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

Queen Bitch that is.

Bowie has a power to resist terrible, terrible puns that Kilbey totally lacks. I love him for it, but I've seen it make people physically cringe.

Yeah I tried to find the photo of him drawing that. It's in one of the ryko booklets. There's one of him standing up and drawing it and one in which he sits on the floor, one arm supporting his upper body, the other drawing. Maybe it's the back cover for Station to Station ryko release?
― willem, Wednesday, March 7, 2012

You can see him drawing something with his cane while chatting during his Dick Cavett interview, Dick asks him what he is doing, awkward silence if I remember

*grumble* "Queen Bitch" and "Quicksand" were my #2 and #3.

Love the line "There's a taste in my mouth and it's no taste at all".

"Quicksand" wallows so well in it's self-reflection. Really a great melancholic rundown of crippling self-absorption and being unable to get out of one's own head.

xp - my baseline for unfathomably bad puns is "my heart could use some glasses" so i realize that is a pretty low benchmark

i like "my stomach feels small"

"Quicksand" was my #7, so yeah, my #3 and #7 seemed destined for more love.

both in my top ten

OK, listening to Heathen[i] on Spotify right now - wasn't impressed with the other late records, including [i]Outside, but this one's actually not bad. A little too matoor in places, and fuck does he sound old, but there are some really nice tunes - and keep-up-with-the-times production kitsch of the sort that mired his 90s records is mostly absent. So Christgau was off about this one after all.

24. "Modern Love" (from Let's Dance) - 476 points/23 votes/0 first-place votes

Official video: http://youtu.be/1hDbpF4Mvkw
At Live Aid, 1985: http://youtu.be/xJxOL_eFGEk

!!! one of my favorite dancing songs OF ALL TIME !!!

Stoked to see Quicksand place, was my #10 or 11.

I'm glad Modern Love made it so high. I didn't vote for it but probably should have.

I'm glad Modern Love made it so high. I didn't vote for it but probably should have.

Same here, in fact this is true of a few of today's results. Love the intro so much.

I thought "Queen Bitch" would be top 5 or 10. It was actually the Wes Anderson film that got me to love it (I know that would be appalling to longtime Bowie fans).

"Modern Love" had grown for me over time to be a real joy whenever I hear it. Disliked it as a kid, and it just kept inserting itself into my life over time. Realise now that it is kind of a juggernaut. Great build, cool structure to the song (it just seems like it could go on forever, still not sure when choruses are gonna start and end in this song). Plus, the beat and the sax rule.

"modern love" placing above "let's dance" bothers me for some reason, but i love em both, so fair play

that's appalling to anyone
;)

I just don't know of a better intro to a song than "I know when to go out. I know when to stay in, get things done." It's a portrait of someone who knows how to HAVE FUN but is also RESPONSIBLE, ie the perfect person. The perfect song.

Let's Dance is smutty
Modern Love is sweet/fun

Modern Love >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Let's Dance, and I like the latter just fine.

Always thought the fan in the video who gives him the flowers must have been pissed when he just throws them back into the audience.

Disappointed that Song for Bob Dylan has not placed, and not expecting to see it now. If Be My Wife dosen't appear I'll sulk badly....

Looks like "Little Wonder" didn't place, which I hadn't counted on anyway...

Never got Modern Love.

Nothing from The Man Who Sold The World yet...can't imagine much of it will appear, except (maybe) for the title track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bthsavQi2TM
This was the night I got really into David Bowie... For some reason people were talking about this in school, and it seemed like a big deal so I taped it. I'm happy the whole thing is on youtube.

I just don't know of a better intro to a song than "I know when to go out. I know when to stay in, get things done." It's a portrait of someone who knows how to HAVE FUN but is also RESPONSIBLE, ie the perfect person. The perfect song.

yes yes yes!

Had hoped for something pre-Space Oddity like Let Me Sleep Beside You but I think it's chance came and went in the low 50s. Looks like everything will fall within the 69-83 golden years after all.

Ha, I had "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" on my ballot.

I also voted for Time Will Crawl -- the fact that I still remembered the lyrics after 20+ years of having heard it - i felt that meant something. Also, that was my first Bowie album.

23. "Under Pressure" (Queen/Bowie single, 1981) - 479 points/21 votes/1 first-place vote

Official video: http://youtu.be/xtrEN-YKLBM
Queen, Bowie and Annie Lennox at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: http://youtu.be/f9ICO-RfjAU
with Gail Ann Dorsey, live 1997: http://youtu.be/d5nYX-iuUFk

"I know when to go out. I know when to stay in, get things done."

hahaha, for like twenty years I've thought this line was "I don't wanna go out... I want to stay in. Get things done." It's all different now!

Under Pressure would have been my #1 most hated, but I'm not making a slam book of Bowie songs.

Under Pressure! 23! my birthday number!!
i love this song and i am not ashamed of it. my #2.

xxp the MTV video: Wow, thanks for posting. Bowie is the best example of somebody whose live show was best well after his classic period-- in my opinion, anyway

I love it too. I also am not ashamed. xp

I love "Under Pressure", but similar to cutting instrumentals from my list, I also cut collaborations. Not sure what else would have made it, but figured this song did not need my help. Glad it didn't place higher, as much as I love it.

It's so romantic and hopeful.

Love this song so much, no shame. I've been all over the map emotionally the last few weeks, and somehow started leaking at the eyes when I was looking for good performance youtubes.

what grandavis said

I thought it might have an outside chance of winning, glad it didn't. It got more #1s in the 20th century poll iirc.

Great tune all the same

As a special exercise in not loving Bowie (for me at least), go watch the "Dancing In The Streets" video. I mean, it is funny, but if either of those dudes took that video seriously then I have to believe there is a drug-fueled gap in both guys memories where that video exists.

xp Under Pressure is way more evocative of early 80s political angst than I used to think - very "don't push me cos I'm close to the edge", in a well-heeled stadium rock way. The Doggett book's very good on the politics of Fantastic Voyage and this must have been recorded not long afterwards.

hahaha, for like twenty years I've thought this line was "I don't wanna go out... I want to stay in. Get things done." It's all different now!

lol me too. weird

Same. Except I thought the last line was "Good thing it's dark."

"Under Pressure" works so well despite Roger Taylor being the world's worst drummer because he's clearly following Freddie's fantastic piano in the verses.

I always think of it as a charity single even though it wasn't. It feels very proto-Live Aid.

22. "Stay" (from Station to Station) - 497 points/24 votes/1 first place vote

Album: http://youtu.be/iJVtv9LlK9Y
BBC Radio Theatre, 2000: http://youtu.be/or1dyvCgzMw

\o/