DS Forums

 
 

David Bowie How great an Artist was he


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-06-2015, 23:30
owen10
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 30,384

When you hear his songs they all sound fantastic Is he one of the greatest artists in history
owen10 is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 01-06-2015, 23:32
dodger0703
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 1,928
deleted
dodger0703 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-06-2015, 23:38
Phoenix Lazarus
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 13,888
His repute will live on more than most, that's for sure.
Phoenix Lazarus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-06-2015, 23:39
mgvsmith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,287
There's a fair number of albums after 'Scary Monsters' which are far from great.
mgvsmith is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 01-06-2015, 23:53
day dreamer
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 973
The "was he" makes it sound like he's dead! He's still making great music. I loved The Next Day.
day dreamer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 00:21
crease
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 477
When you hear his songs they all sound fantastic Is he one of the greatest artists in history
Even the most hardcore Bowie completeist, would never claim his songs were ALL fantastic, (ie. Tin Machine,Tonight,Laughing Gnome, and all those Anthony Newly rip-offs)
crease is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 08:05
Rocketpop
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 815
There's a fair number of albums after 'Scary Monsters' which are far from great.
There are a couple before that are great either.
Rocketpop is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 09:41
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,708
The whole point of Bowie is that he isn't afraid to experiment, which is why it's inevitable that a proportion will be unsuccessful. This is in contrast to the vast majority of artists who merely churn out what they consider to be the latest chart fodder.

The huge variety of his output means that few people could possibly like everything he produced. Diamond Dogs was wildly celebrated yet left me cold, as did his "soul boy" masquerade. I didn't like anything he did in collaboration with American musicians, who, as far as I was concerned, gave a crass, metal gloss-over to his sound – Earl Slick being largely the culprit.

After Aladdin Sane, my favourites were Heroes (including the long instrumental segue) and Hours, a brilliant album which seems to have been largely ignored. I still can't make my mind up about Scary Monsters, because to my taste, he ruined many of the vocals with a silly vibrato , although the songs themselves were among the best. It's a pity he didn't do far more with Fripp and Eno.
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 10:03
Rocketpop
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 815
The whole point of Bowie is that he isn't afraid to experiment, which is why it's inevitable that a proportion will be unsuccessful. This is in contrast to the vast majority of artists who merely churn out what they consider to be the latest chart fodder.

The huge variety of his output means that few people could possibly like everything he produced. Diamond Dogs was wildly celebrated yet left me cold, as did his "soul boy" masquerade. I didn't like anything he did in collaboration with American musicians, who, as far as I was concerned, gave a crass, metal gloss-over to his sound – Earl Slick being largely the culprit.

After Aladdin Sane, my favourites were Heroes (including the long instrumental segue) and Hours, a brilliant album which seems to have been largely ignored. I still can't make my mind up about Scary Monsters, because to my taste, he ruined many of the vocals with a silly vibrato , although the songs themselves were among the best. It's a pity he didn't do far more with Fripp and Eno.
'Hours' for me plays it to safe. It has some good moments in 'Thursday Child' and 'Pretty One's Going To Hell' - but listening to the album in one sitting I found gets boring on the back straight. 'Heathen' for me is his killer album of recent times.

Agree on Diamond Dogs - great song, difficult album. And I loathe 'Young American's' every bit as bad as 'Never Let Me Down' and the Tin Machine albums.

To me the best Bowie album is 'Station to Station' - 6 absolutely amazing tracks.
Rocketpop is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 13:12
mgvsmith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,287
'Hours' for me plays it to safe. It has some good moments in 'Thursday Child' and 'Pretty One's Going To Hell' - but listening to the album in one sitting I found gets boring on the back straight. 'Heathen' for me is his killer album of recent times.

Agree on Diamond Dogs - great song, difficult album. And I loathe 'Young American's' every bit as bad as 'Never Let Me Down' and the Tin Machine albums.

To me the best Bowie album is 'Station to Station' - 6 absolutely amazing tracks.
I actually agree with that as a purely Bowie album. I think the first two of the Berlin trilogy 'Low' and 'Heroes" are better but there is so much Eno/Fripp in those they are more like collaborations.
mgvsmith is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 14:15
Rocketpop
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 815
I actually agree with that as a purely Bowie album. I think the first two of the Berlin trilogy 'Low' and 'Heroes" are better but there is so much Eno/Fripp in those they are more like collaborations.
I actually find 'Lodger' a more interesting album than 'Heroes'. I feel 'Heroes' the album is often elevated due to the majestic title track, to me as an album it's the weakest of the trilogy though.
Rocketpop is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2015, 20:45
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,708
'Hours' for me plays it to safe. It has some good moments in 'Thursday Child' and 'Pretty One's Going To Hell' - but listening to the album in one sitting I found gets boring on the back straight. 'Heathen' for me is his killer album of recent times.
Funny isn't it? My favourites are Something In The Air and New Angels Of Promise - the Roxy Music cover was my least favourite.
Heathen bores the pants off me except for 5:15 and Slip Away. I also like Afraid, although not the album version; I've heard a demo version that's far better.
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2015, 13:57
sparks_1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 181
Great. Constantly reinventing himself.
He cant be repeated
sparks_1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2015, 14:52
johnythefox
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 977
Genuis. Not a word I often use, but in this case, it's well deserved.

When you think about the progression from 70 -77 only the Beatles came close to that kind of creativity. Constantly re-inventing and exploring new ideas, no, not always perfect admittedly, but he earned the right to make a duffer now and again.

As opposed to some here, I loved Diamond Dogs, "Sweet Thing" "1984" "Rebel Rebel"
and the title track are classics of their time, and in some ways prefer it to Ziggy.

I was watching the 197(3?) Hammesmith show the other evening on TV and although I'd only caught parts of it before, I wathched the whole show and it was simply stunning, it sounded like it could have been recorded this month, let alone over 40 years ago! the version of Moonage Daydream is monumental. I do think a lot of what was good about that era was in part down to Mick Ronson as well as Bowie's vision though.

Bugger, now Ive got the riff to Queen Bitch stuck in my head
johnythefox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2015, 19:56
Aura101
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 6,577
The whole point of Bowie is that he isn't afraid to experiment, which is why it's inevitable that a proportion will be unsuccessful. This is in contrast to the vast majority of artists who merely churn out what they consider to be the latest chart fodder.

The huge variety of his output means that few people could possibly like everything he produced. Diamond Dogs was wildly celebrated yet left me cold, as did his "soul boy" masquerade. I didn't like anything he did in collaboration with American musicians, who, as far as I was concerned, gave a crass, metal gloss-over to his sound – Earl Slick being largely the culprit.

After Aladdin Sane, my favourites were Heroes (including the long instrumental segue) and Hours, a brilliant album which seems to have been largely ignored. I still can't make my mind up about Scary Monsters, because to my taste, he ruined many of the vocals with a silly vibrato , although the songs themselves were among the best. It's a pity he didn't do far more with Fripp and Eno.
Gaga is a modern day Bowie.

no really, i think she is
Aura101 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2015, 20:03
crease
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 477
[quote=Aura101;78372312]Gaga is a modern day Bowie.

no really, i think she is [/QUOTE

Then point me in the direction of her Berlin period stuff.
crease is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2015, 06:57
shackfan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 12,979
Gaga is a modern day Bowie.

no really, i think she is
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Deluded.
shackfan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2015, 11:26
slimlinetonic
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 48
Bowie took risks with music, image, genres, gender, played around with the idea of everything and still after showing the world he was a force to be reckoned with still had time to lead the New Romantic Synth pop revolution with Low and Heroes, He had a fantastic ten year run of classic albums and astonishing singles, i cant think Gaga would have that.
slimlinetonic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2015, 13:04
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,708
I can't believe it must now be 16 years since he appeared on Later, defying a really bad cold to sing Something In The Air and Survive off the Hours album
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2015, 20:50
Jim_McIntosh
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 5,258
He's one of the best. Up there with Elvis, Dylan and Lennon. He's still amazing now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ImaQtmrzo
Jim_McIntosh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2015, 14:25
Stone Free
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Crystal Palace
Posts: 958
To me the best Bowie album is 'Station to Station' - 6 absolutely amazing tracks.
Bought that album for Golden Years which I absolutely love, didn't like the rest.

Did you like it on first listen, or is it a grower? Some of my favourite albums are those that I originally thought stank.
Stone Free is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2015, 19:16
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,708
Bought that album for Golden Years which I absolutely love, didn't like the rest.
I only really liked the title track but thought Golden Years and TVC 15 were sort of okay. Didn't like the rest.
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2015, 18:13
0...0
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: I like to singy singy singy...
Posts: 17,667
I'm not a mega fan but his inventiveness and scope can't be denied. Heart's Filthy Lesson, Loving the Alien, Heroes and I'm Afraid of Americans are fantastic songs.
0...0 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-06-2015, 19:44
pmw_hewitt
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Somewhere that needs tidying
Posts: 1,189
I went to that "David Bowie Is..." exhibition in Paris in April. As I was asking the hotel receptionist for the quickest route, he said "I went to the Bowie exhibition a few weeks ago, I walked in as an admirer, if not a fan, and walked out convinced of his utter genius."

And yeah, all four of us who went had the exact same experience. Some of his material is better than others, but the overall weight of his work is almost untouchable.
pmw_hewitt is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 07-06-2015, 20:36
earthling13
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 10,268
Well we all seem to be in agreement. I been a fan since the very early days - I'm very old - and would agree there have been a few rough times along the way, Tin Machine being one, but with his vast body of work it would be unreasonable to expect every album to be a classic. Hunky Dory remains one of my favourite albums of all time in that I enjoy it whatever my mood. There's no point in listing all the greats as there as so many but a favourite in his later works at a mere 18 years old is, as you might have guessed, Earthling. Also I believe his vocal abilities have been criminally overlooked over the years. The arguments I've had with people saying Freddie was far superior on Under Pressure. Needless to say they were usually Phil Collins fans who also thought Phil was better than Gabriel!
earthling13 is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 14:37.