Wonder where or if "Absolute Beginners" will place. Those of you around at the time: was it regarded as a Brief Return To Form, as it is now?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 8, 2012 3:24 AM (Yesterday)
I loved that it was this six-something-minute epic pop song.
― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:18 (twelve years ago) link
No "Blue Jean" on anyone's ballot! No "This Is Not America"!
Sincerely,1986
― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:19 (twelve years ago) link
Did you vote, Eazy?If not, cram it.
― Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:21 (twelve years ago) link
Aw, Lech!
― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:24 (twelve years ago) link
I voted for Blue Jean.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 9 March 2012 02:36 (twelve years ago) link
Only sad that "the Prettiest Star" didn't make it into the top 50, and thought maybe the alternate version of Candidate might place higher, even if I only had it at #5 on my poll. Also, if you combine the votes for Sweet Thing, Candidate and Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing it jumps up from #35 to #24, just edging out "Under Pressure."
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:57 (twelve years ago) link
Thank you so much WmC, this was a hugely enjoyable poll and I appreciate your outstanding effort!
Regret: I should have voted for Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing instead of Under Pressure, because it's bonkers-amazing and because in my heart I know that Under Pressure is really a Queen song after all.
Surprises: Life On Mars? If ILM says so. Also, I thought for sure 'Heroes' would win. Mainly, I was pretty shocked at the deafening ILM silence for Bowie in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.
Regrettable but Irrefutable Conclusion: David Bowie is a radio, and cocaine is by far the greatest station.
My ballot
ALBUMS: 1.Diamond Dogs (8)2.Aladdin Sane (7)3.Lodger (6)4.Low (1)5.Hunky Dory (3) SONGS: 1.Young Americans (7)2.The Man Who Sold The World (12)3.We Are The Dead4.Joe The Lion (51)5. Golden Years (6)6. It's No Game (Part 1) (40)7.Scary Monsters (49)8.Station To Station (4)9.Under Pressure (23)10.Drive In Saturday (27)11.Aladdin Sane (35)12.Loving The Alien13.All The Madmen 14.Ashes To Ashes (2)15.Beauty and The Beast (57)16.This Is Not America 17.Sons of The Silent Age (50)18.Diamond Dogs (48)19.The Jean Genie (42)20.The Bewlay Brothers (46)
― Foster The Hoople (Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt), Friday, 9 March 2012 03:04 (twelve years ago) link
To be honest, I love Bowie... but own nothing by him past Let's Dance, and haven't even listened to anything he's done after 1990.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 9 March 2012 03:08 (twelve years ago) link
i had DJ on my ballot kinda shocked it didn't place
― buzza, Thursday, March 8, 2012 8:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
<3
― horseshoe, Friday, 9 March 2012 03:14 (twelve years ago) link
Getting a ballot down to 20 was a struggle. DJ and Lady Grinning Soul were two I hated to cut ... also all the instrumentals. Sort of surprised Life on Mars was #1, but it's all good.
I put on Stage a little while ago and damned if a lot of the vocals aren't better than the studio versions.
― Brad C., Friday, 9 March 2012 03:20 (twelve years ago) link
Shit! I forgot the most important thing! Thank you to everyone who voted and everyone who kept the thread rolling with quality commentary and discussion while I farted around looking up youtubes and typing up results!
― Carlos Pollomar (WmC), Friday, 9 March 2012 03:29 (twelve years ago) link
Thank you! It's getting me back into Bowie, who I haven't really listened to in a while...
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 9 March 2012 04:07 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah this thread is the kick in the ass I needed to finally give the late 70s stuff a well-deserved long-overdue listen
― top 100 comedy facepalms of all time (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 9 March 2012 04:13 (twelve years ago) link
Oops--missed the end of this. 1300+ posts will be hard to beat for one of these polls.
1. "All the Young Dudes," Mott the Hoople (40)2. “Kooks” (36)3. “Rebel Rebel” (33)4. “Hang on to Yourself” (30)5. “Queen Bitch” (28)6. “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” (David Bowie & the Lower Third) (26)7. “Panic in Detroit” (25)8. “Diamond Dogs” (24)9. “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” (David Bowie & the Lower Third) (23)10. “Suffragette City” (22)11. “Watch That Man” (21)
― clemenza, Friday, 9 March 2012 04:26 (twelve years ago) link
Another "Hang Onto Yourself" voter! Huzzah!
― we can be gyros just for one day (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 9 March 2012 04:31 (twelve years ago) link
It's time I gave his post-Let's Dance materiel a semi-well-deserved not-so-long-overdue listen.
Loving the AlienDon't look DownAbsolute BeginnersThis is not AmericaTime Will CrawlNever Let Me DownNight FlightsStrangers When We MeetI'm DerangedSundayHeathen
Really surprised (not really) nothing made the poll.
― Mother, Friday, 9 March 2012 04:39 (twelve years ago) link
lady grinning soul voters otm. sounds like the end of a movie.
― riding on a cloud (blank), Friday, 9 March 2012 06:36 (twelve years ago) link
the lyrics kinda kill that song for me.
― sarahell, Friday, 9 March 2012 07:07 (twelve years ago) link
Full list?
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 07:33 (twelve years ago) link
It's on the Google Spreadsheet
― Mike Love Costume Jewelry on Etsy (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 9 March 2012 07:39 (twelve years ago) link
@ sarahell, he sounds, all over that record, as if he was trying to push his lyrics and delivery to the most campy, twisted place; it's a parody of "Ziggy". Works great on "Drive-in Saturday".
― an elk hunt (Ówen P.), Friday, 9 March 2012 07:44 (twelve years ago) link
that's my favorite Bowie album, it's just the parts about the "musky odor" and "fullness of her breast" that are kinda gross
― sarahell, Friday, 9 March 2012 07:47 (twelve years ago) link
Huh! The first time I heard that album as a teenager I was all 'i don't get it' and my opinion hasn't really changed. "Cracked actor", "Watch that man", "Panic in Detroit" and "The Jean Genie" are just too sloppy and fucked up for my taste, the same reason I guess people like it. "Time" just sounds like he's aping Brel, "The prettiest star" is too cuet. Love "Drive-in Saturday" and the title track though
― an elk hunt (Ówen P.), Friday, 9 March 2012 07:56 (twelve years ago) link
My ballot, and what positions they took in the end.
Notably non-canonical, without trying to be?
1 Loving The Alien (97)2 Wild Is The Wind (42)3 Jean Genie (43)4 Beauty and The Beast (58)5 "Heroes" (6)6 Underground (103)7 Sound and Vision (4)8 Can't Help Thinking About Me (109)9 Drive In Saturday (28)10 Rebel Rebel (11)11 Baal's Hymn (107)12 John, I'm Only Dancing (21)13 Scary Monsters (50)14 Starman (19)15 Under Pressure (24)16 All The Young Dudes (38)17 DJ (66)18 Fame (34)19 What's Really Happening (169)20 That's Motivation (174)
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 09:19 (twelve years ago) link
11 Baal's Hymn (107)
Good man.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 9 March 2012 09:22 (twelve years ago) link
ta.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 09:23 (twelve years ago) link
My ballot, bold didn't place.
1 It's No Game (Part 1)2 Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)3 Golden Years4 "Heroes"5 Starman6 Life On Mars7 Under Pressure8 Fashion9 Boys Keep Swinging10 Changes11 Aladdin Sane12 Move On13 Sound and Vision14 Rebel Rebel15 Hang On To Yourself16 Jump They Say17 Up The Hill Backwards18 China Girl19 Strangers When We Meet20 Memories of a Free Festival
Albums
1 Scary Monsters2 Ziggy Stardust3 Hunky Dory4 Lodger5 Earthling
'Jump they say' missing out seems like the most egregious omission to me. After the fallow period of the mid 80s this was something I could say with some confidence that he wasn't just a heritage act but someone still capable of new, exciting work.
― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Friday, 9 March 2012 09:57 (twelve years ago) link
"Life on Mars" and "Drive in Saturday", are they not pretty much the same song, subjectmatterwise?
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:01 (twelve years ago) link
• The post-1983 shutout in the top 60 is regrettable
I've been having a think about this. I try to make a point of listening to everything I can when I contribute to one of these polls, and the thing that consistently comes out is that artists go on releasing good work a lot longer than you think. Nevertheless I mostly keep voting for the 'peak era' stuff.
I can think of two reasons for this:- there's a kind of urgency in earlier work that dissipates as the artist mellows, doesn't take life so seriously, and tends to explore subtleties more than going for massive hooks and dramatic arrangements.- there's always a cultural cachet to the more popular stuff; everyone knows it, so we spend more time talking about it and attaching meanings to it. It's natural to love it more.
And more practically, it'd be slightly bloody-minded to fill your ballot with Heathen deep cuts when you know that everyone else is going to be voting for side one of Low.
I'll be interested to see how the Paul Simon one pans out, where his peak era is possibly less pronounced than someone like Bowie.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:13 (twelve years ago) link
It's not that I don't like anything post-1983, it's just that there's such an embarrassment of riches up to that point that I'd only include a later song if I was trying to make a point - it would feel dutiful rather than sincere. Maybe if the ballots were 40 places instead of 20, but then WmC would have had a nervous breakdown and Jump They Say isn't worth that.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Friday, 9 March 2012 10:16 (twelve years ago) link
Just me and Owen P voting for I'm Deranged then. Only five of us propped for Jump They Say...
― Michael Jones, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:20 (twelve years ago) link
"What's Really Happening"
Yes, I'm glad you asked me about that. I voted for it anyway..
Basically, this was a competition by DBowie on Bowienet. He put up an instrumental with him going la la la, and what you had to do was write the song's verses. Himself sang the chorus.
Then you 'uploaded' your verses.
The next part of the process involved clicking a link, and getting ten (or was it five?) sets of verses by other people, and you got to vote them out of five. Tell you what though, all the ones I saw were absolutely terrible! So, i thought I might be in with a good chance.
Anyways, the prize went to one Alex Grant (very close alphabetically, I noticed), and his verses were fine. Fair play, if someone said his were better, I would not argue.
I never got round to 'recording' my version. Might save it for the next ILX compilation.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:23 (twelve years ago) link
I've always been a bit unclear about the what's-going-on of Life on Mars?, esp the second verse, but Drive In Saturday seems to me post-human sci-fi looking back wistfully at us (& 70s looking at 60s, 50s), & I can't get that to match quite.
― woof, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:37 (twelve years ago) link
it's about a girl who has a miserable family life who likes going to the movies
― sarahell, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:40 (twelve years ago) link
I think "Drive in Saturday" is responsible for my favourite DLTism, after he played it:
"And speaking of "Crash course for the Ravers, let's over to the traffic news"
(hey, it shows he was listening!)
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:44 (twelve years ago) link
Since all the images in LoM are more or less American, I interpret it as being about a girl (Bowie substitute) looking at America as though it's a not a real place, as though it's an entirely fictious entity that only exists in movies. Since for an English person, practically everything we think of as the real America comes from movies/TV/media pop culture generally.
― c'est ne pas un car wash (snoball), Friday, 9 March 2012 10:44 (twelve years ago) link
are they though? sailors fighting in the dancehall could totally be British
― sarahell, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:45 (twelve years ago) link
i think the thing is that the descriptions of these movies all code as "old" b-movies, that she lives somewhere crappy where there is one movie theater that plays these old b-movies because it is crappy and can't afford doesn't give a fuck about showing contemporary fare. it's probably during the day, i'm guessing
― sarahell, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:50 (twelve years ago) link
I think it ties into the faltering pre-Ziggy state of Bowie's career: Space Oddity was a false start, he hadn't quite made the leap into stardom, he's still a struggling songwriter (failing to write the English lyrics for the song that would become My Way) - just like the girl in the song has failed in her plans to run away from home, and the whole ludicrous Hollywood spectacle doesn't console her, just mocks her dreams of escape.
― Stevie T, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:52 (twelve years ago) link
She wants the escapism, but the films are rubbish and cliché driven.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 10:55 (twelve years ago) link
so that second verse is… Bowie/girl poetic digression about rotten state of England, uk pop culture consumer thralldom?
― woof, Friday, 9 March 2012 11:13 (twelve years ago) link
It's just "I am the Walrus" type bol.
― Mark G, Friday, 9 March 2012 11:17 (twelve years ago) link
The post-1983 shutout in the top 60 is regrettable
David Bowie continued to make records after 1983? Far out. (Sorry--being a wiseguy.) More regrettable to me is that nothing from the Lower Third snuck in.
― clemenza, Friday, 9 March 2012 12:36 (twelve years ago) link
Only 3 other ppl voting for "Absolute Beginners" is just shocking. (I hadn't expected much support for "Looking for Water".)
― dorsalstop, Friday, 9 March 2012 12:38 (twelve years ago) link
It just occurred to me (seeing the date, d'oh) - that mugshot Moka posted was taken two days after the Nassau show in '76 that's included in the Station to Station reissue from last year.
― willem, Friday, 9 March 2012 12:58 (twelve years ago) link
A day later, at Madison Square Garden, still classy.http://www.teenagewildlife.com/Appearances/Concerts/1976/0326/JD02.jpg
― willem, Friday, 9 March 2012 12:59 (twelve years ago) link
1. Life on Mars?2. Ashes to Ashes3. Five Years4. Station to Station5. Rock n Roll Suicide6. The Bewlay Brothers7. Sweet Thing8. Lady Grinning Soul9. Fantastic Voyage10. Sound and Vision11. Yassassin12. Quicksand13. Look Back in Anger14. Sons of the Silent Age15. It's No Game (Part 2)16. The Secret Life of Arabia17. Changes18. Absolute Beginners19. African Night Flight20. Golden Years
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Friday, 9 March 2012 15:28 (twelve years ago) link
1. Starman2. Life On Mars?3. Oh! You Pretty Things 4. Ziggy Stardust5. Lady Stardust 6. Cracked Actor7. Heroes8. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)9. Bewlay Brothers 10. Quicksand 11. Lady Grinning Soul12. Prettiest Star 13. Young Americans14. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide 15. Stay16. Time17. TVC 1518. John, I'm Only Dancing 19. Watch That Man20. Five Years
Changes accidentally ommitted. Painfullest cuts, iirc:
Hallo SpaceboyPanic In DetroitModern LoveJean GenieMoonage DaydreamAshes to AshesStation to Station
I'd have put Stay higher id I'd listened to it before I submitted, but I'm still happy with Starman at #1. It makes me smile all over my body.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Friday, 9 March 2012 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
regarding what "Life on Mars?" is about: http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/life-on-mars/
― horseshoe, Friday, 9 March 2012 15:48 (twelve years ago) link
I honested figured ILX's love for Berlin-era Bowie would place Station to Station and Heroes above Life on Mars, but I always believed it would be in the top three... my local Bowie universe has always regarded Hunky Dory as his finest work (I remember late night diner arguments over Hunky Dory vs. Aladdin Sane, me arguing the latter) and Life on Mars is the shorthand for that record.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 9 March 2012 16:10 (twelve years ago) link