Brian Eno vs. David Bowie

include entire careers in your decision (roxy music / everything they produced / the windows 95 startup theme etc.)

nearly a draw, eno never made a pop song as good as "golden years" (which counts for a lot) and bowie never produced as many rock solid records, curated a label like obscure, or helped found the ambient record genre. potentially unpopular opinion, i actually hate their collaboration albums. so, eno just because the eno sounding tracks from those albums are the better of the bunch imo.

brian eno by a large margin

Eno is the better producer, Bowie the better songwriter/performer. Eno is consistently better in his role of producer than Bowie is as a songwriter. But I listen to a lot more Bowie (even if some of it is Eno produced Bowie) than I do Eno, so I voted for DB.

If I read a David Bowie autobiography it would probably put me off him as much as AYWSA put me off Eno. But I haven't, so Bowie it is.

eno just because the eno sounding tracks from those albums are the better of the bunch imo.

Eno sounding tracks often written by Bowie of course

Eno. Easy.

Love Brian, but can find it in my heart to forgive him for prolonging Bono's career and turning into a urine
drinking Liberal Democrat twunt

Eno. Easy.
This.

When I was younger: Bowie
Now: Eno

When I was younger: Eno
Now: Eno

duh eno

This is no competition. Bowie has done little of merit since "Scary Monsters," "Let's Dance"/"Under Pressure" if I'm feeling very generous. Eno's early '80s-to-now production alone is full of classic credits, plus as a solo artist he's released plenty of good stuff in that span. Add to that his one-offs, collaborations, lectures, installations, essays, Koan experiments, etc. and I can't see how Bowie can even compare. Factor in that three of Bowie's best '70s records were Eno collaborations and the waters get muddied even more.

P.S. I love Bowie.

I don't think Eno's released all that much great stuff either in the last 20 years

Well, Wrong Way Up >>>>>> most of Bowie's nineties output.

Yes, but I'd give Mad Johnny Cale more credit for that to be honest

David Bowie was in Labyrinth, but Brian Eno was on Father Ted. So Brian Eno.

No, really. Eno all the way. Bowie's classic but Eno is Eno.

I don't know – Eno dominates the songwriting, instrumental, and vocal credits. (xpost)

Maybe, haven't heard it in a while!

I don't think Eno's released all that much great stuff either in the last 20 years

First of all, who said "great?" Regardless, Bowie's barely released anything listenable.

As for Eno albums, setting aside that we're taking into account production and other things in this poll, "Another Day on Earth" and "Wrong Way Up" (I'm not sure I'd give Cale more credit for this, but at the very least "Spinning Away" is all Eno) are both pretty great. The new one with Byrne is great, too. "Nerve Net" has its moments. And again, taking into account all those other credits he's amassed, no contest.

Eno by light-years.

If I read a David Bowie autobiography it would probably put me off him as much as AYWSA put me off Eno. But I haven't, so Bowie it is.

Hahahahaha. I'm still going Eno, though, without a second thought

this is really hard for me but i disagree with anyone who dispute's eno's songwriting

ahem, disputes

Another easy one for Eno.

eno

eno

ENO

I love Eno and will probably vote Eno and think he's more important and more influential and my favorite Eno songs beat my favorite Bowie songs (they beat my favorite ANYBODY songs) but there should be more love and respect paid to Bowie in comparison. Sure, Eno decided he didn't want to spend his life writing rock and roll and pop songs, who knows if he could've if he had? Let's give it to Bowie for remaining relevant way longer then many of his peers and for knocking out album after album after album of killer stuff, despite pretentious and/or stupid lyrics.

No one dislikes Bowie here. It's not like this is Bowie vs. Tom Petty.

Eno wins just because of the Oblique Strategies app on my iPhone.

I know, but people be saying Eno kills Bowie. I guess they didn't, maybe I'm reading between the lines. Maybe I can't see the lines I used to think I could read between. OK Eno.

But Eno never wrote Teenage Wildlife or Panic in Detroit or Width of a Circle...

Love 'em both. But voting for Bowie simply because he's the one who -- I think -- has had the most obvious cultural impact. (Not always for the best, no. But I just can't imagine the pop landscape of the past 40-odd years without Bowie. And I can without Eno ... just. It'd be a bleak and uninviting one, mind.)

My girlfriend has a theory that Brian Eno is out to destroy pop music. She contends that for any band that has Eno produce an album, that album will be the best of their career, but they will never do anything worth listening to once they leave Eno. He is to avant pop what drugs were to Aerosmith.

(It's more fun as a challop than as a cogent theory, but it's fun at parties.)

not true for Ultravox!

I was about to say! Ultravox didn't produce good albums, they had accidents.

early roxy has great pop tunes! and my life in the bush of ghosts does too!

bowie obviously sunk much lower, but can still be interesting when he really wants to be (heathen, parts of relativity). eno got boring right after shutov assembly and never got interesting again.

kinda have to go with Eno for just being involved with a wider range of great productions - it basically boils down to Bowie/Transformer/All the Young Dudes/Raw Power + 2 Iggy solo albums vs. Eno/Roxy/Talking Heads/Devo/My Life in the Bush of Ghosts/Fear/um U2 I guess/Cluster... Eno wins

and James' Laid.

"Evening Star" by Fripp/Eno is dope as hell IMO

But Eno never wrote Teenage Wildlife or Panic in Detroit or Width of a Circle...

But Eno did co-write "Heroes," which I might have undervalued until I heard the NPR piece about what he specifically contributed to "Once in a Lifetime" (which he also co-wrote), adding the chorus to the latter.

Anyway, again, per the rules of this poll, including everything, not just albums - production, collaborations, etc. - Eno absolutely kills this. This is not a fair fight.

x-post I would love to hear Eno produce Aerosmith.

Oblique strategies sez: Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities. So the English chap. The one in the music biz.

x-post to myself

I meant I might have undervalued Eno's [i] contribution [/i[ to "Heroes," not "Heroes" itself, because, well, it's "Heroes."

Eno's only real production flops, to my ears, were his recent Paul Simon and U2 missteps. The rest always have something worthwhile going on.

Bowie bravely crusaded to prevent cruelty to long-haired men. Half the time, I can't even tell Eno apart from Richard O'Brien. Bowie wins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zxeLwUSdk

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9682/1601711f.jpg

Both did their best ever work together, but Bowie has been considerably better than Eno outside of those albums. So Bowie then.

(pleasantly) surprised that eno appears to be winning this

Both did their best ever work together, but Bowie has been considerably better than Eno outside of those albums. So Bowie then.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, July 16, 2009 4:48 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm really shocked that you prefer the berlin records to earlier bowie stuff like hunky dory or ziggy stardust geir....isn't there too much noodly non-songwriting stuff on heroes or low?

try again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XKkSkAriGg

sorry i don't know why I posted that, now it will slow down the loading of this page.

Would have liked to see him do an Eno medley! Actually, once I saw Jon Brion do a respectable song-by-song cover of side two of "Warm Jets" from memory. It was awesome.

Steely Dan was beaten (rather inexcusably imho) by Fleetwood Mac iirc

I read biographies on both in the past year, and both have their annoying quirks. Bowie's run of 12 consecutive great albums between 1970 and 1980 cannot be beat, however. That's not even counting the covers album. Does the loser have to be whacked and erased from history? I hope not. We needed 'em both!

Bowie did not make 12 consecutive great albums; that's stretching it. He made a couple of great ones and quite a few good-to-listenable ones. That's enough, no?

SD beat FM 63 to 59

and yeah, "12 consecutive great albums" requires a real watering down of the word "great"

Please.

01 Space Oddity
02 The Man Who Sold The World
03 Hunky Dory
04 Ziggy Stardust
05 Aladdin Sane
06 Diamond Dogs
07 Young Americans
08 Station To Station
09 Low
10 Heroes
11 Lodger
12 Scary Monsters

Nitpick about Diamond Dogs and Young Americans if you want, they're good enough to be great in my book. Give a solid case against the other ten, or, uh, suck it!

And it's not that I'm not a big fan of Eno's either. See Eno Related 70s Projects

i'd rather nitpick about space oddity...those other two are great in my book

Nitpick about Diamond Dogs and Young Americans if you want

I'd nitpick about "Young Americans", plus you ignored "Pinup", which is also not great.

But 11 great albums in such a short time doesn't spoil your argument.

Yeah, that's a pretty impressive run even after we all have our subjective nitpicks! I love Eno and ambient music, but seeing as he's going to win this, I'm going to give props to Bowie for wider, more obvious cultural impact.

But it's probably an overall good thing that ILM is resisting populism for a change.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Seems about right.

it's probably an overall good thing that ILM is resisting populism for a change

Every time I think I can kick this SB compulsion they drag me back in

As much as I adore him, Brian Eno's ILM very own populism.

pretty sure he would lose to James Brown or Prince

Every time I think I can kick this SB compulsion they drag me back in

Uh, "they"? You'd want somebody banned over an opinion?

Also, ha ha, I think you might have missed my angle altogether.

So, I just discovered Brian Eno. It's one of those things where I'm kicking myself for writing him off for so long, but at the same time ecstatic that I have new old music to discover.

My picture of Eno was formed by his associations with U2, Coldplay, and David Bowie. I don't have any use for U2 or Coldplay and while I've always liked patches of Bowie, I've never sat still through an entire album of his. Also never quite got the hang of Roxy Music. I was into Eno's ambient stuff for a while and had heard Needle in the Camels Eye, but figured it for a one-off for some reason.

Anyway, been deeply into Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) for the past couple weeks. What a great record from start to finish!

oh man wait'll you hear another green world and before and after science. sublime!

Yeah, I'm trying to bask in each one for a while, rather than binging them, but I'm looking forward to those.

My somewhat deep cut recommendation is his album with John Cale.

Also he's been on a winning streak w/ his solo albums lately, as well as his pair of releases with Karl Hyde.

From Underworld? Jesus christ, I guess when I make up my mind to ignore someone, I really ignore them.

There are very few Brian Eno related albums or production credits or guest appearances that are not worth while. Maybe the Paul Simon record?

also this may not be your bag but a friend of mine who hates U2 also happens to love the Passengers album.

And if you like Passengers you'd probably like James' "Wah Wah."

the harold budd and cluster/harmonia and daniel lanois collabs (and the new one with the THREE TRAPPED TIGERS guy, tom rogerson) are all way worth a listen too

Don't sleep on the 801 stuff either!

it is honestly difficult to believe that there is a single poster on ilxor.com who had not heard Taking Tiger Mountain

it was me.

Not sure what's so hard to believe about someone who doesn't like Bowie or Roxy not having heard Taking Tiger Mountain.

It's not like Taking Tiger Mountain is Eno's most celebrated or famous album or anything.

Haven't heard it and unashamed

So you will have the pleasure of hearing it for the first time, hurrah!

idk Brian Eno and that album in particular just seem like a perfect cross-section of all of ILM's interests

Why that album?

Glam, New Wave, 1974

I would say "Warm Jets" covers that, except the 1974 bit.

I think the new wave part didn't quite make it my way, being part of the problem. Also think the glam aspect may have been oversold to me at the expense of how psychedelic and angular and slithery it gets.

it is honestly difficult to believe that there is a single poster on ilxor.com who had not heard Taking Tiger Mountain

― frogbs, Thursday, December 21, 2017 1:44 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao i love eno and own like 7 of his albums but i've never heard taking tiger mountain

there is a lot of music

sometimes it is not possible to hear all the music

I have only heard 5 Brian Eno albums, but 1 of those was Taking Tiger Mountain.

I'm being lazy, but has there been an 'Eno and everything he's been associated with' poll? If not, can someone less feckless than me sort it out, plz? Reason being that in the last year, 'Spinning Away' and the Walkabouts' 'Late Train to Mercy' have been pretty much constant companions and I'm wondering what else I've missed.

Some of Them Are Polled (ILM Artist Poll #55 - Brian Eno - RESULTS)

everything he's done with fripp has been exquisite

The Plateux of Mirror with Harold Budd is my favorite of his ambient records.

There is some good stuff on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts too. If LP minded, that one sold a few, so I used to see it used all the time. I had it on LP first.