Anyone Heard of This David Bowie Chap?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:52 pm

We have a new music/DVD/Cut price HMV in town called, wonderfully, FOPP. In there today I managed to pick up Nigel Kneal's The Stone Tape for a fiver, and also perchance happened to see they have a load of David Bowie albums priced between three and 8 quid.

So does anyone (and yes, I know this means mostly Cliffy, but I'm assuming there are others out there or this would be a PM...) have any reccomendations on what's a good one to start with/ones to avoid at all costs? I've got the greatest hits on CD/DVD and feel like branching out into the albums.

At this stage it'd help if I remembered what they had in there- The ones I do recall are Honkey Dorey, Space Oditty, one with a post cardesque cover and the Labarynth soundtrack. Oh, and a odd one that instead of a standard jewel case was instead in a slipcase with Japanese writing all over it and a message from Bowie on the back saying how these were some of his favorite songs and he really wanted me to buy it.

And for those who don't know- Why Bowie is so great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GONs9sgfXw

Bring on the Ashes To Ashes spin off...

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:19 pm

Must-Haves:

Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust (not the 'movie' soundtrack, which is a below-par gig)
Diamond Dogs
Station to Station
Stage
Scary Monsters
Heathen
Reality

Highly Recommended, But Not a Good Place to Start:

Man Who Sold the World
Young Americans
Low
"Heroes"
Lodger
Tin Machine
1.Outside
Earthling
The Buddha of Suburbia (if you can find it)

Alright:

Space Oddity
Pinups
David Live
Let's Dance
Never Let Me Down
Tin Machine II
Black Tie, White Noise
hours

Avoid:

Aladdin Sane
Tonight
Labyrinth Soundtrack
Anything which has 'Space Oddity', 'The Laughing Gnome' and you don't recognise any of the rest
Club Bowie (which I think is still in circulation)
Ziggy the Movie

But yeh, the albums are generally pretty solid from Man Who Sold the World through to Scary Monsters, if occasionally a little bizarre. The 1980s stuff, well, bluntly, if you have the singles, you have the best bits, and the 1990s onwards stuff is hard for some people to accept because he isn't just playing "The Jean Genie" and duetting with the Stereophonics.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:27 pm

Wasn't he very popular again at some point in the mid to late 90's? I'm sure he was on Top of the Pops in a union jack suit. Assuming I'm not confusing him with Ginger Spice... But yeah, it's mostly the 70's stuff I play the most on the best of CD.

I think a Hunkey Dory purchase is in order then. After all, if it's good enough for Rachel Stephens to cover. I'll look out for the Diamond Dogs as well, that's probably my favourite song of his. So far anyway...

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:55 pm

Yeah, I think he's the guy who wrote Moonage Daydream for Racer X.

Osku · Post by **Osku** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:08 pm

Bowie's older stuff never really interested me enough to buy the records, but I really like his rather recent album 1.Outside. But on the other hand, a friend of mine who's tried to convince me of Bowie's greatness for years can't stand that exact same album...

Yeh, not very helpful.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:17 pm

1.Outside is probably my fave Bowie album (Deranged, Hearts Filfthy Lesson, Thru' These Architects' Eyes, I have Not Been to Oxford Town, the revved-up version of Strangers When We Meet, the drums, drums and more drums, then add extra drums for most of it original version of Hallo Spaceboy for a start), but it's a bit odd for a first Bowie album... It depends on whether you listen to much other industrial.

The Union Jack suit thing was when Bowie had the obligatory "Give him a Brit, send latest single top 20" thing... and being the kind of bloke he was, instead of releasing a vague knock-off of the stuff NME readers like, he did a slightly mental drum-n-bass album (Earthling). Best thing about Bowie is he's Not Tom ****ing Jones.

Osku · Post by **Osku** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:26 pm

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
1.Outside is probably my fave Bowie album (Deranged, Hearts Filfthy Lesson, Thru' These Architects' Eyes, I have Not Been to Oxford Town, the revved-up version of Strangers When We Meet, the drums, drums and more drums, then add extra drums for most of it original version of Hallo Spaceboy for a start), but it's a bit odd for a first Bowie album... It depends on whether you listen to much other industrial.

The funny thing is that I don't usually listen industrial music. "Hearts Filthy Lesson" was the song that caught my interest originally and after seeing a live performance on TV of "Hello Spaceboy" with three drum batteries (correct word?) I was sold.

Earthling wasn't much to my liking sadly. Has he released albums after that? [being lazy]

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:34 pm

Fopp's awesome.

Bath has two. Within easy walking distance of each other. Carrying much the same stock.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:35 pm

Yeh, three to date - 'hours', which didn't really click, and then Heathen and Reality, which did

And Spaceboy's terrific live... there's an amazing version with Dave Grohl joining something like three other drummers on bootlegs.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 6:44 pm

Originally posted by Brendocon
Fopp's awesome.

Bath has two. Within easy walking distance of each other. Carrying much the same stock.

You mean there are really more of them?!?! They did this big feature on them in a slow news week in The Kidderminster Shuttle where the manager bigged up the chain saying they were all over the country, but no one here has ever heard of them. We thought it was all a lie. Perhaps the other stores are all in Bath.

I opted for Hunky, Ziggy and Diamond, and am currently half way through the third one as I type. I did pick up Station To Station as well, but as three of the six songs are on the best of album it seemed a little pointless. The Japanese writing one was "Pin Up", and I was very tempted despite the higher price because Takara teaches us that puting Japanese writing on things makes it cooler.

My mother popped round for a cup of tea whilst Ziggy was on, and she declared Bowie couldn't sing and David Cassiady was allways better.

Based on first impressions, I'd say Ziggy is the best of the three, but all have rather good stuff on- Kooks (or ode to Zowie as it should really be called) was fab.

And what the hell is wrong with Tom Jones? I don't know if I told you this, Elvis said he had the greatest voice of his generation...

StoneCold Skywarp · Post by **StoneCold Skywarp** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:01 pm

The only time I've ever heard of 'FOPP' was in substitution for the word 'sapp' could've been australian programming.

Still, not that Music Zone are going tits up, the country needs a discounted music outlet to replace them.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:03 pm

The fact they're opening in Kidderminster makes them extremely discount.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:34 pm

I think there's two in Southampton. There's at least one, at any rate. Nice selection of stuff - only thing is places like that attract students like poo attracts flies, and you can't walk into one without hearing some **** going "Hu hu hu... dude... Thundercats - ironic! Dude".

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:40 pm

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
"Hu hu hu... dude... Thundercats - ironic! Dude".

The Thundercats logo makes a niffty T-Shirt but I'm not so sure where the irony comes in. The FOPP does indeed have a niffty selection of cheap stuff, thanks to a seemingly endless warehouse clearence sale.

I'm tempted by the Labarynth soundtrack as according to a thread on OG The Car from Red Dwarf sings one of the songs on it...

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:52 pm

Originally posted by Brendocon
Fopp's awesome.

Are they supposed to have any organisation of titles or is it just the one on Merry Hill's that's totally random?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:55 pm

Well, the Warehouse clearence stuff is random, but the rest is fairly standard HMV layout. Though The Stone Tape was in the Film section, that was probably because of the member of staff being fooled by the 90 minuet running time...

Jetfire · Post by **Jetfire** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:28 pm

I love the Bowie trinity of 'The Man who sold the world', 'Hunky Dory' and 'Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars'.

Aladdin Sane was utter **** after hearing those 3. I'm not sure why it's got a good rep.

I like few more but I'm totlly undecied which album I feel is best Hunky ory or Ziggy. Both are both so perfect in very different ways.

Osku · Post by **Osku** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:18 am

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
Yeh, three to date - 'hours', which didn't really click, and then Heathen and Reality, which did

And Spaceboy's terrific live... there's an amazing version with Dave Grohl joining something like three other drummers on bootlegs.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye open for those in mid price stores.

I did a little search, and I think we're talking about same version.
http://listing-index.ebay.com/actors/Ha ... ceboy.html

"At Bowie's 50th Birthday Bash in New York January 1997, the song was performed together with Foo Fighters. This version featured Zachary Alford, William Goldsmith and Dave Grohl on three different drum sets and Nate Mendel and Gail Ann Dorsey on two bass guitars."

Do you have that bootleg? I'd be interested in a copy.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:17 pm

Yeh, that's the one

Check yer PMs

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:11 pm

Having now given all three albums a good listen, I'd say Ziggy is my favourite, though the Orwellian stuff in Diamond Dogs was neat as well.

It was actually Moulin Rouge that got me into Bowies stuff after years of not having any time for him and being sick of that same TOTP clip of Starman being shown on documentaires complete with the same "We tuned in to knock one out over Pan's People but instead we didn't know if Bowie was a boy or girl or straight or gay, it shocked the whole UK it did" anecdotes.

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