David Bowie: Discography

I'm gonna pick this one up.

Listened to the album this morning and it is an excellent album and the first one to sound like it is truley the work of David Bowie and not one influenced by Bowie's heroes.

This also happens to be (by Bowie standards) the heaviest album in his discography and features the first of many to feature Mick Ronson, the two saddest songs on the album is the title track and 'After All the Madman' which were particually influenced by David Bowie's older brother who had mental issues and eventually took his own life.

I would think that Earthling or 1.Outside would be his heaviest, but during the 70s Id agree I need to spin this one again

Hunky Dory 1971

Track Listing:

1. "Changes" – 3:37
2. "Oh! You Pretty Things" – 3:12
3. "Eight Line Poem" – 2:55
4. "Life on Mars?" – 3:53
5. "Kooks" – 2:53
6. "Quicksand" – 5:08
7. "Fill Your Heart" (Biff Rose, Paul Williams) – 3:07
8. "Andy Warhol" – 3:56
9. "Song for Bob Dylan" – 4:12
10. "Queen Bitch" – 3:18
11. "The Bewlay Brothers" – 5:22


Taken From Wikipedia: With the departure from Bowie's camp of Tony Visconti and his replacement on bass by Trevor Bolder, Hunky Dory was the first production featuring all the members of the band that would become known the following year as Ziggy Stardust's Spiders From Mars. Also debuting with Bowie, in Visconti's place as producer, was another key member of the Ziggy phase, Ken Scott. The album's sleeve would bear the credit "Produced by Ken Scott (assisted by the actor)". The "actor" was Bowie himself, whose "pet conceit", in the words of NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, was "to think of himself as an actor"

Following the hard rock of Bowie's previous album The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory saw the partial return of the fey pop singer of Space Oddity, with light fare such as "Kooks" (dedicated to his young son, known to the world as Zowie Bowie but legally named Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones) and the cover "Fill Your Heart" sitting alongside heavier material like the occult-tinged "Quicksand" and the semi-autobiographical "The Bewlay Brothers". Between the two extremes was "Oh! You Pretty Things", whose pop tune hid lyrics, inspired by Nietzsche, predicting the imminent replacement of modern man by "the Homo Superior", and which has been cited as a direct precursor to "Starman" from Bowie's next album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

A Few Videos of songs from this album


Changes


Kooks


Bewlay Brothers


Life on Mars?

Personally I have not listened to this cd much mainly because my wife kinda has confiscated it. LOL, I think she likes it more than she lets on, but on this CD theres some good songs on this one, Life on Mars?, Kooks, Changes, Queen smurfette, Oh You Pretty Things

Changes is one of the best pop songs of all time. Never owned this album, too folky for my taste.

Never owned this album but need to add to my want list, I rediscovered the song 'Life On Mars' due to the short lived ABC series of the same name.

'Changes' is of course a classic

Its a good album, The 4 samples I put up are some of my favs from that album

Its been awhile since ive fully spun it as I said my wife seems to always have it in her possession heh

Bewlay Brothers is my fave Bowie song of all time and Oh! You Pretty Things is my sisters fave Bowie song so Hunky Dory is not a bad slab o' wax (massive understatment, imo his peak of the Ronson era).

Now the one everybody's been waiting for....... On this one Im gonna let this one sit for a few days as I hope this is where itll pick up



The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars- 1972

Track Listing:

1. "Five Years" – 4:43
2. "Soul Love" – 3:33
3. "Moonage Daydream" – 4:35
4. "Starman" – 4:16
5. "It Ain't Easy" (Ron Davies) – 2:56
6. "Lady Stardust" – 3:20
7. "Star" – 2:47
8. "Hang on to Yourself" – 2:37
9. "Ziggy Stardust" – 3:13
10. "Suffragette City" – 3:19
11. "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" – 2:57

Taken From Wikipedia:

The album presents, albeit vaguely, the story of "Ziggy Stardust," the human manifestation of an alien being who is attempting to present humanity with a message of hope in the last five years of its existence. Ziggy Stardust is the definitive rock star: sexually promiscuous, wild in drug intake and with a message, ultimately, of peace and love; but he is destroyed both by his own excesses of drugs and sex, and by the fans he inspired.

In interviews, Bowie has said that the real-life inspiration for Ziggy was chiefly Vince Taylor, though the lyrics hint at Jimi Hendrix ("played it left hand ... jiving us that we were voodoo") and the character was likely a composite. Bowie claimed that the name came from a tailor's shop in London called Ziggy's. He later told Rolling Stone it was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter 'Z'." "Stardust" comes from one of Bowie's labelmates, a country singer named Norman Carl Odam, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Bowie covered a Legendary Stardust Cowboy song, "I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)" thirty years later on Heathen.

The Ziggy Stardust sessions began just a few weeks after Hunky Dory was released. The first song recorded for the album, the cover "It Ain't Easy," was recorded in September 1971. The first session in November produced "Hang on to Yourself," "Ziggy Stardust," "Rock 'n' Roll Star" (later shortened to "Star"), "Moonage Daydream," "Soul Love," "Lady Stardust," and "Five Years."

Also recorded during the November Ziggy Sessions were two more cover songs intended for the as-yet untitled album. They were Chuck Berry's "Around and Around" (re-titled "Round and Round") and Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam" (re-titled "Port of Amsterdam"). A re-recording of "Holy Holy" (first recorded in 1970 and released as a single, to poor sales, in January 1971) was initially slated for Ziggy, but was dropped in favour of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide." "Round and Round" was replaced by "Starman" and "It Ain't Easy" replaced "Amsterdam" on the album's final running order. All three were eventually released as b-sides.

My Thoughts:

As I had said I had been an unknowing fan since I was 6, when I bought this I was not really blown away, there was a period where I was buying David Bowie albums just to have them as I did like some of his stuff. It wasn't until I Really started getting into him that I came back to explore this album and I loved it, the second time around i was blown away. Easily one of his best works. Not a single filler song on this album, It in my opinion his Opus. I was for some reason thinking this came out in 1973, Looks like I have some editing to do on my website. I cant even list my favorites because id be repeating the track list all over again.


Samples from the Album: I am gonna post some of the lesser popular ones here


Five Years


Lady Stardust


Starman


Moonage Daydream


Soul Love

Ah, now this is an album I can get into. Pretty cool little story and rocked very hard for its time.

I think it was very much ahead of it's time

Of all the albums I have by him this is the one I probobly spin the most

This is of course a classic album and one of my favorite albums, every song is a classic, and it is album that I used to spin often.

'Moonage Daydream' is one of my favorite songs and this album Mick Ronson rocks

Keep your mouth shut/Your squawking like a pink monkey bird!

The album that Bowie found himself on. Mix some beatles with a little pop psychadelica and put it to a story that confuses everyone, including Bowie himself. The last half is a great run of songs being a little harder then the first five.
There's something about Bowie I can't explain, i'm not a huge pop fan normally.

Listening to this song this morning, I had forgotten how well the songs flow together. Also the diversity of the songs and how well they work together and sounds like an album as a opposed to random number of songs just thrown together.

David Bowie did not invent glam rock, that credit belongs more to T.Rex then Bowie, but what Bowie was able to do was take the influence of glam and incorporate into his image and made it even more 'outrageous' by 1972's standards. Amazingly his change of image and embracing androgyny made him a huge star and allowed him to break thru in the States, something other bands labeled glam such as T.Rex, Slade and Suzi Quatro where unable to do, it also helped that his music was in glam in name only, if the term alternative rock existed in 1972, that is what his music would have been labeled.

Of course none of that would mean a damn thing if the music was crap, and it was far from crap, it was well written, produced to that era's best standards and as a collection of classic songs that still hold up even after almost four decades.

Quote :

if the term alternative rock existed in 1972, that is what his music would have been labeled.

I agree

Ziggy Stardust is one of my favorite David Bowie albums from start to finish for an album.

Ziggy Stardust is the only Bowie record I own, other than his Greatest Hits. I bought the remastered version about a year ago in the local used shop. While I'm not a huge fan, I recognized many songs on the track list and it was cheap, so I thought I'd give it a go. Great album. Glad I picked it up.

And speaking of Mick Ronson, I also have this album, which is excellent too...

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Ziggy Stardust is the only Bowie record I own, other than his Greatest Hits. I bought the remastered version about a year ago in the local used shop. While I'm not a huge fan, I recognized many songs on the track list and it was cheap, so I thought I'd give it a go. Great album. Glad I picked it up.

And speaking of Mick Ronson, I also have this album, which is excellent too...

Never heard that Mick Ronson solo album, I will have to check it out, I think you would like the next few Bowie albums that followed like 'Aladdin Sane' and his covers album 'Pin Ups', I am huge fan so I enjoy all his different phases etc,

If I remeber correctly, that Mick Ronson album was released either right before or right after he died. There are multiple guest vocalists on it. Joe Elliott comes to mind. I forget who else. I think Bowie is on there too.

Ok Moving on.......


Images 1966-1967 1973 Deram Records

Track Listing:

Side one

1. "Rubber Band" – 2:17
2. "Maid Of Bond Street" – 1:43
3. "Sell Me A Coat" – 2:58
4. "Love You Till Tuesday" – 3:09
5. "There Is A Happy Land" – 3:11

Side two

1. "The Laughing Gnome" – 3:01
2. "The Gospel According To Tony Day" – 2:48
3. "Did You Ever Have A Dream" – 2:06
4. "Uncle Arthur" – 2:07
5. "We Are Hungry Men" – 2:58
6. "When I Live My Dream" – 3:22

Side three

1. "Join The Gang" – 2:17
2. "Little Bombardier" – 3:24
3. "Come And Buy My Toys" – 2:07
4. "Silly Boy Blue" – 3:48
5. "She's Got Medals" – 2:23

Side four

1. "Please Mr. Gravedigger" – 2:35
2. "The London Boys" – 3:20
3. "Karma Man" – 2:58
4. "Let Me Sleep Beside You" – 3:24
5. "In The Heat Of The Morning" – 2:59

a compilation album by the British pop singer David Bowie. It comprises his first long player release as a solo artist for Decca Records, titled The World of David Bowie, released in 1967, and various singles and B-sides recorded for Decca during 1966 and 1967. The arrangements are not for any sort of rock or pop group, they are mostly orchestral with sound effects created in the recording studio. The music reflects a period in Bowie's career when he was influenced by the London cabaret scene and the song styles created therein, particularly the work of singers such as Anthony Newley. In the UK, the World of David Bowie had never gone out of print, when Bowie finally had his breakthrough in 1972 with the album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and could still be obtained in British record shops at that time. In the US, where none of the Decca material was ever released, the original LP and singles were packaged into this double-album set and released in the US on Decca's American branded label, London Records. The release came at about the same time as Bowie's sixth studio album, Aladdin Sane, and was planned to cash in on Bowie's then-growing popularity in the US.


I dont have this collection either, in fact I dont think this is even out on CD, but its not a studio album but still a piece of Bowie-ism none the less. I think this was put out to capitalize on Bowie's rising popularity especially in the US where like it says here the Decca material was unattainable

Amazing how early in David Bowie's career his former record label tried to cash on his rising popularity, at this point in his career, Bowie had only two albums that sold well, with 'Hunky Dorky' not even achieving gold status til after a year or so after the release of the 'Ziggy' album release.

If i had thought of it I would have started when it was Davy Jones and the King Bees I think they released 2 albums, but yeah they were definitely trying to cash in, But what you will see is 1973 was a big year for Bowie Release wise I think the next 3 are from 1973

According to the biography 'Stardust' Davey Jones and the King Bees only released 2 or three singles not full albums.

-facepalms- Oh yeah thats right thats my bad but still would have been a good starting point. Is "Stardust" any good? I've been reading "Loving the Alien" for months and i cant get into it.

Addy wrote:

-facepalms- Oh yeah thats right thats my bad but still would have been a good starting point. Is "Stardust" any good? I've been reading "Loving the Alien" for months and i cant get into it.

It is better written then 'Loving the Alien' a few things in the book are a bit of suspect, but overall one of best rock bio's out there.

Ill have to check that out