Entertainment For Lively Minds
How to guide a young Bowiephile?
Posted by bricameron on 21 December 2009 - 2:55am.
My Niece (16) has just discovered Bowie.She has fallen in love with him performing 'five years' from whistle test.My question though, is how to steer her onto the next step.I don't want to catapult her straight away into let's say 'Wild is the wind'.So bearing in mind that this child is visually stimulated what would be your recommendation?
BTW Have you seen this!?
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Get the double DVD compilation
it's available for £9 from Amazon, complete with some great Easter Eggs (incl all of the Dancing with Blue Jean video). This way she can pick which tracks she likes and you can steer her towards the album(s) in question - plus it's got "Wild is the Wind"!
She may just thank you for the rest of her life.
to begin at the beginning
would seem appropriate. Or at least, start where most people of a certain age started, with Ziggy and Hunky Dory.
Exactly where I would start
Bowie in 10 easy steps
Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust
Rebel Rebel (single)
Low
Heroes (single)
Scary Monsters
Modern Love (single)
Absolute Beginners (12" single)
Tin Machine
Strangers When We Meet (single)
Many thanks so far but,...
Are there any female Bowie fans in here that can relate to a sixteen year old girl in the first flush of Bowie love?
There are actually
I was properly introduced to Bowie as a girl of 16 or 17 by my Bowie-obsessive boyfriend. This was about 1988 or so, so I only knew Bowie as the guy that had scared me silly in the Ashes to Ashes video some years previously.
Anyway, I was introduced properly via the Ziggy video (the live performance where he says he's retiring) and I was absolutely mesmerised. I started off thinking "what a silly twit", looking at the daft costume and make-up, but by the time the concert had finished I was in awe and a little bit in love.
Might be worth a shot?
I was a 16 year old girl the year Ziggy Stardust was released
and personally, if she likes Five Years, I'd give her the album. And then, depending what she likes, either Aladdin Sane or Hunky Dory...
Introducing Mr Jones
Its really tough to say where the best place to begin with Bowie is as there are great songs throughout his career (right up to Heathen in 2002) and many of his album tracks are as good as the singles. I started in about 1989 with a K-Tel 1979 Vinyl compilation which was the best intro that any Bowie compilation offered at the time (1990's Changes comp puzzlingly ommitted Starman, Life on Mars and and Sound and Vision!!!!).
Now I would point you to the 2002 Best of Bowie which pretty much covers the essential singles, or if you want to sample the cream of the album tracks then iSelect from 2008 (chosen by Bowie himself) is utterly flawless. Naming an album to begin with is a tricky one as there are so many greats and they're all so different but for me - Hunky Dory, Station to Station and Scary Monsters have really stood the test of time.
As a final word, ten great Bowie tracks, spanning his career are listed below:
1 When I live my dream (1967)
2 Conversation Piece (1969) - (Note: the re-recorging from 2002 is just as good if not better than the original)
3 Life on Mars (1971)
4 Rock n Roll Suicide (1972)
5 Station to Station (1976)
6 Heroes (1978)
7 Teenage Wildlife (1980)
8 Lets Dance (1983)
9 Loving the Alien (1984)
10 Everyone Says Hi (2002)
Where'e Sheev
When you need him. I'll wait and then agree with him!
Question is do you let her hear 'The laughing gnome' or hide it away and hope she doesn't find it?
I'll pretend to be sheev....
...Start with "Stay" off Station to Station. Perfection.
As usual.
I'm not sure Sheev. What about -
"It's No Game (Part 2)" - nothing more modern has ever been made
As usual
And
Bowie ahead of the pack again.
As usual.
No, *I'm* Sheev!
Start with Hunky Dory. It's the most accessible way in. Ziggy would be a good next bet, Diamond Dogs if she can handle that.
I'd avoid the Let's Dance album. As a die-hard fan I have to say it's right at the bottom of the list as an album. Three great singles, a good cover (Criminal World) and some real crud as ballast. I think the much maligned Tonight and Never Let Me Down are better.
Heathen is a bloody good album, you could try her with that.
It'll be great whatever!
I'm Sheev; and so is my wife
...and she'd probably suggest "Diamond Dogs" - while I would be more inclined to go for Scary Monsters - arguably his last truly great album, hit singles and wild Fripp guitar included....
aw you guys...
- I feel tickled and touched. Only just spotted this thread courtesy of a prod from Lunaman on another one.
I think a 16 year old girl might like Hunky Dory the best - particularly "Kooks". It's perhaps the best collection of songs per se of any album of the blesed Dame's. I also have a hunch that Young Americans might find favour. Things like the title track and "Fame" sound utterly fresh and contemporary and the widescreen romanticism of "Win" or "Somebody Up There Likes Me" may find favour.
Needless to say, Professor McKinney's observation in current Downloads section that Station to Station is the best album of all time is a truth she will come to discover in time.
Of course - Tin Machine perhaps aside (at the outset anyway) - I would really say anything from anytime really
As usual
On the ball
As usual............
He's right....
.....again.
As usual.
He's right....
.....again.
As usual.
Beginning with Bowie
I bought Pin-Ups at a garage sale for about 25p when I was 12 or something. That's what started me off.
I reckon you get your niece a copy of Hunky Dory, if she melted at 'Five Years', then she'll adore HD. It is definitely more in tune with that than the Ziggy album - IMHO.
Boys!!
You're overwhelming me!,let alone a sixteen year old girl.One step at a time.One song at a time.Remember, this is a young impressionable girl who has 'Five years' on constant rotation.She's a throwback! We have to be careful with her. The fifth element careful with her...
A bit of Stardust
Why not point her in the direction of the Ziggy Stardust movie - the Hammersmith Odeon concert? The music should fit in with her Five Years obsession, the Dame is at his most visually stimulating - costumes, theatrics, even the silly mime thing - and it feels like a unique moment - 'this is the last concert we'll ever do'.
Sounds like she's got started off on the right track, wherever she goes Bowie won't let her down.
Agreed
Yes, Hunky Dory is the one to start with. If that goes well, you can ease her into Ziggy Stardust. After that, I reckon you could go for Diamond Dogs and The Man Who Sold the World.
Not sure why you'd want to build her (or anybody) up to Tin Machine.
As for The Laughing Gnome, it takes a heart of stone not to raise a smile when one hears that.
Ho ho ho
Brookster I have a very small soft spot for the Laughing gnome too. It would have made a better Xmas no 1 campaign than Rage against the machine.
If we are looking for one track to move on to from Five years maybe Life on Mars would fit the bill and keep her on the right track as it were.
wait til she has her first proper, ohmygodI wanna die...
hangover. Then send her to her room with Low....
Why not get.....
the track listing of the 1979 K-Tel compilation that walker182 mentioned, and make a cd version? I got that when I was 11, and I was hooked for life!
Was it this one? (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Side 1
"Space Oddity"
"Life on Mars?" (K-tel edit)
"Starman"
"Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"
"John, I'm Only Dancing" (Sax version)
"The Jean Genie"
"Breaking Glass" (Live from Stage)
"Sorrow" [edit]
Side 2
"Diamond Dogs' (K-tel edit)
"Young Americans"
"Fame" (Edit)
"Golden Years" (Edit)
"TVC 15" (Edit)
"Sound and Vision"
"Heroes" (Edit)
"Boys Keep Swinging"
That's it....
I think that I'll do my own comp from this, my copy is long gone!
Is there a 'Serious Moonlight' DVD in print?
This should close out a lot of the visual requirement (Bowie may be wearing an odd suit, and his backing singers look like Chicago mobsters with an ice cream business on the side but he's in vigorous form throughout) and the music, if I recall, isn't too bad either.
If I remember correctly
It starts off pretty tradtionally - solid gold all the way, something along the lines of Space Oddity
Life On Mars
Starman
Rock 'n'Roll suicide....But then you get this bizarre live version of Breaking Glass.. It rights itself pretty well after that though and I belive finishes with Boys Keep Swinging
Great cover too...the perfect intro to Bowie.
Breaking Glass on K-Tel album
I remember that, it's a pretty cool version, quite funky. Isn't off 'Stage'?
mindset of a teenager
I'm still only 23, so I can remember when I first got into David Bowie. I was 14. I heard "Let's Dance". I was never the same since. It's pop. It's edgy. It has a tune that could paralyse an elephant at 100 yards. What more could you want?
(Embedding disabled)
And whilst most of the above are superb tracks, they are more the slightly middle aged music fan take on Bowie, rather than the pop loving teenager.
Start with "Let's Dance". You know it makes sense.
I'd go with that...
I remember being on a school coach with some lads who were listening to a cassette of 'Let's Dance' on a shared Walkman. All was quiet until they burst into song with "and tremble like a flOWWWer".
bloomin 'ell...
You ask for guidance,and what do you get? A flora of rabid Bowie fans bursting to spring forth with... Merry Christmas everybody!!!
Yes I am mad and you can consider this thread closed!
Happy New Year!
"...thread closed."
Oh no it isn't!
Got to be Hunky Dory......
If she melts at Five Years, wait til she has Life on Mars? on rotation...
K Tel
One further point regarding that K-Tel comp… the sleeve said “Drive In Saturday” as track 7 but the vinyl label and actual record had “Breaking Glass (Live)”.
I’m guessing that there was some mix up, “Drive In Sat” was the more obvious choice (a top 3 single if I remember), while Breaking Glass (Live) was released as a single it only troubled the lower reaches of the chart. I have to say, as the first version of Breaking Glass that I ever heard, I always rated this highly.
… oh and the way John,
… oh and the way John, I’m Only Dancing phases into Jean Genie was a real highlight unique to this compilation…
Oh Yeah!
I'd forgotten that little Baroque fuzzbox cadenza_ Mick Ronson I presume.
The very same
.. mainly Ronson - but I think there was some squeaky sax in there as well (courtesty, no doubt of Dame David)...
Scary Monsters
would be my tip - pretty weird on the surface but underneath has, in my view, some of his strongest songs "It's No Game", "Because You're Young" "Fashion" etc.
I'd start her on the easy stuff
Sense Of Doubt
Alabama Song
The Baal EP
1.Outside
Anything after those will be a doozy :-)
This is a good place to start...
Changes One and CHanges Two
Good compilations....
Seems to look like this on amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Changesbowie-David-Bowie/dp/B00000DTQD/ref=sr_1_...