Inspired by James Gent's brilliant, knowledgable and tasteful reimagining of a Bowie boxset, I reckoned I could do another 50 different Bowie tracks and it'd still be fantastic. Then I remembered I have ten days to do a major re-work of my Sherlock Holmes' novel, so decided that ten tracks would have to be enough.
And then decided - to make it interesting - that none of the tracks could be from either any of Bowie's classic 70s albums, or from his post-Outside resurgence in the late 90s.
And I could still have done 50, you know...
1. When I'm Five
Originally recorded as a demo in 68, this seemingly whimsical and slight tune sung from the POV of a small child finally made an appearance on mish-mash release 'Love You til Tuesday' and then promptly disappeared again, to be remembered only by Bowie obsessives. From the first time I heard it, though, I thought it was the saddest song I'd ever heard - and thirty years of listening later I still feel much the same. It's not a reading I've seen elsewhere so probably nonsense, but the lyrics have always felt to me to be about a seriously ill four year old.
Why else does Daddy shout loudly at Mummy when she says the narrator - if he's good - can go to school in August. Why does he then burst into tears? For that matter, what's with the headaches in the morning, and why is everyone so soppy and daft when he falls off a trike? Finally, pleas to Jesus to make him five? Nope - he's a goner, I reckon.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrmiDWzGvSI
Originally recorded as a demo in 68, this seemingly whimsical and slight tune sung from the POV of a small child finally made an appearance on mish-mash release 'Love You til Tuesday' and then promptly disappeared again, to be remembered only by Bowie obsessives. From the first time I heard it, though, I thought it was the saddest song I'd ever heard - and thirty years of listening later I still feel much the same. It's not a reading I've seen elsewhere so probably nonsense, but the lyrics have always felt to me to be about a seriously ill four year old.
Why else does Daddy shout loudly at Mummy when she says the narrator - if he's good - can go to school in August. Why does he then burst into tears? For that matter, what's with the headaches in the morning, and why is everyone so soppy and daft when he falls off a trike? Finally, pleas to Jesus to make him five? Nope - he's a goner, I reckon.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrmiDWzGvSI
2. Conversation Piece
Another 60s demo which didn't make a contemporaneous album, but instead mouldered in Bowie's archive for a bit, then slipped - almost un-noticed - into the world, as the b-side to the 1970 re-issue of 'The Prettiest Star'. Bowie re-recorded it for the abortive 'Toy', but I much prefer this acoustic version from 1969 which I first heard on a tape bootleg called 'Bowie Rarities' c 1982.
Another 60s demo which didn't make a contemporaneous album, but instead mouldered in Bowie's archive for a bit, then slipped - almost un-noticed - into the world, as the b-side to the 1970 re-issue of 'The Prettiest Star'. Bowie re-recorded it for the abortive 'Toy', but I much prefer this acoustic version from 1969 which I first heard on a tape bootleg called 'Bowie Rarities' c 1982.
3. Buddha of Suburbia
Seriously,
anyone who says Bowie never recorded a great record between Scary
Monsters and 'Earthling/Outside/Heathen/Some Other album from the late
90s onwards' should be forced to sit down and listen to this entire
album but - to save time - just give the title track a spin.
Deliberately self-referential (both musically and lyrically, but also
in its South London setting), funny and thoughtful, with a great melody,
some fantastic guitar and a video where Bowie sits and strums a guitar
on a tree stump, the only reason this wasn't a huge return to form was
that he didn't need one of those - he'd never been away...
4. Time Will Crawl
And just to prove that, how about 'Time Will Crawl'? Described by the man himself as one of his personal favourite tracks, this is a single as good as anything Bowie has recorded. It's not subtle, it's not layered and it features Bowie's shittest ever hair style, but from a decade where - random example - Status Quo managed to get into the top ten with 'In the Army Now', this is pure gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMhMaNAmT-U
5. As the World Falls Down
I almost went with Matt and my favourite track from 'Labyrinth', the awesome 'Magic Dance', and then I thought of 'Underground', for the wonderful refrain of 'Daddy, daddy, get me out of here' if nothing else - but when I was looking for that on YouTube I realised I prefered this, one of Bowie's more mannered vocals, and a genuinely forgotten but lovely ballad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VppuD1St8Ec
6. Remembering Marie A
James
went with the admittedly superb bleakness of 'The Drowned Girl', but
personally I've always thought this was as good as Bowie ever sang. Why
is Baal not available on blu-ray, with a beautiful deluxe cd remaster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymJCdmTwkvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymJCdmTwkvs
7. Silver Tree Top School for Boys
This
list is a bit 'on the trail of lost songs', I know but Bowie's own
version of this turned up unexpectedly on the Bowie Record Day release
in 2012, alongside 'Little Tin Soldier'. Sadly, the version on there
isn't a patch on the Beat Stalkers cover version (on which he allegedly
sang backing vocals) from the 60s. Still it's a great song and if you
love Bowie's Deram stuff (and you do, don't you?), then this is a little
discarded slice of that very English form of psychedelia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBLktpmOABw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBLktpmOABw
8. Loving the Alien
I wasn't a huge fan of Let's Dance,
with the exception of 'Ricochet' and I didn't even buy a copy until
several years later when I came across it in the Bargain Bin at Vinyl
Villains in Edinburgh's Elm Row, but I thought aout half of Tonight was
genius from the off. 'Loving the Alien' is my favourite purely because
I have a rather lovely picture disc 12" of it, but I could as easily
have chosen 'Blue Jean' or 'Dancing with the Big Boys' (or 'Tonight'
itself, shorn of Tina Bloody Turner).
9. Absolute Beginners
God that video, Bowie as cool as the fags he's smoking, then the guitar coming in and Bowie giving it 'ba ba ba oo!'
It's enough to make a grown man cry, it's so good. The 15 year old me
thought it was literally, genuinely the Best Thing that Ever Happened to
Music (a fact which wasn't even ruined by a terrible, nightmare date at the movie from which is came some weeks later).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NZa9wYZ_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NZa9wYZ_U
10. Knock on Wood
No, only kidding. That's a shit song which even Dave can't save. Instead we'll have my current favourite Bowie track - 'Can't HelpThinking about Me'. Bowie
himself says it contains two of his worst lyrics, but given that it was
his first recording as David Bowie, the first Bowie track to be
released in the States and was re-recorded for 'Toy' (as good a version, in its way, as the original).
There are whole back catalogues from mod bands in the 60s and 70s which
don't contain a single better song than this Bowie throw away.
60s version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1MXonBG5NI
Storytellers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah07pbw1xws
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