David Bowie - songwriter?

Chris Connelly did "Cracked Actor" at least once live. And quite good it was too.

Wow!

Thanks. For making sure I am going to be in debt for the next 60,000 years. My children's children's children's children are going to be a vast army of slaves for Jeff Bezos' children's children's...ah fuck it where's the Visa

Suede have made an entire career of covering Bowie songs.

And such a fine job they do of it.

Ned, stop rescuing damsels in distress! The list doesn't mention the Au Pairs' version of "Repetition". I was very surprised when I found out that Bowie had written that song. "Repetition" contains a concise, coherent narrative about domestic violence. It isn't a typical example of his songwriting style at all.

Good point about 'Repetition', though I would disagree that it's not typical of Bowie's songwriting style. It's not typical of his songwriting of the last, oh, twenty years. But go back far enough and you'll find gems of character observation and tightly-written narratives with consistent point of view: 'Space Oddity', 'God Knows I'm Good', 'When I'm Five', 'Five Years'. He can do it when he wants to.

I think Bowie's writing has been ruined by Brion Gysin, surrealism, laziness, post- modernism, whatever. Where he really writes brilliant stuff that stands up without the surrounding charisma / imagery, reads well on the page, and can be covered by third parties, is where he's got a story but he's using innovative techniques in its telling; language (his 'Clockwork Orange'-inspired slang period) or cinematic editing techniques (the dissolve shot in 'Space Oddity' on the pun on 'Hear / here': 'Can you hear / here am I sitting in a tin can...'

When he's bad he's very bad, but when he's good he's the best.

Oh, and although people often say he should go back on them, we could add drugs to the list of things that have undermined Bowie's clarity and coherence.

Of course, I also like the nonsense style. 'Blackout' off "Heroes" makes no sense, but is fantastic expressionist poetry.

Ned, stop rescuing damsels in distress!

You're always ruining my fun! *cries*