David Bowie: Discography

Once i get the studio albums knocked out Ill be starting on getting the live stuff. Which I think I am only a few away from getting and technically its a soundtrack Buddha of Suburbia

I have alot of holes in my David Bowie collection, and eventually would like to get them all and replace my vinyl Bowie collection with CD's

technically I got all the studio albums, I also got the Storytellers and best of and the labyrynth soundtrack and the sound and vision box set. Compilations and Live albums are all I need and soundtracks but I personally consider Buddha of Suburbia a album and that one I dont have. Criss hooked me up with a copy of Bowie's Strangers When We Meet which was a Target exclusive

Ok moving along I guess......


Young Americans 1975 RCA Records


Track Listing:

1. Young Americans (5:10)
2. Win (4:44)
3. Fascination (5:43)
4. Right (4:13)
5. Somebody Up There Likes Me (6:30)
6. Across the Universe (4:30)
7. Can You Hear Me? (5:04)
8. Fame (4:12)

Definitely a transition album going from the characters of Alladin Sane, Ziggy Stardust and Halloween Jack, comes a Motown Philly Soul influenced Bowie. This album has a few noteables first, A young Luther Vandross is on this album and The Working Class Hero himself (John Lennon) contributed guitar on Fame and Across the Universe as well as background vocals on Fame.


Across the Universe


Fame


Can You Hear Me



Young Americans

This is an excellent David Bowie album and I love this very short lived 'plastic soul' period, 'Young Americans' is of course a stand out single, and the song 'Fame' is a great song that got overplayed when it was released as single again when the movie 'Pretty Woman' was released.

I always though the song 'Fascination' was another great song and I feel the only misstep was his cover of The Beatles 'Across the Universe', other then a great album with an artist enjoying one of the biggest creative winning streaks of the 70's

I have to agree about the cover, Across the Universe is my # 1 favorite Beatles tune but I didnt like how Bowie did it.

I do think its a good album its not one I regularly spin but going from Diamond Dogs to that thats one heck of a transition ya know?

I did not think about it til you mentioned it Addy, but you are right going from 'Diamond Dogs' which is this arty, alternative rock album to Bowie's version of English blue eyed soul music is a 180 degree artistic turn that few artist back then could get away with and pull off successfully like Bowie was able to do.

I wonder how the fans of that time period reacted or if they gave it much creedance?

Addy wrote:

I wonder how the fans of that time period reacted or if they gave it much creedance?

Good question but they seem to go along with whatever Bowie wanted to do since the album was very successful.

Yeah true that, what I mean is I wonder if anyone of that time period was just like "Whoa He went from Diamond Dogs to This?"

It was the 70's. People were listening to disco and snorting coke like candy.

I love this era of Bowie and even Across The Universe but then, i'm not a Beatles fan per se so this works for me. You know, I haven't listened to much Bowie in years, this is like meeting some old friends again.

Station to Station 1976 RCA

Track Listing:

1. "Station to Station" – 10:14
2. "Golden Years" – 4:00
3. "Word on a Wing" – 6:03
4. "TVC 15" – 5:33
5. "Stay" – 6:15
6. "Wild Is the Wind" (Ned Washington, Dimitri Tiomkin) – 6:02

regarded as one of his most significant works, Station to Station is also notable as the vehicle for Bowie's last great 'character', The Thin White Duke. The album was recorded after he completed shooting Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, and the cover featured a still from the movie. During the sessions Bowie was heavily dependent on drugs, especially cocaine, and recalls almost nothing of the production.

Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul music of his previous release, Young Americans, while presenting a new direction towards synthesizers and motorik rhythms that was influenced by German electronic bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!. This trend would culminate in some of his most acclaimed work, the so-called Berlin Trilogy, recorded with Brian Eno in 1977–79. Bowie himself has said that Station to Station was "a plea to come back to Europe for me". The album’s lyrics, meanwhile, reflected his preoccupations with Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion.

According to biographer David Buckley, the Los Angeles-based Bowie, fuelled by an "astronomic" cocaine habit and subsisting on a diet of peppers and milk, spent much of 1975–76 "in a state of psychic terror".Stories—mostly from one interview, pieces of which found their way into Playboy and Rolling Stone—circulated of the singer living in a house full of ancient-Egyptian artefacts, burning black candles, seeing bodies fall past his window, having his semen stolen by witches, receiving secret messages from The Rolling Stones, and living in morbid fear of fellow Aleister Crowley aficionado Jimmy Page. Bowie would later say of L.A., "The "explicitly deleted" place should be wiped off the face of the earth".

It was on the set of his first major film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, that Bowie began writing a pseudo-autobiography called The Return of the Thin White Duke.He was also composing music on the understanding that he was to provide the picture's soundtrack, though this would not come to fruition. Director Nicolas Roeg warned the star that the part of Thomas Jerome Newton would likely remain with him for some time after production completed. With Roeg's agreement, Bowie developed his own look for the film, and this carried through to his public image and onto two album covers over the next twelve months, as did Newton's air of fragility and aloofness

The Thin White Duke became the mouthpiece for Station to Station and, as often as not during the next six months, for Bowie himself. Impeccably dressed in white shirt, black trousers and waistcoat, The Duke was a hollow man who sang songs of romance with an agonised intensity while feeling nothing, "ice masquerading as fire". The persona has been described as "a mad aristocrat", "an amoral zombie", and "an emotionless Aryan superman". For Bowie himself, The Duke was "a nasty character indeed"

Bowie himself has been quoted in saying he does not remember even making this album. But I do like it, Word on a Wing and Golden Years are awesome

This another great Bowie album I do not own, very interesting story on the backround and history of this album that I was unaware of and I need to add this disc to my collection

I felt like this was a huge letdown after Young Americans. I'm not into electronic at all and other then a couple songs that made radio don't know this one well.

I didnt spin this very often not until I heard Word on a Wing I love that song

But I believe Bowie was on the verge of being strung out as I remember reading that alot considered this album to have Bombed. I have this album

Moving on..........

ChangesoneBowie 1976 RCA

1. "Space Oddity" (from Space Oddity, 1969) – 5:14
2. "John, I’m Only Dancing" (from "John, I’m Only Dancing" single, 1972) – 2:43
3. "Changes" (from Hunky Dory, 1971) – 3:33
4. "Ziggy Stardust" (from Ziggy Stardust, 1972) – 3:13
5. "Suffragette City" (from Ziggy Stardust, 1972) – 3:25
6. "The Jean Genie" (from Aladdin Sane, 1973) – 4:03
7. "Diamond Dogs" (from Diamond Dogs, 1974) – 5:56
8. "Rebel Rebel" (from Diamond Dogs, 1974) – 4:30
9. "Young Americans" (from Young Americans, 1975) – 5:10
10. "Fame" (Bowie, Carlos Alomar, John Lennon) (from the single RCA 2579, 1975) – 3:30
11. "Golden Years" (from Station to Station, 1976) – 3:59

Changesonebowie was David Bowie's first widely-selling compilation album, issued by RCA Records in 1976. It collected songs from the 1969-1976 period, including the first LP appearance of "John, I'm Only Dancing". A 'sax version' of this song, cut during the Aladdin Sane sessions in 1973, appeared on the first 1000 copies of the UK pressing (these can be identified by the lack of the RCA logo in the upper-right corner of the cover). Later pressings of ChangesOne featured the original version of the single that had been recorded and released in 1972. The US LP contains this original version as well.

Two of the tracks, "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City", had never been released as singles when Changesonebowie was issued, though the former had been the B-side of "The Jean Genie" in November 1972 and the latter would be released as an A-side in July 1976 to help promote the compilation.

The cover shot was taken by Tom Kelley, who took the famous nude calendar photographs of Marilyn Monroe on red velvet in 1949.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 425 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

RCA released Changesonebowie on CD in 1985, but was withdrawn within a year along with the rest of the Bowie RCA catalog, due to a conflict between Bowie and RCA. Bowie's catalog was reissued by Rykodisc beginning in 1990 and the original RCA compilation became Changesbowie on which "Fame" was substituted by the "Fame 90" Gass Mix and "'Heroes'", "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love", and "Blue Jean" were added. Due to their additional potential running time Rykodisc chose to add, in addition to the above, the songs "Starman" (following "Space Oddity"), "Life on Mars?" (following "The Jean Genie"), and "Sound and Vision" (following "Golden Years") to the cassette and double LP editions of the album.


I have this on CD, I got it just because 1) it was Bowie and 2) For the song "John I'm Only Dancing" which sparked some controversy originally released as a single but I believe this is the first "Album" it appears on

"John, I’m Only Dancing" is a single by David Bowie, released in September 1972. The song was widely believed to be concerned with a homosexual relationship, the narrator informing his boyfriend not to worry about the girl he's with because he's "only dancing" with her. Bowie had been 'out' since an interview with Melody Maker in January 1972, and the subject matter did not affect the single's radio airplay in the UK, where it became his first back-to-back hit, following "Starman" earlier in the year. However, the original video directed by Mick Rock, featuring androgynous dancers from Lindsay Kemp's mime troupe, was banned by Top of the Pops.

The single was not released in America, being judged too risqué by RCA[3] (though according to NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, "it did just great on import in Memphis, Tennessee") and did not officially appear stateside until it was finally issued on the compilation Changesonebowie in 1976. While the hook ("John, I'm only dancing / She turns me on / But I'm only dancing") has long been considered a ga-hey tease, author Nicholas Pegg asserts that the song's narrator "could just as easily be a straight man reassuring the girl's lover".

Musically in a light R&B style, the track was re-recorded on 20 January 1973 during the Aladdin Sane sessions, in a slightly different arrangement featuring Ken Fordham on saxophone. Often called the "sax version", this was issued as a single in April 1973 with exactly the same catalogue number as the first release, creating a collector's nightmare. Generally held to be superior to the original cut,the sax reworking also appeared on early pressings of Changesonebowie before it was replaced with the original single version. In 1974, a completely reworked funk-influenced version was recorded as "John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)".

I had original version of this vinyl and later got the reissue with extra tracks that added 'Let's Dance' and other tracks.

The original vinyl copy was the first David Bowie album that ever owned and I bought it mainly for 'Changes' and thankfully I enjoyed the rest of the album and became a life long David Bowie fan.

Good compilation but I would get the reissue as it has more songs added. Bowies comps are great, not as much filler like so many bands.

I agree this is/was a good complilation I believe mine has the added songs mainly I got it for the 1 I didnt have, theres no fillers

Low 1977 RCA

Track Listing:

1. "Speed of Life" – 2:46
2. "Breaking Glass" (Bowie, Dennis Davis, George Murray) – 1:52
3. "What in the World" – 2:23
4. "Sound and Vision" – 3:05
5. "Always Crashing in the Same Car" – 3:33
6. "Be My Wife" – 2:58
7. "A New Career in a New Town" – 2:53
8. "Warszawa" (Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:23
9. "Art Decade" – 3:46
10. "Weeping Wall" – 3:28
11. "Subterraneans" – 5:39


Widely regarded as one of his most influential releases, Low was the first of the "Berlin Trilogy", a series of collaborations with Brian Eno (though the album was actually recorded mainly in France and only mixed in West Berlin). The experimental, avant-garde style would be further explored on "Heroes" and Lodger. The album's working title was New Music Night and Day.

The genesis of Low lies in both the foundations laid by Bowie's previous album Station to Station, and music he intended for the soundtrack to The Man Who Fell to Earth. When Bowie presented his material for the film to Nicolas Roeg, the director decided that it would not be suitable. Roeg preferred a more folksy sound, although John Phillips (the chosen composer for the soundtrack) described Bowie's contributions as "haunting and beautiful". Elements from these pieces were incorporated into Low instead. The album's cover, like Station to Station, is a still from the movie: the photographic image, juxtaposed with the album's title, formed a deliberate pun on the phrase "low profile".

Following the release of Station to Station, Bowie began to rekindle his interest in art. As a recovering cocaine addict, his songwriting on Low tended to deal with difficult issues; many of the songs concern lethargy, depression, estrangement, or self-destructive behaviour. Producer Tony Visconti contended that the title was partly a reference to Bowie's "low" moods during the album's writing and recording.

The format of the album was unusual for its time: side one contained short, direct song-fragments; side two comprised longer, mostly instrumental tracks. On these tracks help was lent by ex-Roxy Music keyboardist and conceptualist Brian Eno, who brought along his EMS 'suitcase' AKS synthesizer (Bowie was later given this particular synthesizer as a birthday present after a friend obtained it in an auction). Often incorrectly given credit as Low's producer, Eno was responsible for a good deal of the direction and composition of the second side of the album and actually wrote the theme and instrumentation for "Warszawa" while Bowie was in Paris attending court hearings against his former manager. Eno in turn was helped by producer Tony Visconti's four-year-old son who sat next to Eno playing A, B, C in a constant loop at the studio piano. This phrase became the "Warszawa" theme. On Bowie's return Eno played him the work which impressed Bowie who then quickly composed the vaguely Eastern European-sounding lyrics.

Although the music was influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!,[1][6] Low has been acclaimed for its originality and is considered ahead of its time, not least for its cavernous treated drum sound created by producer Visconti using an Eventide Harmonizer.[3][8] On the release of Low, Visconti received phone calls from other producers asking how he had made this unique sound, but would not give up the information, instead asking each producer how they thought it had been done


Sound & Vision


Be My Wife


Always Crashing In The Same Car


Speed of Life

Love this album, "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "Warszawa" are some of my fav tunes, though I listen to it all the way thru.

I had a buddy who had these editions with the bonus tracks....

This is one of my favorite David Bowie albums and one I have on vinyl and need to up grade, this album had a huge impact on alternative rock of the 80's and you can still hear this album's influence on bands such as RadioHead's 'Kid A' album and Nine Inch Nails 'The Fragile' which you can tell where greatly influenced by this album.


Even bands like Joy Divison owe a huge debt to this album, one of the darkest and most beautiful albums I have in my collection, highly recommended.

I love this album too and Id say that this album was a forefather of the 80s synthpop explosion. Definitly ahead of its time, also one of my all time favorite Bowie albums, Id give it an 11/10 if i had to rate it on a scale 1-10

Brian Eno also learned alot working with Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, listen to Eno's work with some of the later day U2 albums and you will see what I mean.

Also should be noted that Tony Visconti made his mark as producer working with one of my fav bands and artists T. Rex ( Marc Bolan).

manny wrote:

Brian Eno also learned alot working with Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, listen to Eno's work with some of the later day U2 albums and you will see what I mean.

Also should be noted that Tony Visconti made his mark as producer working with one of my fav bands and artists T. Rex ( Marc Bolan).

Visconti also produced some early Strawbs albums and his own band Omaha Sheriff.