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

The bit in the video where he's sitting in an ejection seat in the middle of a suburban kitchen was just o_O to me as a kid.

If Ashes To Ashes loses by one point...

...to The Laughing Gnome?

fingers crossed

Ashes to Ashes has some mutant Al Green falsetto stuff in it.

that would be ideal

Old lady chattering enthusiastically to sullen Major Tom on beach = greatest image ever.

OK! The big finish.

tbh the idea of ranking bowie songs vis-a-vis each other seemed impossible

― horseshoe, Thursday, March 8, 2012 1:15 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark
true, but we all feel that way and we still did it!
i just went with purely emotional choices and hasty decisions -- probably made a lot of bad calls (look back in anger is better than cygnet committee...I GUESS) but who cares. no one is going to hang me by my ballot, at least i hope not!

Jeez, almost posted it on the Paul Simon thread.

Old lady chattering enthusiastically to sullen Major Tom on beach = greatest image ever.

That's not Major Tom, that's uh... the Pierrot. Who he is, idk.

xxp Bowie Holy Holy Wars

1. "Life on Mars?" (from Hunky Dory) - 1463 points/55 votes/4 first-place votes

Official video: http://youtu.be/v--IqqusnNQ
at Fashion Rocks, 2005: http://youtu.be/HIFmNRDuM3Y

SAY-looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooors fighting-in-the-dance-hall

(this was my #6)

always thought it was Major Tom as Pierrot.

I never thought this would win.

Ah, there it is! My #1!

i was obsessed with "life on mars?" as a teenager and now i feel like i've lost that feeling of thunderstruck-ness at it. hate to be predictable, but the bowiesongs post on it is excellent.

My #20, but glad it's #1.

best poll ever.
ta muchly for all the effort wmc !
i didn't send in a sub cos i couldn't break down my faves.
every single track in this list could be a top 5 for me.
simple as that.

xxxxp He seems to be more a commentator than an alter-ego but yeah maybe.

Bonus video: Bowie sees into the future, notices this poll, and performs both of the top 2 on The Tonight Show in 1980:

http://youtu.be/NkefglL9c4c

Thanks wmc! Now I can go to the pub.

Thanks for doing this WmC!

I've always been fond of the chord changes in 'Life On Mars?', and of course Wakeman's piano playing.

Wonderful job WmC, and great votes all around. Kudos to all who participated.

xxxp b-b-but you'll miss the hours and hours of recriminations and arguments oh right *gets coat*

Life On Mars? was my #4.

Thanks WmC! You did a great job! Everyone's rolling out their picks now, correct? Thanks too for everyone not guessing their top fives or threes in advance, made it more suspenseful, at least for me

my ballot, fwiw:

1. Life On Mars? (#1)
2. Word On A Wing (#45)
3. Station To Station (#4)
4. Look Back In Anger (#19)
5. Be My Wife (#14)
6. Stay (#22)
7. Red Sails (did not place)
8. Rebel Rebel (#10)
9. Fashion (#32)
10. Subterraneans (did not place)
11. Starman (#18)
12. "Heroes" (#5)
13. It's No Game (No. 1) (#40)
14. V-2 Schneider (did not place)
15. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (#49)
16. Ashes To Ashes (#2)
17. Fantastic Voyage (#39)
18. Blackout (#55)
19. Drive-In Saturday (#27)
20. Sons Of The Silent Age (#60)

Thanks WmC, this was fabulous.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARS

Totally LOVE LOVE LOVE his look in the "official video" -- the suit, the makeup, the colors, everything. it reminds me of when i went to work one day and my coworker told me i looked like liberace. i said no, i look like david bowie. <3 <3

excellent #1
thanks WmC for your diligence!!

Yay!!!! "Life on Mars?" was my #1 of course.

I'm really conflicted about "Ashes to Ashes". I like lots of little things about the song. But I can't really love it. Back in 1980, I didn't really understand it. And TBH I'm still not sure what Bowie is trying to say. (True of lots of Bowie songs, sure, but here the lyrics are so memorable you want to 'get' it. And I don't really.)

Favourite bit: the mumbly echo in the "I've never done good things" section.

Favourite parody (of song and video): Lufthansa Terminal.

Thanks WmC! Wonderful poll!

My #8, though easily could have been lower (sorry). Middle of my ballot got pretty arbitrary, but I do love this song. Happy enough with it at #1.

I've always been fond of the chord changes in 'Life On Mars?', and of course Wakeman's piano playing.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Thursday, March 8, 2012

That's because it's "My Way"...isn't that right? Doesn't he even give backhanded thanks to Sinatra in the liner notes? I think there was bad blood from Bowie to Sinatra for some reason, maybe the former wanted to play him in a biopic and Frank said something like, "not that pansy" or something?

Thanks WmC!

My ballot, w/all its "Outside" loving bullshit:

1. Station to station
2. Queen Bitch
3. Quicksand
4. I'm deranged
5. Five years
6. The man who sold the world
7. Look back in anger
8. A small plot of land
9. "Heroes"
10. Cat people (soundtrack version)
11. Golden years
12. Drive-in Saturday
13. Sound and vision
14. Candidate (demo)
15. Fantastic voyage
16. Breaking glass
17. No control
18. Dead man walking
19. Kooks
20. Ziggy Stardust

Hah, i just made fun of "Andrew in Draaaaaaag" in the Magnetic Fields thread. But I love "Maaaaaaaaars"!

great stuff, thanks WmC

Misquoted the "Ashes to Ashes" lyrics above, of course. He never did good things or bad things, which was what was confusing to me as a kid.

Thanks WmC!

My list...totally got the lp's wrong...Low and Station To Station should of been in there

1.Win
2.Life On Mars
3.It's Gonna Be Me
4.It's No Game
5.Sweet Thing
6.Fashion
7.Ashes To Ashes
8.Kooks
9.Beauty And The Beast
10.Changes
11.Young Americans
12.Golden Years
13.The Bewley Brothers
14.The Secret Life Of Arabia
15.Breaking Glass
16.Quicksand
17.African Night Flight
18.Stay
19.Right
20.We Are The Dead

LP's
1.Hunky Dory
2.Young Americans
3.Scary Monsters And Super Creeps
4.Aladdin Sane
5.Space Oddity

1. Blackout
2. Cracked Actor
3. Be My Wife
4. Baal's Hymn
5. The Bewlay Brothers
6. Breaking Glass
7. Andy Warhol
8. Fame
9. Ziggy Stardust
10. DJ

11. Port Of Amsterdam
12. The Dirty Song
13. Subterraneans
14. A New Career In A New Town
15. You've Been Around
16. Young Americans
17. Oh! You Pretty Things
18. Warszawa
19. Yassassin
20. Let's Dance

Albums:
1. Low
2. Lodger
3. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
4. Black Tie, White Noise
5. Heathen

IT'S THE FREAK-Y-EST SHOOOOOOW!

huh i didn't know about the sinatra thing

sinatra was a total piece of shit person right?

anyway Life on Mars is as good a winner as any, my number 2, but yeah I could have easily done 20 more tracks, heck even 30...and many really could have been number 1

my ballot:

Songs:

1Station to Station
2 Life on Mars
3 Heroes
4 Ziggy Stardust
5 Boys Keep Swinging
6 Speed of Life
7 Young Americans
8 Golden Years
9 Stay
10 Ziggy Stardust
11 Sound and Vision
12 Under Pressure
13 Kooks
14 Ashes to Ashes
15 Modern Love
16 Changes
17 Panic in Detroit
18 Suffragette City
19 John I'm Only Dancing
20 TVC 15

Albums:

1 Station to Station
2 Hunky Dory
3 Alladin Sane
4 Low
5 Ziggy Stardust

Great job as always WmC. Awesome countdown, any one of the top 5 (and several in the teens or twenties for that matter) I could see taking the top spot with no surprise.

Somebody want to post the full run-down of the top 60?

Glad everyone enjoyed it! Thanks to chap for letting me grab the wheel and drive off the cliff.

Ballots were coming in fast and furious at the end, so apparently I lost count -- I thought we hit 80, but I only have 78 #1 votes in the googledoc. That might have been a transcription error as I entered numbers. I am reasonably confident that nobody's ballot got left out like I did in the Zep voting.

Speaking of that spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Alm9ijj_zohtdEE3cnJuQmpxRG81amdfWVZPaDg0Vmc

Thank you so much WmC. Best artist poll so far (content & handling).

My ballot:

Tracks

1. Life On Mars?
2. Golden Years
3. The Jean Genie
4. Fame
5. Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)
6. Suffragette City
7. Fashion
8. Space Oddity
9. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
10. Stay
11. Moonage Daydream
12. Drive In Saturday
13. Win
14. "Heroes"
15. Time
16. Let's Spend The Night Together
17. The Secret Life of Arabia
18. Cat People (Putting Out Fires)
19. Young Americans
20. Alabama Song

Albums

1. Aladdin Sane
2. "Heroes"
3. Young Americans
4. Low
5. ChangesOneBowie

Can we get the full 175 please?