Help me with David Bowie (1 Viewer)

[Matt Fisher]

I've been listening to The Life Aquatic - Soundtrack lately like crazy, and I'm addicted to the 2 Bowie tracks on there, Queen Bitch and Life on Mars?. I'm looking for some advice on where to start with his music, and also I believe there's a few DVD-A titles available, if anyone could give some feedback on those, that'd be great. Thanks-

 

[Henry Gale]

Matt,
Those 2 songs you like are from Hunky Dory, so why not start with that?
Ziggy Stardust is also a favorite of mine.
The sountrack to Cat People includes Cat People (Putting Out Fire)...a version I much prefer to the one he did with Stevie Ray Vaughan later.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Or you could cover all your bases and get the 2-disk Best of Bowie album HERE

Space Oddity, man who sold the world, lets dance, under pressure, scary monsters..... how can you go wrong with the album?

 

[Matt Fisher]

Henry - thanks I'm gonna look into it.

Garrett - As a personal rule, I generally like to stay away from 'best of' albums when introducing myself to a new artist. If a best of is done right, it will be the best material, which means everything else I start listening to won't be as good. I like to find a song or 2, and work around it on its album. If I like 2 or 3 albums and there's still a fair number of unheards on the best of, I'll go for it, thank you though.

Oh and any comments on the DVD-A's?

 

[dpippel]

If you'd like to try some of his more recent stuff, both Heathen and Reality are excellent efforts with Heathen being my fave of the two. The SACDs of both releases are excellent. Heathen is single layer and Reality is a hybrid.

 

[Rachael B]

Start out with THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD and work forward from there.

 

[AricB]

Matt, to scratch the surface either the singles collection, or 2 disc best of might be agood start. I'm holding out for sacd/dvd-a versions before buying the back catalog.

I have ziggy stardust, lets dance, scary monsters and heathen on SACD. Reality on DualDisc(not highres, but in DD 5.1), and all the 90's-00's on CD.

He has no DVD-A's out yet, the first 2 will be David-Live and Stage, due 3/15, both surround highres dvd-a, but they are live recordings.

As far as surround titles, I'd say Heathen is great, and Ziggy is good too(especially for its age). LD and SM are stereo only on sacd.

 

[AricB]

Just saw this. This was pulled from Tony Visconti's website:

"Now that the news has been announced on Bowienet, I can tell you that it hasn't been quiet around our studio in the past month (or two). EMI and DTS are really hot on releasing David Bowie's classic albums in newly mixed 5.1 Surround Sound. I have mixed David Live and Stage, which are available now. I've just finished mixing the amazing Young Americans in 5.1 Surround Sound, too, for its 30th anniversary (has it been that long?). The release will be in a few months. There will be bonus tracks and a surprise.

All the tracks have been mixed from the master tapes to 96khz high definition digital audio."

 

[Will_B]

AricB, that is amazingly good news!

My years of avoiding the CD reissues is finally paying off!

 

[AricB]

Lets just hope they dont all wait for a 30 or 35th anniversary to release them... I'd like to see them mix in some newer material re-releases along with the classics.

 

[John McM]

awww, someone I can add my 2 cents to

I have all of Bowie's albums. It all depends what you're into:

all these albums are great for starters:
The Man Who Sold The World
Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust
Aladdin Sane
Diamond Dogs
Station To Station
Scary Monsters
The Singles 1969-1993
Heathen
Reality

these are great, but acquired tastes:
Young Americans
Low
Heroes
Lodger
Black Tie White Noise
Outside
Earthling

I'd avoid these until I have everything else:
Early On
The Deram Anthology (Bowie singing caberet)
Space Oddity (the title track is a classic, but the album as a whole lacks)
Tonight
Never Let Me Down
Tin Machine 1 and 2
Hours (a few great songs, but also probably his weakest 90's album)

and then Let's Dance, which is an entity all to itself. Loathed by Bowie fans, loved by 80's pop fans, it's all your call. I think the album really isn't all that bad myself, but it is far from Bowie's finest work.

 

[francisco-a]

If I where you, I would buy a SACD player just for the Surround Layer of the Ziggy Stardust SACD. Freaking amazing!! It has more than 30 years and sounds great. Lady Stardust..I could cry in that song.

 

[Will_B]

Matt, in short, be prepared for a variety of styles when you get into Bowie. Be prepared to buy several albums.

Some fools buy one album by Bowie, don't like it, and conclude that they don't like the artist.

You can't make that mistake with Bowie, because each album is different (with the exception of "Lodger" "Low" and "Heros" which are seen as one thematic set, pretty much).

So bravo for your reluctance to buy a best-of.

 

[Will_B]

AKA the mid-life crisis years.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I love Bowie.

The Sound+Vision set is a fantastic overview of his career, not at all a Best-of compilation, but a flowing, evolving set that tells you who and what he was at each stage of his career up to 1980.

If you like Queen Bitch and Life On Mars, I really would highly recommend Bowie At The Beeb -- the second disc is almost entirely material from that period, all of it live in studio and full of fire and energy.

Between the two live albums, David Live and Stage, I'd go for Stage -- David Live is great if you can get into it, but it's definitely over-the-top crazy. I find it works better for me a bit at a time than all in one sitting (though the versions of Watch That Man, Cracked Actor and Sufragette City are, IMO, some of the very best things he's recorded). I love Stage -- grandiose, brittle, magnificent. I think Stage will be the first DVD-A I buy.

Personally, my favourite album is Station To Station, but I'm a weirdo. I was overjoyed when my wife took me to see Bowie last year for my birthday (the concert was three days before it) and he played literally everything I wanted to hear, some of it stuff that he rarely plays live, like Station To Station, Ashes To Ashes, Hang On To Yourself... it was heavenly.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I'll dissent on Tin Machine I -- Tin Machine II is godawful, but Tin Machine I is brilliant and was ahead of its time by about five years.

If you haven't spun it lately, give it another shot.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

No - AKA the career-resurrecting years. I truly believe that TM revitalized Bowie after his pop wasteland time of the Eighties.

"Tonight" and "Never Let Me Down" represent "the mid-life crisis" years...

 

[Will_B]

Not weird at all. I like Station to Station and Heathen the best, myself. The extra tracks on the Ryko version of Station to Station are ESSENTIAL IMO.

 

[Matt Fisher]

Wow just picked up Hunky Dory and I love it, I think I'm gonna give myself some time to let this settle in and then maybe go for one of the DVD-A's coming out next week, thanks for all the help.

 

[Henry Gale]