David Bowie: Discography

In 1997 David Bowie would be celebrating his 50th birthday with all star bash at Madison Square Garden and the release of his debut album 30 years earlier. 1997 would prove to be a big year for Bowie but in typical Bowie fashion Bowie did not spend any time looking back but forward.

Releasing another ambitious album 'Earthling' this album took even further the electronic/industrial sound he explored on his previous release even further. This album gives no hint that David Bowie had been recording 30 years and sounds an album that embraced the sound of the alternative nation instead retreading over past glories.

Creative foil Reeves Gabrel returns to make strange noises on his electric guitar and not the role of guitar hero as he had in Tin Machine.

Songs like 'Seven Years In Tibet' and 'Telling Lies' sounds like Bowie had been listening to a bit of Nine Inch Nails, and the song 'Deadman Walking' sounds like a New Order track.

On this album Bowie proves he has no loyalty to any one genre and at 50 Bowie was on the edge of another creative streak, one that would win him critical acclaim but decrease his album sales significantly.

Bowie changed so much and went into a style I could never get into that much. Good for him though and I wonder why fans of this kind of music never embraced him much.

In 1999 David Bowie released the 'hours' a much mellower and less frantic album then the previous 'Earthling' album.

The lyrics on this album are the first time David Bowie's makes any reference to his past and the songs seem more personal in nature which may explain the mellower music that is being released this time out. Musically Bowie makes no reference to his musical past, which is typical of Bowie.

The album opens with 'Thursday's Child' which gets a title from a book of photos of Eartha Kitt that he owned as a teenager, a great opening track that establishes the template for the rest of the album.

This mellow vibe is carried out through out the album, where most albums where an artist explores a different approach and chooses a more mellow route it usually is boring as hell, but Bowie makes sure the listener remains interesting by writing interesting songs and lyrics, and never taking his audience's attention span or intelligence for granted.

Some song Bowie is down right crooning and overall it is a yet different side to Bowie's many artistic sides, great album.

I always saw this cover and wondered if it was some sort of concept album. I guess not.

chewie wrote:

I always saw this cover and wondered if it was some sort of concept album. I guess not.

Not a concept album but there is an interesting concept behind the album cover:

The album cover, designed by Rex Ray with photography by Tim Bret Day and Frank Ockenfels, depicts the short-haired Bowie persona from the intensely energetic previous album Earthling resting exhaustedly in the arms of a long-haired, more youthful version of Bowie.

This comp of David Bowie's BBC recordings where released in 2000, originally it came as three CD set and like all the archives of all major artist that have recorded for the BBC, this set has been heavily bootlegged til this legit release.

Since the BBC have opened up their archives it seems anyone who was anyone recorded for the BBC, albums from these sessions have been released by The Beatles, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, The Yarbirds, and now David Bowie.

The first two discs where recorded between 1968 when he was trying to make a name for himself and was almost a complete unknown to the height of his Ziggy Stardust mania in 1972.

The songs are basically live studio re-recordings of the studio cuts that Bowie had already recorded, the reason artist agreed to this is because BBC had what they called 'needle time', only a certain amount of time was spent playing records and the rest had to be devoted to live music, etc and that is why so many artist did these sessions.

Sadly for the most part the BBC did not see much importance in these recordings and in the early 70's BBC began destroying alot of these sessions, thankfully a lot of these recordings where saved by fans who worked at the BBC and Bowie's sessions where among them, but not all of them, some of Bowie's 1968 sessions are forever lost due to this policy.

This album is an excellent live in the studio disc and it is interesting to see the small changes that were made to such fresh new songs.

The third disc is an 'internet' only broadcast recorded in London in 1999, an excellent show all on its own, that was one of the first streamed concerts and was recorded (and filmed) by a select group of club fan members

I always thought that was a cool idea that the US should have done. I love live in the studio BBC stuff.

This will be off topic, but one of my favorite versions of a Hendrix song, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" is from the Beeb sessions........ It Smokes.

That would have been a cool idea for the States but I guess there was no need for programs similar to that in the U.S. because in the States we had nothing known as needle time.


I think a station in the States tried something similar to this, or maybe it was a one shot special, AC/DC recorded a live in a studio recording called 'Live from Atlantic Studios' that was bootlegged for eons til the band finally issued it as part of the Bonfire boxset.

In 2003 David Bowie reunited with producer Tony Visconti, the producer who helped both David Bowie and T. Rex in their 70's heyday create their sound. This was the first time Bowie and Visconti had worked together since 1980's Scary Monsters and Super Creeps.

This album was not a nostalgic album trying to capture a sound of an era long gone, this was a modern rock album where the music kept looking forward, in other words it was business as usual for Bowie.

The opening track 'Sunday' is slow sober opening number where Bowie's crooning conveys the bleakness in lyrics. The album examines the decline of modern civilization, the lack of communication and human contact due to modern technology.

Surprisingly their are three cover tunes, The Pixies 'Catcus' which is excellent, a touching version of Neil Young's I've Been Waiting for You' and a great cover of the song "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship' a song who have no idea who originally did.

What is great this album IMO, is this late into his career Bowie is not resting his laurels and continues to move forward. At this point if Bowie had an commercial concerns for his album sales, it sure does not seem like it.

Bowie fit in more with the alter native rock audience then he did the classic rock artist that he is rightfully associated with, even in the alternative world Bowie is clearly marching to his own drummer and his music is all the better for it.

On Heathen Dave Grohl appeared on one song on that album


Hours- I absolutely love this album so many good songs on there I think of the stuff from the last 10 years or so Hours is high on my list of favs I think Earthling would take the cake for me though or maybe tied.... Its this era where my collection lacks. Though the last Bowie Acquisitions I got was Earthling and Black Tie White Noise I do believe....

Addy wrote:

On Heathen Dave Grohl appeared on one song on that album


Hours- I absolutely love this album so many good songs on there I think of the stuff from the last 10 years or so Hours is high on my list of favs I think Earthling would take the cake for me though or maybe tied.... Its this era where my collection lacks. Though the last Bowie Acquisitions I got was Earthling and Black Tie White Noise I do believe....

He plays guitar on 'Waiting for You',

I always thought it was 5:15 The Angels Have Gone but I stand corrected -looked it up to verify-

My roommate has the complete David Bowie discography, I'm going to start working my way through in chronological order. Lots of stuff I've never heard before...should be fun!

Im maybe half a dozen albums away from having all the studio albums by Bowie

In 2003 David Bowie released 'Reality' that for all intents and purposes is reported to be Bowie's final studio album, with his disgust at the record industry, he has choosen to walk away or at least that is the rumor.

In 2003 there was no indication of this, the last few years being a creative renaissance of sorts, this album continued that winning streak , he once again teamed up with producer Tony Visconti.

The album stylistically is different then the last Bowie studio release, not surprising if you follow his career. On this album Bowie does not try to break any new ground and maybe the most straight forward he has done in decades.

The album is filled with alternative rock, almost like an arty R.E,M. and songs such as 'Days' ' New Killer Star' and his cover of the Modern Lovers 'Pablo Picasso' shows that Bowie has listened to his contemporaries and has taken in new influences.

If this indeed it is his final studio, that is a shame since this album is great listen, but would make a great swan song to a man who sold the world.

In 2009 David Bowie released on a CD/DVD his VH1 Storyteller's performance, why he waited ten years after the performance I have no idea, it could be because his lack of interest in releasing new music in the current climate and owed the record label an album or some other reason I have no idea.

If you ever watched the program then you know they tell a story behind each song, and this album is very interesting and does a good job of spawning his career despite the performance being just a tad over an hour, not an album that will make to your disc player often but an interesting performance




The DVD of this performance had originally been released in 2003 with no accompanying audio CD while Bowie waited til 2010 to release this performance on an audio CD is beyond me, but it is an excellent performance and his most recent songs from the Heathen and Reality album sound way better in a live setting then they do in a studio environment, this is an excellent live album.

And with this posting this ends David Bowie discography page, not many comments but I enjoyed taking over this from addy and I should note that addy did an excellent job I just hope I did this thread some justice. Thank you all who read and followed along.

Not much of a Bowie fan aside from the hits, but I checked in every now and then to see what the Thin White Duke was up to. From the sounds of it, I doubt I'll be adding anymore Bowie to my collection, but it was an interesting read.

Nice job Manny & Addy.

Theres supposed to be a reality tour live cd but ive never seen it on the shelves i think music wise that was the last thing bowie released.

Cant wait to add the new album to this......

Heard that yesterday, very curious what it will sound like.

I'm only 4 albums away from having all of the studio albums:

Black Tie White Noise
Aladdin Sane
Pinups
Lodger

Im not sure how many I need its not many....

I need

Lodger
(The new one)
and one of the Tin Machine albums I think Tin Machine II

for studio albums I think thats it. The last addition I got was Budda of Suburbia found it cheap in a Newbury Comics heh

Track Listing:
1) The Next Day (3:27) 2) Dirty Boys (2:58) 3) The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (3:56) 4) Love Is Lost (3:57) 5) Where Are We Now? (4:08) 6) Valentine's Day (3:01) 7) If You Can See Me (3:15) I'd Rather Be High (3:53) 9) Boss of Me (4:09) 10) Dancing Out In Space (3:24) 11) How Does The Grass Grow? (4:33) 12) (You Will) Set The World On Fire (3:30) 13) You Feel So Lonely You Could Die (4:37) 14) Heat (4:25) 15) So She (2:31) 16) Plan (2:02) 17) I'll Take You There (2:41) 18) God Bless The Girl (4:11)

After several years since the release of Reality , The Next Day is David Bowie returning with a vengence. This rock driven album shows the world that Bowie is back and that he still has it. The Entire album is rock and upbeat with the exception of the single Where Are We Now? As this song is a bit of the slow and slightly meloncoly in sound. Being the Big David Bowie fan I am , I remember having a bad day and getting news that this album was forthcoming really made my day. I had been waiting years for a new David Bowie album and here it was. I have to admit that the album cover to me was a cop out by altering the cover used for Heroes But knowing this is David Bowie and everything he puts out there is art I just simply dont understand why. I got the Deluxe version as it had more tracks. I had hoped he would tour but as always Mr. Bowie remained a recluse. Little did I know that this album would be the twilight of his legacy. Favorites include well essentially the entire album. No fillers here.

taken from rockconnection.rocksolyd.com

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I'm only 4 albums away from having all of the studio albums:

Black Tie White Noise
Aladdin Sane
Pinups
Lodger

I need Lodger & Tin Machine for all the studio albums