite film. Well, it's got Patsy Kensit AND Lionel Blair in it, so what do you expect? This was Thatcher's Britain, kids. However, hurrah for Dave Bowie, as he rescues the film by being great and contributes this fantastic song, recorded as a one-off with the band he put together for Live Aid. Covered by Saint Etienne, who left the chorus out, and it's still brilliant.
3. "Life On Mars"
By law, I'm not allowed to exclude this. Fortunately I would have included it anyway. Obviously by now I've got over my younger self's resistance to Bowie's early tunes. Even before being appropriated by Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt, this was a classic tune, building from that simple piano intro to that euphoric chorus. The lyrics are bollocks, mind you. "It's on America's tortured brow, that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow". Right, David.
4. "The Man Who Sold The World"
I'm a bit perverse here because I prefer both Lulu and Nirvana's cover versions to Bowie's original. Even Bowie preferred Lulu's. No idea what it's all about, but a great song though no matter who sings it. Well, apart from Simple Minds' Jim Kerr, who murdered it and several other classics on their covers album.
...talking of Mr Kerr, here's a track from Bowie I wore out on "Now 5" back in '85, where it was wedged tastefully between the aforementioned Fat Jim-era SM's "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and "Slave To Love" by the Ferry Man. A collaboration with Pat Metheny (who he?), this is sublime. Sha-la-la-la-laaa indeed.
6. "Underground"
See? You can't trust me with a best of Bowie can you? Ahh, except you can, because this is fucking ace. Fact - much of 80's Bowie actually is great, contrary to popular opinion i.e. arseholes on forums. It's just unfavourably compared with the giddy heights of his 70's output, and how can you compete with that? This track is from the "Labyrinth" movie soundtrack, as you can see from Dave's Bonnie Tyler impression on the sleeve to the left of this. Best bit is the gospel singalong in the chorus.
7. "Heroes"
I have to own up and say I'd never heard this track until he performed it at Live Aid, so to me the original sounds a bit slow and odd, especially without the saxophone. Untainted by over-use at the Olympics last year, or a teriible cover version by Oasis during their "Noel's run out of good songs for extra tracks on CD singles" era. Robert Fripp's guitar on this track is still amazingly weird.
8. "Speed Of Life"
I was introduced to this instrumental when I heard it on a mixtape by the once decent French electronic noodlers Air, and I thought it was brilliant. But who the hell was it? I was a bit taken aback when I discovered it was Bowie, so I went out and bought the album it came from, "Low", which of course had "Sound and Vision" on it. Brian Eno, Berlin, blah blah - you know all that. Top stuff. The Manics had it as intro music at their gigs, which shows they have great taste despite being Welsh.
9. "Space Oddity"
Predictable I know. Well, it was either this or "Ashes To Ashes" but this track wins as it reminds me of being five years old sat in the bath on a Sunday night, listening to Tom Browne on Radio One counting down the Top 20. Great days. "Hey look, the planet Earth is blue and there's nothing we can do". It even survived being "covered" by The Shirehorses as "Bill Oddity". "Ground beef Whiskas for Ginger Tom... take your worming pills and put your flea collar on"
10. and finally... "Hallo Spaceboy"
Yeah, so? My chart - my rules. Bowie plus Pet Shop Boys singing another song about Major Tom? It's a no-brainer. Tennant and Lowe didn't release a song this good for about another 9 years afterwards. Dressing like a preacher at the Brits though? Hmmm.Oh, and beware the album version as it's nothing like this.
Hey! I didn't use the word "chameleon" once. Okay, I may have missed classics like "Fashion", "Fame" (1990 version of course), "The Heart's Filthy Lesson", "Jean Genie", "Time Will Crawl", "Boys Keep Swinging", "Golden Years", "Blue Jean", "Modern Love", "Changes", "Ziggy Stardust"... even "Let's Dance" if you must. But it just goes to show how good Bowie's been for so long. Just buy the "Best Of Bowie" CD and play at random. Maybe skip "Dancing In The Street" though, unless you're in the mood. And this is just singles - his albums I'm less familiar with (I said I wasn't a "fan") but I'm sure there's wonderful stuff I've yet to discover. This is why I've broken my cardinal rule and pre-ordered his album off iTunes. And I never do that...
Bowie. Genius.
He can shove Tin Machine up his arse mind you.
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