David Bowie - RIP

He was The Man Who Sold the World.  He was Ziggy Stardust.  He was The Thin White Duke.  He was The Man Who Fell to Earth.  For a while he was also The Elephant Man.  In what is the ultimate career move for any entertainer, now he is David Bowie [Deceased].  David Bowie sure was a lot of different guys.  No matter what the character, there was music, and lots of it.  Some of it was great and some of it was not-so-great, but it was rarely boring.  I remember the first time I heard a David Bowie song – it was at my friend Brian’s house.  I was 12 years old, we were listening to a radio station in Springfield, Ohio [WNCI].  The song was Fame.  I’ve been a fan ever since. 

Upon hearing about Bowie’s death I compiled a rather lengthy playlist.  If you want to take an afternoon and listen to all-Bowie all the time, here are my recommendations.  You can find quite a bit of this list on either Best of Bowie [2002] or Nothing Has Changed [2014], but there are plenty of album deep tracks I really like that.  One quarter of this list comes from the last fourteen years of his career, beginning with the album Heathen [2002] and ending with Blackstar [2016], released just two days before his death.  Another sizeable chunk comes from the 1975-80 period, which included his “Berlin” period.

1. Slow Burn [Heathen – 2002] - This is my favorite Bowie song.  That’s Pete Townshend playing the flamethrower guitar.
2. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) [Let’s Dance – 1983] – This is the song where I discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan.  The first version was done for the Cat People movie.
3. Fame [Young Americans – 1975] – Bowie’s first #1 single.  He wrote it with a guy named John Lennon. 
4. “Heroes” [“Heroes” – 1977] – That’s Robert Fripp playing the guitar.  This became a featured song in a movie I like called The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
5. Rebel Rebel [Diamond Dogs – 1974] – Believe it or not, that’s Bowie himself playing that guitar riff.  And a great, instantly-recognizable riff it is.
6. Under Pressure (with Queen) [single – 1981] – a great, great single
7. This Is Not America (with The Pat Metheny Group) [The Falcon and The Snowman soundtrack – 1985] – Bowie was in the middle of his Let’s Dance/Tonight pop phase when he did this with Pat Metheny.  It sounds nothing like what he did on those two albums.
8. Criminal World [Let’s Dance – 1983] – More SRV.
9. Loving the Alien [Tonight – 1984]
10. Sunday [Heathen – 2002]
11. Heathen (The Rays) [Heathen – 2002]
12. Lazarus [Blackstar – 2016]
13. V-2 Schneider [“Heroes” – 1977]
14. Neuköln [“Heroes” – 1977]
15. Station to Station [Station to Station – 1976] – If you were paying attention, this is foreshadowing of things to come with the “Berlin Trilogy”.
16. Warszawa [Low – 1977]
17. Art Decade [Low – 1977]
18. TVC15 [Station to Station – 1976]
19. Sound and Vision [Low – 1977]
20. Stay [Station to Station – 1976]
21. Pablo Picasso [Reality – 2003]
22. Hallo Spaceboy [1. Outside – 1995]
23. Seven Years in Tibet [Earthling – 1997]
24. Under The God [Tin Machine – 1989]
25. I’m Afraid of Americans [Earthling – 1997]
26. The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell [‘Hours…’ – 1999]
27. China Girl [Let’s Dance – 1983]
28. Neighborhood Threat [Tonight – 1984]
29. Blue Jean [Tonight – 1984]
30. Dancing With the Big Boys [Tonight – 1984]
31. Modern Love [Let’s Dance – 1983]
32. The Next Day [The Next Day – 2013]
33. Dirty Boys [The Next Day – 2013]
34. Reality [Reality – 2003]
35. Outside [1. Outside – 1995]
36. Strangers When We Meet [1. Outside – 1995]
37. Because You’re Young [Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) – 1980] - Pete Townshend plays guitar here, too.
38. Ashes To Ashes [Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) – 1980] – Bowie catches up with Major Tom, who is now a junkie.
39. Sense of Doubt [“Heroes” – 1977]
40. Never Get Old [Reality – 2003]
41. Looking For Water [Reality – 2003]
42. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson [1. Outside – 1995]
43. Seven [‘Hours…’ – 1999]
44. Dead Man Walking [Earthling – 1997]
45. Joe The Lion [“Heroes” – 1977]
46. Blackout [“Heroes” – 1977]
47. The Secret Life of Arabia [“Heroes” – 1977]
48. Look Back in Anger [Lodger – 1979]
49. Boys Keep Swinging [Lodger – 1979]
50. I Can’t Give Everything Away [Blackstar – 2016]
51. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) [The Next Day – 2013]
52. I'd Rather Be High [The Next Day – 2013]
53. (You Will) Set The World On Fire [The Next Day – 2013]
54. Love Is Lost [The Next Day – 2013]
55. Blackstar [Blackstar -2016]
56. Panic In Detroit [Alladin Sane – 1973] – Is that a Bo Diddley riff?
57. The Jean Genie [Alladin Sane – 1973]
58. Life On Mars [Hunky Dory – 1971]
59. Moonage Daydream [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – 1972]
60. The Man Who Sold the World [The Man Who Sold the World – 1970]
61. Starman [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – 1972]
62. Space Oddity [David Bowie – 1969] 

David Bowie was not normal.  He allowed others to revel in their uniqueness.  I suspect that is what kept him from being boring.  He was one of those few who kept everybody guessing from album to album.  What was he going to do next?  He explored and he took us along for the ride.  Until the very end he was still capable of springing surprises.  Only a select few people knew that Blackstar was going to be his last album, and it’s only in hindsight that we can see that he was leaving clues that he wasn’t long for this world.

I bought Blackstar yesterday morning, not because Bowie suddenly up and died, but because it was on my list of things to get.  His death just hastened my decision to pull the trigger on the purchase.  Later that afternoon, I checked Amazon just for grins to see what bits of his catalog were available.  In short, nothing was available.  Every album was sold out.  Last night I was surfing through the cable TV guide and I found Iron Maiden: Flight 666 on Palladia.  But instead of seeing Iron Maiden, there was his installment of VH1 Storytellers.  Imagine my surprise when I found that every one of his stories was funny.  A lot of adjectives describe David Bowie, but I didn’t think “funny” was one of them until last night.  But given all the stories written about him these past two days, I think that is how I will prefer to remember him – the serious guy who had a hidden funny streak.  But now he’s stepped through the door, and the stars look very different today.