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

THanks to EZ here for pursuading me to listen to Stage again

(persuade)

Oh, the antifolk kids once existed, but now they've morphed into the crusties.

Sort of sounds like a Bowie lyric.

Low is just placed on such a pedestal of intellectual/avant-garde/genius these days.

This was the case 20+ years ago when I got into Bowie. As an impressionable 18-year-old I was keen to follow the party line but over time I lost interest in it. I don't think there's anything weak or annoying about it, I just find it kinda meh and am surprised at how highly people rate it.

I vaguely remember a quote from Robert Smith saying how he lost interest in Bowie when Low came out. At the time I thought he was nuts.

You're welcome Ówen! Hope you have the reissue; the correct ordering and extra songs push it over the top.

I have the Ryko, is that the one you mean? Also, kudos on voting for Outside songs although we voted for the opposite ones

I was gonna vote "Voyeur of utter destruction (as beauty)" cause I love that song but felt embarrassed by the title.

This is where I say it's a CRIME that (damn good) filler like "A New Career In a New Town" places but Outside gets shut out. On my ballot that was too late, I had "Thru' These Architect's Eyes" in my top ten. Tons of cuts on it were worthy, tho -- "I'm Deranged," "The Motel," "A Small Plot of Land" to name a few. People focus way too much on the (negligible) NIN influences and concept (actually quite wry) and not nearly enough on the quality of songwriting (Bowie's best since the mid-70s), production (nervy and maximalist) and singing (arguably Bowie's best). Easily in my top 5 Bowie records and, at times, my very favorite.

Outside has tons of good cuts, so it was nice to see 3/4 of the record represented (if poorly).

The EMI reissue of Stage in 2005 added "Stay" and "Be My Wife", removed the between song fades and corrected the running order to reflect the concerts. Bowie makes me rebuy albums far too often.

"A New Career in a New Town" isn't filler ffs

the number of reissues and repackagings are crazy

The 1990 Low reissue got a savage review in one of the UK monthlies... (ha, it might actually have been Jon Savage) 3/10 or something. "Responsible for Gary Numan and all that crap" was the gist. I recall Steve Sutherland giving Scott Walker's Boychild comp on Fontana a kicking around the same time. Wrong wrong wrongy wrong.

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"A New Career in a New Town" isn't filler ffs

You may be right -- but as much as I like it, it's not one of Bowie's 60 best songs either. That says more about his catalog than it does ANCiaNT, tho.

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Bowie b&w by Tommytinkroom, on Flickr

Ok just sussed out how to upload some pics,this should have been my first post.
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Bowie b&w by Tommytinkroom, on Flickr
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Bowie b&w by Tommytinkroom, on Flickr
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Bowie topaz denoise by Tommytinkroom, on Flickr

buffandmaxsmom?

Sorry forgot this one.
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Bowie Gold by Tommytinkroom, on Flickr

I love "Outside" but it's a fringe thing; obv you can't appreciate "Outside" without being acquainting with every character, which songs they sing and whether they own a goat-scrotum purse or a lamb-penis necklace

Bowie's libretto might represent a new low (see what I did there) for unreadable musician prose. I love Outside though. "Thru These Architects' Eyes" and "Strangers When We Meet" made my top twenty. The latter is his best love song.

Also this doesn't get enough play, AFAIC:

Eno may or may not have written "Warszawa".

The oft told story about Eno writing the music while Bowie was away has never rung true to me.* ** *** The music not only sounds completely different than anything Eno was writing at the time -- it's completely different than anything he's written since. Also, so much of it is on Chamberlain, which was hardly his instrument of choice.

*I'm not thinking of "Art Decade" am I?
** No I'm not. Per Eno in a 1978 interview with Glenn O’Brien:

Then there were two days when David had to go to Paris because he was being sued by someone, so rather than wasting the studio time I decided to start a piece on my own, with the understanding that if he didn’t like it I’d use it myself or something. I just couldn’t face wasting the studio time. So I started working on that piece and in fact all the instrumentation was finished when David got back, and he put the vocals on top. That was “Warszawa.” It was a very clear division of labor.

Bowie's libretto might represent a new low (see what I did there) for unreadable musician prose.

See, this is what kills me. The guy spends 25 years burying characters he writes about in Burroughs cut-up techniques, stories that have no resolution and references that are intentionally oblique -- and when he adds intentionally tongue-in-cheek monologues to the brew, suddenly it's a bridge too far far, far far far, far far far away.

To add to the "Bowie on classic rock radio" discussion way upthread, here's how he placed in the 1987 WNEW-FM New York Top 1027 Songs of All Time Listener's Poll:

-- #62 - SUFFRAGETTE CITY
-- #132 - REBEL REBEL
-- #165 - YOUNG AMERICANS
-- #179 - MODERN LOVE
-- #251 - SPACE ODDITY
-- #259 - HEROES
-- #322 - PANIC IN DETROIT
-- #467 - CHANGES
-- #477 - LET'S DANCE
-- #499 - GOLDEN YEARS
-- #550 - FAME
-- #602 - ZIGGY STARDUST
-- #834 - UNDER PRESSURE
-- #842 - LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER
-- #860 - FASHION
-- #982 - ASHES TO ASHES

xpost
Warsawa is the only Low track for which Eno gets a songwriting credit, so I'm inclined to believe his story on that one.

As for New Career, it's anything but filler, in fact it's the track that gets to the heart of what Bowie was doing in Low.

I think Low's reputation as "best bowie album" has something to do with the fact that it's a sort of ur-text for the post-punk/art rock continuum. It may not have "invented the eighties" as the cliche goes but it certainly invented the bits that have been most revived in the past decade and a half or so. Personally I think Station To Station is now the stranger and therefore fresher-sounding album these days, partly because it didn't have the same level of influence.

The consensus will change as the generations change.

Indeed.

Of course, a decade ago, StS was the consensus pick...

Was it though? The late nineties/early noughties marked the beginning of the Low ascendancy I'd have thought. Bowie was performing it live in its entirety, Radiohead had taken a Low-like turn towards electronica, Pitchfork placed Low no. 1 in its list of top 100 albums in the 70s...

^This

and prior to that, ziggy stardust and hunky dory duked it out for supremacy. tbh, i think that ziggy still takes the crown among casual fans of all ages and predilections.

xxp in 1985 the NME Top 100 albums of all time listed Low at #15, Young Americans (!) at #36, Heroes at #64 and Station at #66.

no other Bowie albums made the 100

Did Bowie release Low in time for it to be included on the Voyager missions?

good point, hugo.

So glad "The Man Who Sold the World" placed high. What an effing amazing song. Cobain had great taste.

xpost
I think those NME all time top 100 charts tell the story. I guess in 1985, "normal" Bowie was still a new phenomenon and his role as a postpunk forerunner still meant something. But by the 1988 chart, the highest Bowie entry is Ziggy at 33 (I guess post Never Let Me Down his stock had sunk low) and Low only clocks in at 71. The 1993 list finds Bowie still relatively unpopular (highest entry is Hunky Dory at 38, Low is at 67). Then by 2003, Bowie's stock has risen somewhat, and his highest placing album is Low at 26.

others apparently differ, but i think that the rise and fall (and rise) of bowie's rep must have been more a UK than a US thing, or else concerned critics far more than music fans in general. by the mid-late 80s, his rep as a classic rocker with strong appeal to punks, wavers, goths, indie rockers, & artmusic types was firmly established, and this wasn't much affected by success or failure of his work post let's dance.

Someone sheepishly mentioned upthread that they first heard Bowie in a Wes Anderson movie. In fairness to "Queen Bitch", its placement in "The Life Aquatic" is far more of a marquee billing than at the end of "Hunky Dory".

Was it though? The late nineties/early noughties marked the beginning of the Low ascendancy I'd have thought. Bowie was performing it live in its entirety, Radiohead had taken a Low-like turn towards electronica, Pitchfork placed Low no. 1 in its list of top 100 albums in the 70s...

The Bowie entry (by Rob Sheffield) calls STS his best ("the one where Major Tom learned how to dance").

His Bowie entry might be the best thing Sheffield did in that book.

Alfred otm; the only album that made the list at the back of the record guide was ChangesOneBowie, but Station to Station was the only "regular album" that got a 10 was Station. iirc Low got a 9...

Someone sheepishly mentioned upthread that they first heard Bowie in a Wes Anderson movie.

I think that was me...but what I actually said (sheepishly, yes) was that it was Life Acquatic that got me to love "Queen Bitch." I'd owned Hunky Dory for a few years at that point--came to the album very late--but for whatever reason didn't take much notice of the song the one or two times I played it.

"Queen Bitch" was #2 on my ballot and it was the same for me. Thank you Wess Andersson

I've been listening to a lot of Paul Simon the last few days for the new poll, but keep going back to Bowie on Spotify like I'm sneaking out back to have a smoke.

First time I ever heard "The Man Who Sold the World" was Nirvana's cover. Btw, if you want to g00gle the chords, the top two results say it's by Nirvana. Makes me nostalgic for the Napster days. ("Foxy Lady" by the Beatles, etc)

I first heard Low during the summer of 1989 when I was a summer boarder in the city and one of the fellows living in the house had a copy. I only knew his radio hits at the time, and a few videos from Lodger that MuchMusic would occasionally play. I didn't know anything about the album and Side 1 blew my mind. It still sounds incredibly fresh and exciting today. Side 2 took a lot longer to get into - in fact, it's only recently that I have more than a slight tolerance for mostly instrumental music (thanks Harmonia). Anyway, people can have a genuine preference for this album without trying to be trendy.

I'd shortlisted "Hallo Spaceboy," "We Prick You," and a couple of other post-SM tracks, but in the end there was too much good stuff from the 70s for them to have any hope on my ballot.

Listening to "Heroes" for the first time in 21 years. It's not that I disliked it when I first heard it, but it got pushed aside once I had my first experiences with John Coltrane and Albert Ayler. Anyway, I wish I'd listened to this during voting, because "Sense of Doubt" would've been in my top 5, easy.

Following up on the experiment some dude did with the Stones poll numbers, here's a comparison of the actual album voting with the cumulative point totals for songs by album.

Album results:
1. LOW (1977) - 325 points
2. STATION TO STATION (1976) - 306 points
3. HUNKY DORY (1971) - 198 points
4. THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972) - 153 points
5. "HEROES" (1977) - 135 points
6. LODGER (1979) - 135 points
7. ALADDIN SANE (1973) - 112 points
8. DIAMOND DOGS (1974) - 87 points
9. SCARY MONSTERS (1980) - 60 points
10. YOUNG AMERICANS (1975) - 28 points
11. OUTSIDE (1995) - 14 points
12. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD - 13/3/0
14. (tie) DAVID LIVE - 7/1/0
14. (tie) STAGE - 7/1/0
16. (tie) LET'S DANCE - 6/2/0
16. (tie) SPACE ODDITY - 6/2/0
17. BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE - 3/1/0
21. (tie) Changesonebowie - 1/1/0
21. (tie) EARTHLING - 1/1/0
21. (tie) HEATHEN - 1/1/0
21. (tie) LABYRINTH (soundtrack) - 1/1/0

...and the albums ranked by how many points their tracks were given:

1. Hunky Dory - 4370
2. Low - 4137
3. Station to Station - 3731
3. Ziggy Stardust - 3731
5. Scary Monsters - 2712
6. "Heroes" - 2698
7. Aladdin Sane - 2280
8. Lodger - 2010
9. Young Americans - 1692
10. Diamond Dogs - 1666
11. Let's Dance - 1067
12. The Man Who Sold the World - 959
13. Space Oddity - 801
14. Outside - 346
15. Black Tie White Noise - 136
16. Heathen - 132
17. Earthling - 120

this was the best poll