Rank David Bowie

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Another "big" artist here (have to keep to the "big" names to make sure everyone is familiar with their entire albums output, I guess). This guys has a somewhat more extensive output though...

Here is my ranking:
1. Low
2. Heroes
3. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
4. Alladin Sane
5. Station To Station
6. Heathen
7. Reality
8. Scary Monsters
9. Hunky Dory
10.Earthling
11.Lodger
12.Diamond Dogs
13.The Man Who Sold The World
14.Hours
15.Outside
16.Let's Dance
17.Space Oddity
18.Black Tie White Noise
19.Young Americans
20.Tonight
21.Never Let Me Down
22.Pin-Ups
23.David Bowie
24.Tin Machine
25.Tin Machine II

Some people may count "The Buddha Of Suburbia" as an album too, I guess...

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

1. 'Tonight'

the rest is rubbish obv

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

http://i.timeinc.net/time/digital/reports/mp3/images/bowie.jpg

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

http://letterman.iscool.com/april97/4-4c.jpg

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/music/bowie/thinwhiteduke.jpg

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Despite the phony teeth, the top photo is great!

Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

never understood why pinups always get down the bottom of these sorts of lists. it's at least as good as diamond dogs and, for me, better than all of the post heroes releases.

phil turnbull (philT), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

and it does have Sorrow on it

mentalist (mentalist), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Rank David Bowie

Yes he is, isn't he?

Andrew Norman, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 06:20 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Lodger
2. Aladdin Sane
3. Low
4. Heroes
5. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
6. Pin Ups
7. Station To Station
8. Scary Monsters
9. Hunky Dory
10. Young Americans
11. Outside
12. Space Oddity
13. The Man Who Sold The World
14. Diamond Dogs
15. Let's Dance

bottom of the list:

Black Tie White Noise
Tonight
Never Let Me Down
David Bowie
Tin Machine
Tin Machine II

can't really comment on these:

Heathen [can't remember anything about it]
Reality [seems OK, but needs more plays to rank]
Earthling [seems that I didn't enjoy this much]
Hours [can't remember anything about it]

Kent Burt (lingereffect), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

threads already discussing bowie

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

so why do we need another one ? does anyone want me to devote a whole thread to what _i_ think of bowie's career ? or would they prefer that i just contributed to the substantial body of opinion already here ?

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Lodger
2. Low
3. Heroes
4. BBC Sessions
5. Young Americans
6. Diamond Dogs
7. Station To..
8. Stage
9. Ziggy
10. Scary Monsters
11. Let's Dance
12. Aladdin Sane
13. Man Who Sold...

Haven't got any more.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 08:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir, are you the editor here ? Does this
Another "big" artist here (have to keep to the "big" names to make sure everyone is familiar with their entire albums output, I guess). This guys has a somewhat more extensive output though...
refer to you ?

It's just that i've heard/read that you're so prolific that they've been forced to remove some of your threads. I'm sorry, but i just don't understand it. Is this your message board now? Should everybody take all their cues from you ?

As to what you've said above, it doesn't seem to make sense to me. In short, wtf are you on about ?

(hey, maybe you're accidentally using defective or malicious software to access this site -- that would explain things)

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Diamond Dogs
2. Hunky Dory
3. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
4. Station To Station
5. Alladin Sane
6. Young Americans
7. Space Oddity
8. David Bowie
9. The Man Who Sold The World
10. Pinups

I respect but don't much enjoy the Eno albums, and I disliked
his 80s albums so much (despite a few good songs here and there)
that I haven't bothered to investigate his 90s output.

Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 08:36 (twenty-one years ago)

1. acustica
2. exotica
3. transicion II
4. sankt-bach passion
5. playback play

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 08:53 (twenty-one years ago)

what do you think about Kagel's Staatstheater Julio?

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, what about my solitary kagel thread !?

anyway, could someone please expand on Transicion II and Staatstheater ?

i don't think playbackplay rewards the repeated listen thing, but maybe that's the point of it. but the general theatrical stance of kagel's keeps me on the edge of my seat. he's a shocker. a boo-ie.

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

1 Diamond Dogs (the very first pop record I heard, which scared me witless, and which my playgroup teacher called my Mum after she heard me telling the other kids "Future Legend")

2 Aladdin Sane
3 Ziggy
4 Low
5 Heroes
6 Lodger
7 Hunky Dory
8 MWSTW

Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

''what do you think about Kagel's Staatstheater Julio?''

I've been looking for this in 2nd hand shops and can't find it (see my comments on the Q mag thread). Soulseek doesn't have it either (or if they do I haven't found it yet).

If anyone has a copy of Staatstheater and could copy it for me that would be great. I'll trade of course.

George- Transicion II is for percussion/electronics and piano. From the one listen I have it reminds me of Kontake (but that's just bcz of the instrumentation). 'Acustica' is the real deal as far as electroacoustic goes.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Some people may count "The Buddha Of Suburbia" as an album too, I guess...

Well apparently it's Bowie's favourite, so he may like you to include it.

Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher's Hill
And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now

The Year of the Diamond Dogs


How old were you at the time, Jim?

willem (willem), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

This is tough, but.....

1. Diamond Dogs
2. Hunky Dory
3. Scary Monsters
4. "Heroes"
5. The Lodger
6. Station to Station
.....and then whatever else.....

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

*How old were you at the time, Jim? *

4 or so. I only knew bits of it, but enough to freak teech out. It's fair to say that Diamond Dogs defined my entire aesthetic outlook.

Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

so you are half-human, half-dog then? cool!!!!!!

the sleeve art for 'DD' is tops

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I listened to DD yesterday for the first time in ages and I think it's his finest moment. Sweet Thing/Candidate is extraordinary. The only vaguely dud song on the album is the title track

H., Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

plus it has 'Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family' which roXoRs

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

As covered by the Wedding Present too! Which I still can't figure out.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

that's a weird one indeed. haven't listened to it in a very long time though, may be worth a revisit...

willem (willem), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

While it certainly wouldn't have been the first Bowie tune I'd guess a band would attempt covering, it's simplicity and gradually quickening pace did seem to suit the Wedding Present's particular aesthetic.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a brilliant song. Scares the shit out of me.

H., Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i reckon Diamond Dogs seemed to have had a surgence of interest around here in recent bowie threads, cf: May 11th 2002 for example, which was a "thread-biased" "Lodger ?"

(however, i cannot be bothered trying a programming solution searching all the threads for all the positions or movements over the years, even if it were to revive more opinions and introduce more input from a changing community, and i can't even be bothered simply searching pre-2001, so i'm just wondering from recent memory. I think it would be nicer and more useful here however if there was a mix of revival via reference and newly poised threads, both new angles on old subjects. But i do feel uncomfortable reviving threads i've started or maybe even hogged).

it seems to me like a "where were you when [Low->Monsters vs. Mars->Diamond Dogs]" qn, hippies->goths, harmony->dystopia

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

for a series from "Swiss Koch", the cd covers had 'a' and 'e' respectively, for Atem and Exotica.

Exotica, a send-up of "world music", seems very widely available, so it's easy to at least hear at the library.
Three tribal groups play roughly and tightly in turn, in turn unaware of each other, together and in response to each other (some of them).

Atem includes a piece which sets out to re-create the real audio-dynamics of live organ echo and bounce, resonances in cathedrals, but Kagel went further for a recent recording. He took the organ piece and ring-modulated bits of crowd clapping, shouting and choir singing into the central organ music, into a very fluid whole, which seems a potently jaw-dropping organic advance on what sounded like Catholic cathedrals.
Part of the mystery of this CD is that while it's just part 'a' of the series, it's only available from Argentina (Kagel's home county) yet only contains some of the music from his Buenos Aires period.

george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess all the disco fans around here like "Diamond Dogs" for stuff like "1984". Well, fine for me, nothing wrong about that tune anyway. But Bowie's best "disco" album remains the sophisticated and "arty" "Station To Station". :-)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Diamond Dogs for the overwrought histrionics of "We Are the Dead," "Big Brother" and "Candidate" and the utter majesty of "Rock'n'Roll With Me," personally.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

is it just me or are all Bowie fans cuter than Bowie? And I've got nine Bowie albums so I'm not a hata, I'm just irreverent. I couldn't begin to rank them right now, they're all just singles and funny lil' hooha.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Station to Station might be my favorite Bowie album. I love the histrionic-yet-detached vocals. The band sounds good too.

Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Station to Station is great. Fuck it, I think I'd put it ...

1. Lodger
2. Station to Station
3. Low
4. The Man Who Sold the World
5. Diamond Dogs
6. Hunky Dory
7. Heroes
8. Scary Monsters
9. Young Americans
10. Aladdin Sane
11. Ziggy Stardust
12. Pin-Ups
13. Space Oddity
14. Let's Dance

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"I guess all the disco fans around here like "Diamond Dogs" for stuff like "1984"."

I think I like the mixture of it - the disco, the more germanic-influenced droney bits all over the place, and the classic Ziggyish pop. It sums up all his good stuff in one record.

Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 15:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Here's mine, from 10 years ago anyway but amazingly they pretty much stand:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=kmw%40dcs.ed.ac.uk+bowie&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=kmw.754657939%40dcs.ed.ac.uk&rnum=1

Keith Watson (kmw), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bowie albums I own:

1. Singles 1969-93
2. The Best Of David Bowie 1969/74
3. Changesonebowie
4. The Best Of David Bowie 1974/79
5. Changestwobowie
6. Hunky Dory
7. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
8. Lodger
9. Scary Monsters
10. Aladdin Sane
11. Station To Station
12. Low
13. Heroes
14. The Deram Anthology
15. Diamond Dogs
16. The Man Who Sold The World
17. Let's Dance
18. Space Oddity
19. Young Americans
20. Pin-Ups
21. Heathen
22. Hours
23. Tin Machine
24. Rare
25. Black Tie White Noise
26. Early On
27. Tonight
28. Never Let Me Down

Please note that the order chosen is valid only for as long as it takes me to press that "Submit" button....

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 6 November 2003 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...
Not sure why this thread suffered death-by-nagging -- I can't find another one like it. I recently got used copies of the deluxe versions of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and got on another Bowie kick. Bowie is one of the few artists who have grown on me consistently every five years or so. I started out ignoring him because my mom liked him first circa Scary Monsters & Let's Dance. In college a housemate convinced me to give the Ziggy-era records a try, and I was still lukewarm. After college my girlfriend was a big fan, and I started absorbing all the Rykodisc reissues. I got all of them but Diamond Dogs and Young Americans. She played a beat-up tape of Diamond Dogs constantly, and it grew on me. Now I think that of his 13 albums from 1969-80 (not counting live or Peter and the Wolf), 10 are nearly perfect.

I took an informal poll among friends on their favorite Bowie album, and I think every single one received a vote except for Pinups and Space Oddity. What other artist can claim such enthusiastic support for over ten albums?

An interesting addition to the rankings would be, how many times has your favorite Bowie album changed? Mine -- about four times.

1 Hunky Dory
2 The Rise Of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars
3 Low
4 Lodger
5 Aladdin Sane
6 Scary Monsters
7 Heroes
8 The Man Who Sold The World
9 Station To Station
10 Diamond Dogs

Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Monday, 12 September 2005 04:54 (nineteen years ago)

1. Images
2. Lodger
3. Man Who Sold The World
4. Hunky Dory
5. Diamond Dogs
6=. Low / "Heroes"
7. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
8. Aladdin Sane
9. Young Americans
10. Ziggy Stardust

Momus (Momus), Monday, 12 September 2005 05:39 (nineteen years ago)

interesting, momus -- "station to station" doesn't rate for you?!?

Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 12 September 2005 06:35 (nineteen years ago)

1. Ziggy Stardust
2. Lodger
3. Never Let Me Down
4. Heroes
5. Diamond Dogs
6. Low
7. Young Americans
8. Pin-Ups
9. Scary Monsters
10. Let's Dance.

The only truly shite Bowie album is Black Tie White Noise.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 12 September 2005 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

1. Station To Station
2. Low
3. Hunky Dory
4. Scary Monsters
5. Lodger
6. Heroes
7. Alladin Sane
8. Reality
9. The Man Who Sold The World
10. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
11. Young Americans
12. Let's Dance
13. Diamond Dogs
14. Pin-Ups
15. Heathen
16. Space Oddity
17. Hours
18. Outside
19. Black Tie White Noise
20. Earthling
21. Tonight
22. David Bowie
23. Tin Machine
24. Never Let Me Down
25. Tin Machine II

Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 12 September 2005 08:49 (nineteen years ago)

whoops -- i fucked up the cut and paste. "reality" should be #15 (right behind "heathen"). so move #9-#15 on the above list up one slot each.

Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 12 September 2005 08:51 (nineteen years ago)


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