Entertainment For Lively Minds
As usual, the answer is David Bowie
Somthing that's become something of an in-joke on this 'ere blog. But it is - isn't it?
A few examples off the top of my head from recent-ish threads:
Best Bass Line: "The Secret Life of Arabia"
Best Riff: "Stay"
Best Use of Strings: "Life on Mars"
Best Use of Piano: "Aladdin Sane"
Best Cover Version: "Working Class Hero"
Worst Cover Version: "See Emily Play"
And if you were to ask for one song that sums up the spirit of an age, then you'd have to look no further than Bowie for each decade he's been active.
Is there anything more redolent of the Sixties than "Space Oddity", or the Seventies than "All the Young Dudes" or the Eighties than "Ashes to Ashes", of the Nineties than "Dead Man Walking" from Earthling or of the Noughties thsn "Everyone Says Hi"?
Or if you'd like the best example of a ballad in pop - there's "Life on Mars" (again). Best anthem - "Heroes". Best power-pop - "Queen Bitch". Best pure pop - "Changes".
He does three things which are key to any major artist:
Synthesis - the ability to absorb from a variety of musical and non-musical sources. Mutation - the ability to subvert the norm. Adaptation - the ability to create a new construct suggestive of origins and yet entirely unique.
Oh and the last thing. He is a bigger and better influence on everything since his advent than were The Beatles. It is invidious and probably slightly silly to consider outcomes had events and characters that shape history been different. But without Bowie, his persona, his artistic courage, his inclusiveness, his lead - much of the most exciting and innovative music of the last three decades from Punk through Dance to Dubstep and so much of what we take for granted now - the incorporation of electronic, dance and non-Western tropes - into the mainstream sound may not have happened in anything like the same way.
You can bet too that all those who shape the sound of any decade from behind the mixing desk - Quincy Jones, William Orbit, Rick Rubin, Mark Ronson - have all paid attention to Bowie (and Tony Visconti's) work.
So, there you are - if you want the "best" example of something or just exemplary or totemic or perfect or someone who actually is better than The Beatles - as usual, the answer is David Bowie
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Worst cover by the Dame
Surely has to be 'God only knows' from the Tonight album.
That...
...is what I was going to say. I'm also pretty fond of this version of See Emily Play. Other than that, most of the OP is inarguable.
I was discussing with a friend the other night, the incredible career arc displayed by The Dame from Ziggy to Low, a mere four years (as Low was recorded in 76). That's Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Young Amercans, Station to Station and Low (as well as David Live and Pin Ups). There's nobody else I can think of who's displayed such a startling ability to embrace progress and to get it right pretty much every single time.
Consider, also, that during this time he wrote and produced The Idiot, produced Transformer and made The Man Who Fell to Earth and didn't really let up at all until late-1980.
He's The Greatest, as far as I'm concerned.
The only possible thing I can add is..
'See Emily Play' is actually fantastic, as is most of Pin Ups (go and give it an ear) and...
I might be mistaken, as I havent checked, but wasnt the infamous 'mug shot' taken in 1976?
Which, according to pocketcalculator's thesis, means that Bowie had produced all of the above mentioned work and looked like THAT at the end of it!
Cool. Bastard.
and he works so bloody hard
is the other point worth making.
Take a look at the clip below - particularly around 4'18" on - you can see it. Not eating, not sleeping - in the middle of a snow-blind hell - there he is still working, working, working away at his craft turning his voice from vaguely Vaudevillian to genuinely gritty and soulful. Trying to keep up with Nona Hendryx and Luther Vandross - ffs.
Can You Hear Me
For 20 years my all-time favourite tune
Sheev
Great post. You have reminded me why I love Bowie and listened to almost noone else between the ages of 18 and 21. Talk about influential - spot on. As an aspiring writer / singer it was DB I wanted to be. Not John or Paul - much as I love them too.
As usual...
Yer spot on Sheev. I agree with you on every point made (apart from Working Class Hero as best cover version!)
I'm really hoping we get at least one last album, before he shuffles off into well-earned retirement.
In full agreement
Bowie is for me what the HJH are for slightly older chaps - I was born in '60 and started listening to music really in the early '70s. When friends were listening to grim stuff like Uriah Heep; Bowie, Roxy etc made more of an impression on me, and when punk appeared I felt I understood it straight away. I can't agree that Working Class Hero is the best cover version ever but I will stand up for Tin Machine. One Shot from TM II is one of my favourite Bowie songs and is a regular listen on the old iPod.
One question I have which someone may be able to help with is that I heard a version of Golden Years credited to Bowie and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Was it a one-off or is there more of this "out there"?
There have been claims.....
There has never been an artist who has crossed over so many genres and made so much out of them than David Bowie. He must be the greatest living artist of the last forty years. Would I be on this site if David Bowie hadn't existed probably not. Sheev has said what needs to be said -
as usual.
I see your point - up to a point
I can't say I agree with all the superlatives listed but I'd add Ziggy Live 1973 at Hammersmith as the best live album of the glam rock era. Indeed, the early flowering of David's talents between 1969 and mid 70s in terms of lyrics, musical vision and the visual aesthetics of rock makes him the greatest quintessentially English rock songwriter and performer of that era. He had the whole package.
However, when I was growing up and developing my interest in heavier, more blues based music I'm afraid I never really got his later stuff.
But to prove I'm a still fan here's Queen Bitch live on BBC OGWT
Everybody Says Hi
Is a decent song, but isn't exactly a definitive example of anything. Otherwise, I pretty much agree with you.
A couple of questions
Was Let's Dance the last decent LP he produced?
Was the run of superb singles, from Space Oddity to Let's Dance, his greatest achievement?
The answer is of course
no no no.
Just check out Heathen for starters.
Is there anything
more redolent of the Noughties than a song most people have never even heard? Probably.
Explain...please
It has been now I withdraw an earlier comment.
Yes
because it sounds like the song Tony Blair would write if he could.
Thanks
I got the wrong end of the stick there.
I've been revisiting
1. Outside recently and blimey it's good. The 'story\concept' is a bit cringeworthy but musically its wonderful
Take time to listen to ...
Hours and Heathen from the 90,s then Reality-his last one. He,s still got plenty to offer, just try not to compare them with the 70,s classics ...and on a nostalgic note lets not forget Ronno-he really was the Nazz!
For a minute there I thought you
said he really was a Nazi. Then I read it again and realised you were referring to Mick Ronson.
...Hours is from 1999, yes,
...but Heathen is from 2002. [/pedant]
You're right about Reality. How superb is New Killer Star?
sheev
you can't be faulted here. There's not a word I disagree with. gotta adore the dame!
You forgot one thing "Best cameo"
Bowie's appearance in "Extras" would be a strong contender in that category.
I agree with much of OP
except to say that I think others did the innovating and he brought what they did into the mainstream through his brilliance at taking that source material and turning it into hits and his brilliance at promoting himself. Perhaps our greatest pop star though.
Personally I find I don't play his earlier stuff so much. I don't think the records are that interesting to listen to on the whole, I soon tire of them, although the singles sound fantastic when they come on the radio. The albums I find most re-playable are 'Station To Station' and 'Low'.
au contraire
I think you seriously underestimate his creativity and his desire to be a true artist. That is, to strive for new ways of expression and not to repeat yourself.
This clever advert points to this very attitude, but also highlights the fact that 1972 - 1980 is the classic period.
Much as I'm
enjoying the Bowie love-in here, am I the only one who thinks everyone has rose-tinted specs on to suggest that Bowie has been such a significant artist over the last two decades. He's produced the odd pieces of work that have appealed to his fans, nothing more.
Poor you.
That is all.
Sorry, I agree with Simon
I don't think David's work from Let's Dance onwards matches his stuff from the seventies, and while I love his singles, from Space Oddity to Let's Dance, they are easily the most interesting things on his classic seventies albums.
I've tried hard to like these LPs, as I love the Velvets, Stooges and Roxy Music, but sorry they just don't do it for me.
(Puts tin hat on and prepares to be damned - or Damed!)
Of course....
...his work from '82 onwards doesn't match what he did, as a whole, in the 70s - though there are momemts of brilliance in his catalogue from Let's Dance onwards. Nobody's work from any period matches what Bowie did in the 70s.
On the question of the singles being 'the most interesting things' on the 70s LPs, how about this selection of non-singles being just as 'interesting' as any of the singles from the 72-76 period?
01. Five Years
02. Lady Grinning Soul
03. Candidate
04. Can You Hear Me?
05. Stay
06. Speed of Life
Have a listen.
Agreed
A friend keeps playing me Heathen and 1.Outside and frankly I find them a bit boring. Up til Let's Dance, he was truly great. But to say Everybody Says Hi "defined the Noughties" is wrong, innit? The most recent things i like are his versions of Arnold Layne (Gilmour DVD) and America (Concert for New York) and the really brilliant suit and pullover he wears in the I'm Afraid Of Americans whe.
Bowie's 'influence'
It was this fanaticism with all things Bowie that made the 1980s was it was........utter crap.
I like Bowie (superb mod 45s on Pye, under rated 'Space Oddity' LP, 'Free Festival', 'Holy Holy') but I'd argue that of the 36,578 artists he influenced all of them (all of them) are second division.
Frankly, if Chuck Berry had only influenced the Stones, Buddy Holly had only influenced the Beatles, and Woody Guthrie had only influenced Dylan, those three artists should be regarded as more influential then Bowie.
Quality over quantity see.
Being an influence on the Human League, Robert Elms and Steve Strange is not to be applauded.
Actually, thinking about it, the Dame should be put in the stocks.
Are you saying
that The Pistols and Siouxsie and The Clash and Blondie and Talking Heads and Associates and Depeche Mode and Stone Roses and Massive Attack and Chemical Brothers and Radiohead and Air and Franz Ferdinand and Goldfrapp and Arcade Fire and Ryan Adams and Flaming Lips and Midlake and Burial are all second rate?
On the point of being a gifted copier rather than a true original - I would say that Low and Heroes and Lodger and Scary Monsters are as original and as brave as music in the pop idiom gets.
As for his later output - all I can say is just listen. Particularly Heathen. It is unique, awkward, wonderful. As usual
NME...
...surveyed a load of artists in 1999, asking each who they thought was the most influential artist of the 20th century.
Bowie was number one.
"Is there anything more
"Is there anything more redolent of the Sixties than "Space Oddity", or the Seventies than "All the Young Dudes" or the Eighties than "Ashes to Ashes", of the Nineties than "Dead Man Walking" from Earthling or of the Noughties thsn "Everyone Says Hi"?
60's:St Peppers (or anything released in that decade by The Bealtes, The Stones, The Kinks or the Beach Boys). Given that it was released at the arse end of the decade in July 1969 and was a bigger hit on its re-release in 1975, I'd say it wasn't particulalry "redolent" of either decade but caught between the two.
70's:Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen or Anarchy in the UK, Sex Pistols
80's: agreed, and helped shape the sound and look of the decade.
90's: more people heard me whistling in the shower on any given weekday morning in that decade than heard Dead Man Walking. The correct answer (probably) is either Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana or Wannabe, the Spice Girls.
Noughties: Biology, Girls Aloud
Let's spend the night together
is my vote for worst cover. It's a a 'by the numbers' version. sounds like when a band does 'Johnny b Goode' just to fill up the time.awful.
Worst Bowie track has to be 'Modern Love'.Must have taken him 30 seconds to write.
awwww
Come on! How about that daft intro.. it's brilliant! "I know when to go out/I know when to stay in/Get things done...."