- "Space Oddity"
, his first hit. If that's not enough, how about "Space Oddity" performed in space! For those who have the video blocked in their country. - "Cygnet Committee". Epic Rocking at its best, in 1969.
- The Title Track is powerful and sends chills down one's spine (in the best way).
- This album isn't called a masterpiece for nothing. Often called the album where Bowie "truly becomes Bowie", it houses a number of renowned classics:
- "Life on Mars?" is nothing short of melodic perfection.
- Just try to get "Changes" out of your head. It's impossible!
- "Andy Warhol" shows us the amazing guitar duo of Mick Ronson and David himself, and a memorable chorus. God only knows why Andy hated this song...
Andy Warhol looks at Scream
Hang him on my waaa-waaaaall
Andy Warhol, silver screen
Can't tell them apart at all
Aaaall
Aaaaaaall - "Life on Mars?"
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
- The entire Ziggy Stardust era is magnificent, and this album is the apex.
- "Starman" is a cheerful rock tune with a catchy riff and a melody reminiscent of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
- "Suffragette City" is loads of energetic fun. All together now: "Awwwww wham bam thank you, ma'am!"
- "Starman"
- This rendition of "Ashes to Ashes" is made even more awesome by a few things: the absolutely bitchin' guitar solo (one guy on rhythm AND bass simultaneously) that dominates the last half of the song. And the fact that, on a call-in/request concert, this was the song requested by a 5-year old boy. Yeah. Get 'em started early.
- "Lady Grinning Soul". Bowie meets Bond, complete with epic piano solo intro performed by Mike Garson.
- "Fame". Funk-tacular. Having John Lennon on backing vocals certainly helps.
- Station to Station in its entirety is regarded as one of Bowie's finest albums, if not his absolute finest.
- The opening title track is a ten-minute epic influenced heavily by Progressive Rock bands like Genesis and Krautrock bands like Kraftwerk, with an unusual 10/4 time signature (usually sounding like a bar of 4/4, a bar of 2/4, and a bar of 4/4) for much of its running time. It goes through several stylistic changes before the disco-influenced final segment (which, incidentally, provides a convincing rebuttal to arguments that disco was necessarily musically regressive). Overall, it's one of the most invigorating tracks of his career - if it doesn't get your blood pumping, check your pulse to make sure you still have one.
- "Stay" could be the funkiest track any white man has ever recorded - granted, both drummer Dennis Davis and bassist George Murray were/are Black, and his rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar is Puerto Rican. Alomar and lead guitarist Earl Slick trade off licks on top of Murray and Davis' funky rhythm section and Bowie's Mellotron to create one of the most infectious grooves of his career.
- Station to Station closes with his cover of "Wild Is the Wind", originally performed by Johnny Mathis for the film of the same name, but Bowie was inspired to cover it because he was an admirer of Nina Simone's recording (and of her work more generally). Even though he didn't need her permission (Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington were the songwriters), he still took her out to dinner to ask her permission to record it. His soulful cover was one of the best vocal performances of his career; he himself regarded it as his finest.
- The opening title track
- "We could be "Heroes"! Just for one day..." While it was ignored when first released as a single, it is now widely recognized and beloved. It's now a candidate for David's Signature Song, and for good reason. To bolster just how awesome this song is, David's live performance of it on June 6, 1987 at the Reichstag in West Berlin has been cited as a catalyst toward the fall of the Berlin Wall just two years later. After David's sudden death in 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for "helping to bring down the Wall", adding "you are now among Heroes". Now that is awesome.
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
- The album is well enough loved that it's become a reviewer cliché to describe Bowie's latest album as "his best since Scary Monsters" (much as Bob Dylan gets the same treatment with Blood on the Tracks). Particular highlights from the album, beyond "Ashes to Ashes", include the Epic Rocking "Teenage Wildlife", the title track, and both parts of "It's No Game", but it's really hard to go wrong with any of the album's ten cuts.
- "Let's Dance". When Bowie gives an order, the world listens. According to the official book chronicling the Serious Moonlight Tour, when the song became a hit women all over Europe bought red shoes, causing shortages in stores, so they could be ready for dancing!
- Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) of Inglourious Basterds fame is an oddly haunting/upbeat track.
- "Under Pressure". A breathtakingly uplifting collaboration with the great Queen.
- Watch this performance of "Modern Love". Bowie's sheer exuberance is electrifying.
- Much of Bowie's post-Scary Monsters output in The '80s is dismissed, but there's gorgeous stuff there too.
- In particular, "Blue Jean" and "Underground" can leave you dizzy with delight.
- So can "China Girl". The deconstruction of "China Girl" that appears on the VH 1 Storytellers album almost seems like a comment on Bowie's eighties, and still manages to be awesome in its own right. Beginning with a pure Tear Jerker anecdote about life in Berlin in The '70s, and then the song itself starts almost like a cover of Lou Reed's "Berlin" before morphing into Iggy Pop's original punky version, building and building until it finally resolves into a fond take on the glitzy eighties version.
- In particular, "Blue Jean"
- This album is considered by many to be his best work of the 90s. From songs like the awesome industrial track "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", famously used in Se7en, to the darkest (and most Creepy Awesome) entry in the Major Tom saga, "Hallo Spaceboy". Other great songs include the pulse-pounding Despair Event Horizon that is "No Control" and the Lighter and Softer (and surprisingly funky) "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town".
- While this might be the lightest of Bowie's releases in the 90s, it stands with Outside and Earthling (and to a lesser degree, Black Tie White Noise) as a showcase that, even thirty years on, Bowie was still damn good at what he did. Highlights include the absolutely beautiful and catchy "Thursday's Child" (featuring the gorgeous and backing vocals of Holly Palmer providing a perfect contrast to Bowie's lead) and the rifftastic "The Pretty Things Are Going To hell".
- The album was heavily praised before it was even released. The ten-minute title track is an obvious highlight. So is the album closer "I Can't Give Everything Away", which quotes "A New Career in a New Town" from Low and verges on Tear Jerker territory, especially in light of his death two days after the release of the album. "Lazarus" also gains new meaning in light of his death and stands out as a highlight of the album. "Girl Loves Me" also stands out as one of the most avant-garde pieces Bowie ever recorded, both lyrically and musically. The whole album is both a Moment of Awesome and a beautiful Heartwarming Moment as Bowie put it as his Grand Finale, the last album he'd get to release for the fans, as his final parting gift to all. That alone shows awesomeness and love.
Others
- David Bowie first recorded and wrote "All the Young Dudes", which soon became an iconic glam rock anthem after being performed by Mott the Hoople.
- When it comes to the Pop-Star Composer trope, no Disney effort can collectively touch the tunes he wrote and performed for Labyrinth. Playful ("Magic Dance", "Chilly Down"), wickedly tender ("As the World Falls Down"), thunderous ("Within You"), exhilarating ("Underground")...oh so Eighties, oh so right.
- The smooth, jazzy sound of "Bring Me the Disco King" is just wonderful.
