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David Bowie How great an Artist was he |
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#1 |
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David Bowie How great an Artist was he
When you hear his songs they all sound fantastic Is he one of the greatest artists in history
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#2 |
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deleted
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#3 |
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His repute will live on more than most, that's for sure.
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#4 |
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There's a fair number of albums after 'Scary Monsters' which are far from great.
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#5 |
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The "was he" makes it sound like he's dead! He's still making great music. I loved The Next Day.
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#6 |
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Quote:
When you hear his songs they all sound fantastic Is he one of the greatest artists in history
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#7 |
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Quote:
There's a fair number of albums after 'Scary Monsters' which are far from great.
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#8 |
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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. |
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#9 |
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Quote:
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. 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. |
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#10 |
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'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. |
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#11 |
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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.
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#12 |
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'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.
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. |
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#13 |
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Great. Constantly reinventing himself.
He cant be repeated |
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#14 |
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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
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#15 |
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Join Date: Dec 2013
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Quote:
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. no really, i think she is
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#16 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 477
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[quote=Aura101;78372312]Gaga is a modern day Bowie.
no really, i think she is [/QUOTEThen point me in the direction of her Berlin period stuff. |
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#17 |
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Quote:
Gaga is a modern day Bowie.
no really, i think she is ![]() Deluded. |
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#18 |
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Join Date: May 2015
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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.
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#19 |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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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
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#20 |
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Join Date: Mar 2014
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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 |
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#21 |
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Quote:
To me the best Bowie album is 'Station to Station' - 6 absolutely amazing tracks.
Did you like it on first listen, or is it a grower? Some of my favourite albums are those that I originally thought stank. |
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#22 |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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Bought that album for Golden Years which I absolutely love, didn't like the rest.
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#23 |
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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.
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#24 |
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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. |
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#25 |
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Join Date: Apr 2007
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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!
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My favourites are Something In The Air and New Angels Of Promise - the Roxy Music cover was my least favourite.
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.