OTR: David Bowie - Changesbowie

[illusionofjoy]

David Bowie's musical career began in 1967, however it was 1969's "Space Oddity" that marked his rise to rock stardom. My first introduction to Bowie came via Jim Henson's 1986 film Labyrinth in which he played Jareth, the Goblin King. This was also my initial introduction to Bowie's music, as he had collaborated with Trevor Jones in composing the score and five pop tunes which would appear on the soundtrack. "Magic Dance" remains a great underplayed 80s pop song, but when I was young, the haunting "Within You" was my favourite. The where David Bowie sings the song as Jareth, strolling coldly about his M.C. Escher-like castle as he mocks Sarah for being unable to get to her baby brother was - and is - fascinating to me. As a child, it was an enthralling and tense cinematic experience. Today I watch the scene and appreciate it for it videoesque quality - it is no less than a music video right in the middle of the film (one of five), but the song is as haunting as ever.

My teenage years brought me an awareness of Bowie's other contributions to the world of popular music as I listened to Canadian rock station "106.9 The Bear" religiously (until I discovered Potsdam's two college radio stations). The first Bowie song I can remember hearing on the station was "Space Oddity." They played it as part of their program called "The Six O'Clock Rock Report," which aired weekdays and would couple pieces of rock music news with songs by the musicians the news was about. I don't recall what David Bowie was up to at the time, but I very much remember that "Space Oddity" was one of the most impressive things I'd ever heard played on the radio...at least until the station played "Ziggy Stardust" a few days later.

During my first semester at WAIH, one of the established DJs called into my show and requested "Laughing Gnome," which he described as "the worst song David Bowie ever recorded." Eager to rise to the challenge of finding this lesser-known track, I searched through the station's stacks of vinyl and upon unearthing the song, broadcast it. Indeed, it was quite possibly the worst song that Bowie had ever recorded, but at least it's amusingly bad.

During my time at WAIH, Hours... (1999) and Heathen (2002) were the Bowie albums which made their way through the station's current rotation. From Heathen, "Slow Burn" received much airplay on my show, though the entire album was a hit with the staff.

Changesbowie is a collection of Bowie's hits from 1969 through 1984. Chronologically sequenced, to this day it serves as one's best way of getting an overview of Bowie's work. For the most part, single edits are preferred, though there is a live rendition of "Diamond Dogs" and a remix of "Fame" thrown in for whatever reasons. If you are to only buy one Bowie album, this is the one to get...and, sadly, this is the only one I own. Eventually this will be rectified, if for no other reason than I want the whole of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and an uncut version "China Girl" (though I do have a copy of Iggy Pop's original rendition of "China Girl," which was co-written with Bowie for his 1977 album The Idiot).

"China Girl," of course, is one of the best songs Bowie ever had a hand in writing or performing. I'm hard pressed to choose whether his or Iggy Pop's version is the one I prefer being that they both appeal to me for slightly different reasons and it's not technically correct to call Bowie's version a cover, because one can't truly cover oneself, right?

I can say this: the songs Bowie covers always turn out wonderfully (his take on "Cactus" by The Pixies, for example), but this is not so true the other way around. The Wallflowers' rendition of "Heroes" is the most flaccid and disgusting attempt to market a crappy movie ever turned into ones and zeros. Marilyn Manson's take on "Golden Years" (for yet another crappy movie) is a similar act of blasphemy.

One band that got it right, however, was the mighty Bauhaus with their rendition of "Ziggy Stardust." Early on, Bauhaus actually considered themselves a glam band and Peter Murphy sings with appropriate reverence and, helpfully, the pipes to match.