David Bowie Hierarchy

[Agent of Oblivion]

I've settled on this:

1. Low
2. Ziggy...
3. "Heroes"
4. Hunky Dory
5. Scary Monsters


And I doubt I'll change my mind again.

 

[Edwin]

I'm kind of still where I've been for the last several years regarding my favorite:

1a. Hunky Dory
1b. Low
1c. Ziggy...

Listed alphabetically. I just can't separate them. Then it's

4. Station to Station
5. Scary Monsters
6. Heroes
7. all the other 70s albums and Let's Dance (Inglourious Basterds reminded me how awesomely evil-disco-funky "Cat People (Putting out Fire)" is)

 

[Czech]

I can. Low uber alles. I like a lot of songs on Hunky Dory, but I don't feel that the album's gestalt comes close to being as special as that of Low. Oh, and since I already used German twice to talk up an album recorded in Berlin, some shit about a Cold War zeitgeist.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I'll take "Always Crashing In The Same Car" over any song on Hunky Dory.

 

[Zorin Industries]

I'm going to break with Orthodoxy here and put Lodger as number 1. Don't ask me to explain why, I just love it from beginning to end.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I'm afraid I will have to ask you to explain why. Be as subjective as you like, of course.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

1. Station to Station
2. Hunky Dory
3. Low
4. Ziggy
5. "Heroes"

I agree with Czech on Hunky Dory not really coming together to form a singular, coherent entity (at least that's what I assume he meant; I don't speak German). That lack of unity is pretty much the only thing keeping it out of the top spot.

 

[Czech]

I like Lodger more than most, I think. I really like the flat affect of "Repetition," with the monotone vocals and the simple bass line. Oh, and I like "Red Money" more here than as "Sister Midnight." "Yassassin" is wretched, though.

If I had to do a top 5, it'd probably go
1. Low
2. Hunky Dory
3. Station to Station
4. Heroes
5. Lodger

Ziggy Stardust is kinda stupid.

EDIT: top 5 tracks of the now
01 "Be My Wife"
02 "Subterraneans"
03 "Station to Station"
04 "Life on Mars?"
05 "Repetition"

 

[Zorin Industries]

Quite simply its one of the few albums that I can listen to without feeling the urge to skip through at any stage (with the possible exception of African Night Flight). I have a very low attention span, but this is one of the few albums that I seem to be able to zone in on and give my full attention to. I didn't realise I was rocking out to Look Back In Anger once until I realised I was greating strange looks off the other passangers.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I've done this before I think
1. Station to Station
2. Hunky Dory
3. Low
4. Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars
5. Scary Monsters
Honorable mention: Young Americans (Yes, I'm a sucker for some blue eyed soul)

Five favorite songs
1. Be My Wife
2. Station to Station
3. Fascination
4. Five Years
5. Word On a Wing

 

[Incandenza]

Hunky Dory
Low
Scary Monsters
Aladdin Sane
Station to Station

I once was under the belief that liking Lodger was a matter of getting around the flat production, but I eventually realized the songs just weren't that good. I do like "Boys Keep Swinging," so it isn't a total loss. Bowie was spinning his wheels here; Scary Monsters was a much needed change in direction, one that, alas, was all too short-lived.

 

[Kinetic]

Hunky Dory
Low
Station to Station
Ziggy Stardust
Scary Monsters

Of course, everything from The Man Who Sold the World through Let's Dance is worth hearing.

 

[Sesquipedaliantique]

Pin Ups isn't.

10. Don't really like any of the others. The Best of the Monkees because Bowie's real name is David Jones.
09. Let's Dance
08. Young Americans
07. Aladdin Sane
06. "Heroes"
05. Scary Monsters (... and Super Creeps)
04. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
03. Hunky Dory
02. Low
01. Station to Station

 

[Incandenza]

Re: Let's Dance, if "Cat People" had been chosen to end off side one, there'd be no reason to go to side two. As for the use of "Cat People" in Inglorious Basterds, the lyrics are perhaps a bit too on the nose for its placement in the film, but that's irrelevant in the face of the sheer visceral thrill the song provides at that precise moment in the movie. Chills, man.

 

[cheex incarnate]

No love for Diamond Dogs?

cheex

 

[Gary]

5.) Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
4.) Aladdin Sane
3.) Hunky Dory
2.) Station To Station
1.) Low

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

1. Always Crashing In The Same Car
2. Heroes
3. Station to Station
4. Moonage Daydream
5. Life on Mars?

Lot of love here for Station to Station. I like, not love, that one. I adore the title track, but the albums should've ended after TVC15. It just thuds to a halt after that. When doing a project that tightly compacted, there's no room for throwaway tracks.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

I always like Station To Station when I'm listening to it, but outside of the title track, I can never recall anything else when I try to conjure up the memory of the album later.

Except Golden Years. Golden Years fucking sucks.

My top five Bowie songs, as my albums list would look like the usual Hunky Dory/Low procession:
1. Heroes
2. Lady Stardust
3. Station To Station
4. Quicksand
5. Breaking Glass

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Fun fact: "Golden Years" was originally written for and rejected by Elvis Presley!

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

Elvis was wise to reject it, not that he didn't record a fair amount of schlock during the same time period that was even worse.

 

[Incandenza]

Hunky Dory
Low
Scary Monsters
Aladdin Sane
Station to Station

I've been listening to Station to Station a lot lately. Switch that and Aladdin Sane around. This is worth noting because I'd previously only considered the top 3 to be the Great/Near Great albums; Station to Station has shot up so high in my estimation lately that I'm willing to put it in that category now.

EDIT: Listening to Station to Station right now. "TVC15" just came on; I like that barroom piano at the beginning. Bowie used it again in "Be My Wife." Can anyone think if any other Bowie songs that employed it?

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I know it's on Hunky Dory someplace but I can't place it at the moment.

 

[Red Baron]

After Heroes, Let's Dance is my second favourite Bowie album.