The Man Who Polled the World, aka DAVID BOWIE POLL RESULTS

51. "Joe the Lion" (from "Heroes") - 251 points/9 votes/1 first-place vote

http://youtu.be/VcXb2FXcWg4

Love Joe the Lion! Not on my ballot though....

Like 'Blackout', this is another "Heroes" track that is just filled with great moments, especially the 'It's Monday...' section which is an excellent little change. Fantastic guitar work throughout, too.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwvhfu0Oqh1qggdq1.jpg

Joe The Lion, Made Of Iron (In Zion)

50. "A New Career in a New Town" (from Low) - 251 points/12 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/JhZqsYkl1zI

For those of you who don't know, that's the artist Chris Burden, who inspired the song. Here he is nailed to a Volkswagen...he also had himself shot in the arm, etc...great artist.

did not know joe the lion was about chris burden! thx for the tip iago.

In making my ballot I made the snap decision to skip all instrumentals. Did anyone else decide to do that? As much as I like almost all of them (though "A New Career in a New Town" would not have made my list, like most of the others over it) it seemed to take space away from the meat of Bowie's career, if that makes sense? My original list that had 45 songs or whatever had 4 or 5 instrumentals, and it just made things so much easier to consider them as a separate entity.

I'll never forget hearing 'A New Career In A New Town' for the first time, and getting that great 'tingle' that the best music gives. I feel that giving this piece of music lyrics would only taint it, since it's just so perfectly realised and everything that you need to know is there in the music. It seems to capture this joyful feeling of moving on, but simultaneously there's something about that harmonica that sounds like a goodbye tinged with regret. Quite apt really, all things considered. It's a beautiful tune. Another one of those I wish I'd had room for on the ballot.

The harmonica is really great in that tune

49. "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" (from Scary Monsters) - 258 points/11 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/NHywdqH3F6Y

Oh hello there, my #15!

did not know joe the lion was about chris burden! thx for the tip iago.
― Spectrist, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:25 PM (13 minutes ago)

You're welcome, Spectrist!

Bowie is often an abstruse lyricist so the instrumentals were his best chances of finding musical correlatives for his concepts, you know? What song speaks to Bowie's interests in motorik and C&W than "A New Career..."?

Listening to 'Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)' right now. The track, not the album. Every time that outro comes on, it makes me sad that it seems unlikely that he'll ever play live again. That outro was designed to be a prime live moment, I feel.

the title track allowed for one of the Gabrels era's best live performances.

My snap decision now seems to be just that, an opportunity to make picking 20 songs a little easier. I think I would trade a couple of my eventual choices out for an instrumental or two now, but there you have it. Good point btw Alfred, and those songs work really well on the albums, they are much more than interludes or diversions, they belong in the narrative of the records.

I had 3 instrumentals on my ballot. I ended up making the snap decision to exclude nearly all the hits instead.

there is a killer live version of SM&SC on the Serious Moonlight bootleg

man I'd never listened to Live in Santa Monica 72, this thing SMOKES

48. "Diamond Dogs" (from Diamond Dogs) - 268 points/13 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/36lWAcY9IXE

totally, wild eyed boy--i put width of a circle from that show on my list, but i guess it will get folded into the studio version which is fine by me.

I've been trying to coin "Call them the Diamond Hogs!" as the unofficial slogan for the Arkansas Razorback baseball team, but no go.

Bowie is often an abstruse lyricist so the instrumentals were his best chances of finding musical correlatives for his concepts, you know?

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 7:43 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree with this completely. The moments that tend to affect me in some way on Bowie releases are very rarely the lyrics in and of themselves. Rather, they tend to be musical elements for the most part. When it comes to his vocals, most of the time I get more of a buzz out of the way he sings things rather than what he's actually singing, if that makes sense.

THIS AIN'T ROCK'N'ROLL! THIS IS GENOCIDE!

I've been trying to coin "Call them the Diamond Hogs!" as the unofficial slogan for the Arkansas Razorback baseball team, but no go.

I love that -- too bad the idea isn't sticking.

THIS AIN'T ROCK'N'ROLL! THIS IS GENOCIDE!

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 1:58 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

best line in rock n' roll history

"Scary Monsters" is a song he simply never could've done before his collabs w Eno. The insane Fripp lead, the filter on the bgd vox during the chorus, the careening tempo -- I've always been a very big fan.

Can't believe 'Win' charted so lowly...my no 1...one of my heartbeat songs...

So I think most of my ballot will be in the top 20 but I will pretend I wasn't a part of this poll if letter to hermione doesn't feat.

It's interesting, because I'm listening to this song ('Diamond Dogs') straight after listening to 'Scary Monsters', and I've noticed both songs have same kind of dalek effect on the vocals.

47. "What in the World" (from Low) - 275 points/12 votes/1 first-place vote

http://youtu.be/7SAIVyGTNRM

Pacman is trying to eat this song.
chavedappelle 2 days ago

What In the World is a little kooky. I always thought the Eno synth part was mixed so high that it threatened to overwhelm the rest of the song.

Pacman is trying to eat this song.
chavedappelle 2 days ago

Or this.

Hah, totally

Hehehehe... it's definitely not heard the first time someone has referenced Pac Man in regards to this track. There are some tracks from the first half of Low that you can take out of the context of the song order and work equally well as a separate thing: 'Be My Wife' and 'Always Crashing In The Same Car' for example. I feel this is one of those tracks on Low which thrives best as part of the album, but maybe as a standalone thing it doesn't work quite as well. That's not to say that I don't like it, because I like it a great deal.

Yay, my #2. Hugs to whomever had it as their #1.

I love the Pacman sounds in this.

Hehehehe... it's definitely not heard the first time someone has referenced Pac Man in regards to this track.

Have I had too my coffee or something? This should read "It's definitely not the first time I've heard someone referencing Pac Man in regards to this track."

Geez. It's not the side effects of the caffeine, folks.

In making my ballot I made the snap decision to skip all instrumentals. Did anyone else decide to do that?

*raises hand*

(although even right up to the end I was sorely tempted to include Neukoln. I'm sure it will place high w/o my help though)

xp:

Too MUCH coffee. Fucksake.

Can't believe 'Win' charted so lowly...my no 1

So you're the other guy with great taste in #1 Bowie songs.

(hi to dorsalstop btw - long time no see an' all that)

46. "The Bewlay Brothers" (from Hunky Dory) - 284 points/14 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/8a82arE0JSQ

cmon KOOKS

Oh come ON, Bewlay Brothers can't be this low

Another personal Bowie favourite of mine that didn't make my ballot. Ranks up there with his best album closers for me.

(Oh, hey Jeff - funny anyone should remember me at all.)

Bewlay Brothers was my no.5. Another day it'd've been my no.1.