NEUPÖLLN - ILM Artist Poll #14 - David Bowie (POLLS ARE CLOSED)

I will say that I have 13 (!!!) ballots in hand already and I don't see any consensus #1 among the songs.

I've gone right off ""'Heroes'"" for some reason, so I didn't vote for it. It's gone from being ultracommitted to having something uncommitted about it, to my ears (fits with the lyric I suppose). Maybe it's the half-assed backing vocals.

LL, the deadline is March 9th, you have lots of time.

I've never done one of these polls before but my method was just to type out all the Bowie songs I love and can rarely go long without hearing in a Word doc in no partic order; turns out that topped out at 17, so then I did a trawl of Spotify to jog the memory, added another 10, chopped and changed and then only really paid attention to the ordering of the top six.

Already I regret one omission, but it's a cover so I guess it'll be my virtual #21.

tbh, I liked these more when there was only a week of voting. The not-thinking-just-voting aspect was what made them spontaneous and fun. The only reason these polls should ever been open for voting for a second week is if there aren't enough ballots to run results.

been=be

4 tracks just missed being in my final 20: All The Young Dudes, Sons of the Silent Age, Station To Station, and Young Americans.

Yeah, I am a slowpoke but I am a thorough slowpoke, not a procrastinatiny one.

I am listening to "Magic Dance" and I just don't even know what to say about this song, but everything he touches turns to gold.

tbh, I liked these more when there was only a week of voting. The not-thinking-just-voting aspect was what made them spontaneous and fun

This is how I approach these things. Much easier and fun to throw twenty random songs I like.

everything he touches turns to gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOadV_CPT_k

Usually i go throwaway but I've had this poll on my mind for a good couple of months - have listened to everything repeatedly bar The Buddha of Suburbia, which I plain forgot. Hence the instant ballot - the whole process was driving me spare.

the window of time doesn't actually effect you if you just want to throw your ballot together quickly, you can still do it that way in the space of 2 weeks instead of 1

Twenty years after discovering him, I have to make a lot of allowances for his voice; I know a lot more about good singing now.

i am unsure of what my reaction is supposed to be to that, but the pictures combined with the song, i'm afraid we've got gold

the window of time doesn't actually effect you if you just want to throw your ballot together quickly, you can still do it that way in the space of 2 weeks instead of 1

Yeah, but we were initially zipping through these with a poll to roll out every week or every other week. That was where I was going with the "fun" part.

I'd be amenable to shortening up the poll. Looks like there's not going to be too much whip-cracking necessary. Another idea is for more overlap: Lamp to go ahead and start Paul Simon next week while Bowie is in the last few days of voting. Would that be too much going on at once?

I don't like the overlap personally, but I do like cracking through them quite quickly.

I started listening this morning just picking out an album at random, Aladdin Sane. Garson's playing on the title track reminded me of a thread idea I've been playing with -- what pop singles have the most 'outside'/avant garde solos? Except "Aladdin Sane" wasn't released as a single, oh well.

derail alert! "Cult of Personality" probably has the most bonkers guitar solo of any song ever to make the Top 40.

Really? I can narrow it down to about half a dozen, but can't think of any runaway winner.

Yeah, I actually don't know what I'm talking about! My #1 is, to my ears, head-and-shoulders above his other songs (and everybody else's).

My ballot's spread:
1966-Pinups: 8
Station-Scary: 7
1982-1990: 1
1991-2000: 4
2001-2012: 0

(calling all Outside stans)

hallo spaceboy

Outside rules.

From the last twenty years for your consideration:

Sunday
Jump They Say
Slip Away
Strangers When We Meet
Thru These Architects' Eyes

Garson's playing on the title track reminded me of a thread idea I've been playing with -- what pop singles have the most 'outside'/avant garde solos?

Ian Dury & the Blockheads, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". Take it to another thread!

Shit - I forgot Strangers!

My ballot actually has two tracks from Heathen (2002) and one from Outside (1995), but I think that's it as far as "recent" things go.

And here was I thinking "The Lodger" for most recent!

i was on the fence about doing this since i'm not that huge of a bowie fan but coincidentally i've been going thru a bit of a revival the last few weeks so i had a solid 12 to work from then just used spotify to remind me of some of the old stuff i had half forgotten.

won't be voting for Heroes. too many shit cover versions and too much overplay have ruined it a bit for me.

I didn't vote for many after about 83, but I was delighted with the quality of the later albums. It's kind of extraordinary, for a career that long.

(guessing Under Pressure was the one you were thinking of btw, Owen)

Don't forget to vote for "Stay" from Station to Station, guys.

this is gonna be really hard!

excited about going in a bowie hole

started w/hunky dory

homosapiens have outgrown their use

i'm purposefully not gonna check out any of that laughing gnome type shit theres way too much regular proper bowie that i love it will be hard to do a ballot as is with the studio records

i will probably listen to that santa monica 72 thing tho cuz i always meant to and i heard that smokes

I'm probably going to discount from consideration Side 2 of Low and the instrumental sequence on Side 2 of "Heroes". Love both, but it feels daft to pick out one element and declare it "16th best Bowie track EVER".

@ Ismael "Under pressure" and "Rebel rebel" are my #1 and #2 least favourite Bowie 'hits'.

The song I voted for that I'm probably alone in voting for is "No Control" from Outside but I am such a sucker for Bowie's Scott Walker impression.

you rate Dancing In The Street comparatively highly then

"Cat People".

Twenty years after discovering him, I have to make a lot of allowances for his voice; I know a lot more about good singing now.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 27, 2012 2:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think I want to know what constitutes good singing if Bowie's doesn't count as such.

I've sent confirmation emails to everyone who emailed me. To the two lurkers who sent ballots via ILXmail -- thank you, OWS and CD, ballots received!

guys "life on mars" is so good, fyi wow

I don't think I want to know what constitutes good singing if Bowie's doesn't count as such.

Bowie has lots of terrible early vocals, and even on YA – when he started to learn how to use his lower register – there's horrors like "Across the Universe." "Wild is the Wind" is ghastly too. Most of what he does in the late eighties may count as making noises with his larynx but it's not singing.

boo!

Have you got my ballot WmC? I don't have a confirmation email yet.

For some reason I'd never listened to The Man Who Sold The World before today. Loving the heavier sound on stuff like Black Country Rock.

Chap -- got it! Your ballot arrived about a minute after I sent a batch of responses.

Listening to "hours..." now -- almost all Bowie post-Tin Machine is totally new to me, including this. It's pretty good! But a little Reeves Gabrels goes a long way.

imo this poll is really lacking a 'worst songs' ballot like the led zep poll had

A huge surprise for me was hearing You've Been Around, from Black Tie White Noise, and realising what it was the source for. I think Bjork nails it better, but I was impressed.