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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 28, 2016 2:04:27 GMT -5
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Post by ganews on Nov 28, 2016 9:28:21 GMT -5
This is just a placeholder comment for me so I get notifications, but meanwhile I find it interesting that of his first fifteen albums "Pin Ups" is the only one that doesn't jump out at me...but I still know that album cover.
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Nov 28, 2016 13:22:47 GMT -5
This is just a placeholder comment for me so I get notifications, but meanwhile I find it interesting that of his first fifteen albums "Pin Ups" is the only one that doesn't jump out at me...but I still know that album cover. Pin Ups is all covers. The only song I know from it is "Sorrow," which I like.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Nov 28, 2016 14:33:40 GMT -5
Station to Station is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Be warned that after Let's Dance, things get pretty grim until Outside. You're in for a great finale, though, as The Next Day coupled with Blackstar makes for one of the best musical farewells ever.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 28, 2016 18:50:58 GMT -5
Station to Station is one of my favorite albums of all time. Be warned that after Let's Dance, things get pretty grim until Outside. You're in for a great finale, though, as The Next Day coupled with Blackstar makes for one of the best musical farewells ever. Tin Machine is one of the two David Bowie albums I already own and I like that one well enough so as long as the rest of that post- Let's Dance pre- Outside chunk is as good as that I should be fine.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Nov 28, 2016 19:31:35 GMT -5
Station to Station is one of my favorite albums of all time. Be warned that after Let's Dance, things get pretty grim until Outside. You're in for a great finale, though, as The Next Day coupled with Blackstar makes for one of the best musical farewells ever. Tin Machine is one of the two David Bowie albums I already own and I like that one well enough so as long as the rest of that post- Let's Dance pre- Outside chunk is as good as that I should be fine. From the two songs of Tin Machine that I've heard, with the exception of a song or two, the post- Let's Dance, pre- Outside chunk is not that good.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 29, 2016 9:58:48 GMT -5
David Bowie (1967)Unless there's some EP I don't know about this is the first David Bowie album so this is where I'm going to start my chronological journey through his discography. Pre-Existing Prejudices:
None to speak of since I don't think I've ever heard any of songs on this album. Songs:"Uncle Arthur" Weird fluteaphones and clapping. Lyrics about a manchild who "follows Batman." From the David Bowie I've heard on the radio this is not at all what I expected. That's not to say it isn't catchy. It's been stuck in my head for about two weeks now and I find myself singing it in the shower. "Sell Me a Coat" Again this album is proving itself to not be what I expected at all in terms of instrumentation. This time around there's a brass section and violins. It kind of reminds me of post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys. "Rubber Band (Version 2)" Any rock song that prominently features a tuba part any lyrics about a footlong mustache is okay in my book. "Love You Till Tuesday" A song about a stalker with old school Sesame Street style music. "There Is A Happy Land" A song about children. It's got a "Boo boo booyah boo boo..." part to it, so I'm not about it. "We Are Hungry Men" Weird trumpet, organ and acoustic guitar strumming song about overpopulation. "When I Live My Dream (Version 1)" Strings and trumpets and glockenspiels all up in this piece. So twee! So much whimsy! "Little Bombardier" Oompah pah song about a dude who hangs out with children and then gets thrown out of town because people think he's a child molester. "Silly Boy Blue" This kind of sounds like a 60s girl group song sung by a skinny British man. It has the Phil Specter drum sound. "Come and Buy My Toys" Another weird song about Goddamn kids. This album is pretty twee. "Join the Gang" Saloon piano ditty about hippies. This song probably made more sense if you were one of David Bowie's friends or cared enough to Google who he was talking about. "She's Got Medals" Another weird song about a weird person in a weird town in England. This one's about a lady who dressed up as a man to fight in a war (World War II I guess) and pick up girls. I like the bass line in this one and how British the pronunciation in the chorus is. "Maid of Bond Street" More chamber pop. This track's seemingly about poor people wanting to be celebrities. It's short and inconsequential. "Please Mr. Gravedigger (Version 2)" What the fuck is this? David Bowie talk-singing about murdering a child and fake sneezing while rain noise happens in the background. This would be terrible if it wasn't so fucking weird. Final Thoughts:I liked this album well enough, but it was not at all what I was expecting. I've heard a fair amount of David Bowie from various points in his career and none of would have caused me to think that at some point in his career he would released an album of weird chamber pop. It sort of seems like this album was the template for every album Elephant 6 ever released. It's all non-traditional instrumentation and twee songs about weird people doing weird shit. I don't really have a problem with such things so I liked this album well enough, but don't think it's better than any of the Bowie I am already aware of. If I had to pick a favorite song off this album I'd probably go with "Uncle Arthur," or "She's Got Medals." On the opposite end of the spectrum I'd go with "Please Mr. Gravedigger (Version 2)," which was just weird and not a particularly enjoyable thing to listen to more than once.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Nov 30, 2016 21:01:09 GMT -5
That one is his Pablo Honey.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 30, 2016 21:38:14 GMT -5
That one is his Pablo Honey.Which song is his "Creep," then?
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Nov 30, 2016 23:17:56 GMT -5
That one is his Pablo Honey.Which song is his "Creep," then? "Space Oddity" (despite it not being on this album). It's his first hit and introduces some of the major themes of his discography, but it doesn't have the depth of something like "Station to Station" or "Teenage Wildlife." Still a good song though.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 1, 2016 20:07:29 GMT -5
I didn't much care for Bowie's debut album the first time I listened to it a couple of years ago. It is, as Viking points out, super twee, and to me that's basically all it is most of the time. There's a couple of good songs in there "Uncle Arthur's" alright, as are "Sell Me a Coat, and "Rubber Band (Version 2)", and "She's Got Medals" is pretty OK, but a lot of it seems like twee nonsense for the sake of twee nonsense, and most of the songs themselves just aren't that good. It's amusing enough, but listening to it again, I don't see myself revisiting it with great frequency. And yeah, "Please Mr. Gravedigger (Version 2)" is awful.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 2, 2016 1:11:18 GMT -5
Space Oddity (aka David Bowie) (1969)
David Bowie's last album, which is to say his first album, was apparently a commercial failure which is something of a surprise given how good songs like "Please Mister Gravedigger (Version Two)" were and he was dropped by his record label. The music industry, however, saw something in young David and gave him another chance to prove himself. This is the result of that attempt. Originally release as another self-titled album it subsequently took the name of its big single to make things less confusing for people talking about Bowie's discography. Pre-Existing Prejudices:
"Space Oddity," (the song, not the album). Heard it, loved it. Songs:"Space Oddity" It dawns on me that this is not the "Earth below us, falling, floating..." song I thought it was. That one must be "Space Oddity II," or something so I guess I have that to look forward to on a later album. This one is still a pretty good song in its own right but never really reaches the heights of awesomeness "Space Oddity II," does. I do, however, have to give this one mad props for the sexophone (sex scene saxophone) that wails at various points in this song. "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" This song goes on way too long and has way too much harmonica for my liking. I don't know why, but I never really cared for harmonica as an instrument. I'm willing to cut Neil Young some slack when he gets all harmonica-y but that's because he had Crazy Horse and did that album with Pearl Jam and stuff, he's earned some random harmonica licks. The harmonica here doesn't feel earned. I might like it better if it was three (3) or four (4) minutes shorter and cut out the outro harmonica and high school marching band wailing. "Don't Sit Down" Hippie guitar noodling and "Ye ye baby ye!" lyrics that cut off before they even get going. Inessential and inconsequential. "Letter to Hermione" Acoustic slow jam. The guitars sound like music that would play on the Weather Channel while Your Local Forecast was displayed. The lyrics are rubbish about missing an ex-girlfriend. "Cygnet Committee" I don't know why these songs are so long. If you're writing a nearly ten minute song don't make it feel like a ten minute song. This is so boring and repetitive. That being said the lyrics about knowing "a man with powers and we let him use his powers and his powers were good powers," were laughable. The random MC5 lyric check made me stop listening to Bowie and listen to MC5 instead. "Janine" There's Credence Clearwater Revival style guitar wailing all over this song. It's not bad, but there's really nothing memorable about it. It's just late 60's Southern rock. "An Occasional Dream" The flutes and clarinets from the first album are back! I never thought I'd miss them, but adding weird instruments to an otherwise boring pop song really makes it into something special. A lot of these songs just felt like they were missing something and that thing was apparently flutophones. "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" Aw ye ye! Bowie's back to zany chamber pop with strings and trumpets wailing and timpani and lyrics about weird people and a weird mountain in a weird town doing weird things. "God Knows I'm Good" Another twee acoustic pop song about weird people. This time it's a shoplifting old lady that's the subject of the song. I kind of like the chorus and it's right in that perfect song length range where it's over before it wears out its welcome. "Memory of a Free Festival" Now here's a long song done right! It's kind of unfair to call it a long song since it's basically two songs for the price of one. There's the David Bowie/organ solo part which is pretty okay and then there's some random studio chatter before the superior "sunmachine" part begins. "Sunmachine" is goddamn fantastic! It's got handclaps and guys in the background screaming "AW YE YE!" "WOOOOO!" and other stupendous things of that ilk and late 60s drums and guitar noodling and rock and roll saxophones. It's a pretty decent way to end an album is you ask me. Final Thoughts:Time for an unpopular opinion! I preferred David Bowie I to David Bowie II. Let me temper it by saying, "Space Oddity" is at present the best David Bowie song I've heard since beginning this entire thing and the album featured a couple other songs I liked a lot ("Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" and "Memory of a Free Festival" if you're wondering) but a lot of the album was just kind of there and sounded too similar to other music of the time to be memorable at all. With David Bowie I even the most terrible songs...I'm looking at you "Please Mister Gravedigger (Version 2), were at least memorable due to weird lyrics or strange choices in instrumentation. Here the weirdness is by and large scrubbed off leaving a bunch of boring, overlong, late '60s hippie pop-rock songs.
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Dec 2, 2016 3:15:07 GMT -5
A personal favorite of this era, foolishly discluded from the album:
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Dec 3, 2016 13:09:58 GMT -5
Nudeviking Maybe it’s a single version vs. album version thing? I only heard this album (and David Bowie I) for the first time a couple of years ago and, while I’ve given David Bowie II/Space Oddity a few more tries than the first I also find it mostly…not unlistenable, but not great. I kind of agree with you—I think David Bowie I has better songs but gets tiring as an entire album, whereas David Bowie II is, apart from “Space Oddity,” really only listenable in album form but still tiring. The standard line I hear about early Bowie is that he’s simultaneously a couple of years behind the time and a couple of years ahead of the time, and that’s mostly right for these first these first two albums, though “Space Oddity” (the song) seems just perfect for 1969.
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Post by songstarliner on Dec 3, 2016 14:49:53 GMT -5
Songs:"Space Oddity" It dawns on me that this is not the "Earth below us, falling, floating..." song I thought it was. That one must be "Space Oddity II," or something so I guess I have that to look forward to on a later album. This one is still a pretty good song in its own right but never really reaches the heights of awesomeness "Space Oddity II," does. Oh dear.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 3, 2016 17:24:08 GMT -5
Regarding David Bowie (the one with "Space Oddity" in it), I think Lemur makes a good point wrt Bowie seeming to be simultaneously behind and ahead of the times. As far as the album itself goes, I like it quite a bit better than Bowie's debut, primarily because this has a handful of decent songs, and one truly great song, whereas his first album is just half an hour of mildly amusing super-twee stuff. I'm agreed with Viking re: "Space Oddity"; that song is fucking fantastic, and it's a song that I don't think I've given enough credit over the years owing to its ubiquity on classic rock radio, but it's really just great. It's also arguably the first time we see Bowie take on a character, and it's certainly at this point in his career the first time we've seen him write a legitimately compelling story into one of his songs (he'll obviously do this on entire albums throughout much of the 70s). I'd have to disagree on "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", the first few minutes of that one are pretty good, and imo better than anything off of his first album. It could definitely stand to be shorter though. If they'd maybe cut down the outro by a good minute or so, I think I'd have liked it quite a bit better. I'm agreed on "Don't Sit Down", that one is pretty bad (and also comprises the end of "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" on the version that I listened to). "Letter to Hermione" is pretty dull, so I won't argue with you there. I liked "Cygnet Committee" though. It's a bit slow to start, but once it gets going it's pretty good if you can ignore the admittedly dumb lyrics. "Janine", admittedly, doesn't really stand out, like you said, but I like it well enough. I didn't much care for "An Occasional Dream"; I'd agree that the different instrumentation makes for a nice change of pace in theory, but it ultimately doesn't save a dull pop song from being a dull pop song for me. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about "Wildeyed Boy from Freecloud"; I thought it was just OK. I'm agreed on "God Knows I'm Good"; it's twee, but pleasant enough and not overlong. And yeah, "Memory of a Free Festival" is also pretty great, especially once it gets into the "sun machine" part, and Bowie closes out the album almost as strong as he opened it.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 3, 2016 21:10:11 GMT -5
And yeah, "Memory of a Free Festival" is also pretty great, especially once it gets into the "sun machine" part, and Bowie closes out the album almost as strong as he opened it. "Memory of a Free Festival," really is a huge step up for him over "Please Mister Gravedigger (Version 2)" in terms of album closing tracks. That misstep aside, I must say that David Bowie seems to have a much better understanding of the importance of song sequencing than Queen did. Both albums (this one a bit more than the first) felt like a proper album rather than just a collection of random songs.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Dec 4, 2016 5:57:22 GMT -5
It dawns on me that this is not the "Earth below us, falling, floating..." song I thought it was. That one must be "Space Oddity II," or something so I guess I have that to look forward to on a later album. Ah.... Bowie didn't write that song. That's Peter Schilling.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 4, 2016 7:05:54 GMT -5
It dawns on me that this is not the "Earth below us, falling, floating..." song I thought it was. That one must be "Space Oddity II," or something so I guess I have that to look forward to on a later album. Ah.... Bowie didn't write that song. That's Peter Schilling. Nah, I'm pretty sure Peter Schilling just covered it.
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Trurl
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Post by Trurl on Dec 4, 2016 8:55:15 GMT -5
Ah.... Bowie didn't write that song. That's Peter Schilling. Nah, I'm pretty sure Peter Schilling just covered it. No, it is Peter Schilling. Song called Major Tom.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 5, 2016 20:28:56 GMT -5
The Man Who Sold The World (1970)I've heard from reliable sources that this is really the first proper David Bowie album, so I'm pretty excited to hear what that actually entails. Pre-Existing PrejudicesBack in the heady days of Napster being a thing I downloaded the title track of this album because of the Nirvana cover. I liked it well enough but at the time felt that it was not as good as the Nirvana version and didn't really listen to it beyond that. If my parents still have that old computer in their basement, there's probably a Winamp playlist that has this song between random Wesley Willis songs and "Nirvana - Enter Sandman RARE LIVE COVER." Beyond that I don't know any of the other songs. Songs"The Width of a Circle" The first part of this song is a perfectly cromulent rocker suitable to serve as an album opener but Christ Jesus is this song overlong. I'd probably like it a lot more if the second bloooooooze rock call and response part about fucking a demon wearing a leather belt got axed. I mean by all means keep the lyrics about fucking a leather belt clad demon since that's basically lyrical gold, but maybe rework them into the first part of the song and get rid of the boring blooooooooze rock call and response part. "All the Madmen" I'm glad the Renaissance Faire Flutophones are back on this one. The chorus of this song is pretty elite. "Black Country Rock" I was all ready to be like, "Meh, Mountain 'Mississippi Queen' knock off riffs. Dud," but then the riff that happens after the "You can leave my friend and me with fondue," happens and I was all like, "Aw ye ye what a fucking awesome riff! This song is ownage deluxe!" "After All" Calliopes and sexophones and a choir of dwarves of the deep make this a more memorable song than it would have otherwise been if it did not include sexophones or dwarves of the deep, but ultimately it's just kind of there. "Running Gun Blues" Thanks a lot Dave. It was super cool for you to bellow what because of your whiny, nasally Britishness sounded like "rape the gooks" (it was actually "break" not "rape" apparently but the ethnic slur was otherwise the same) in this song and piss off my wife. If you weren't already dead I'd kick you in the dick. -5 Stars "Saviour Machine" I kind of like the synthesizers in the beginning part of this. The random Carlos Santana style guitar masturbation is less awesome. Gimme more creepy Doctor Who synths and less boring 1970s guitar wankery Dave. "She Shook Me Cold" 1970s hard rock. It's okay 1970s hard rock but it never really rises above being generic 1970s hard rock. As far as generic 1970s hard rock goes there are much better generic 1970s hard rock songs to listen to. "The Man Who Sold The World" Unpopular opinion time: I prefer the Nirvana version to the original. The organ part in the Bowie's version is pretty fantastic and the guiro is always welcome in a rock song, but ultimately Bowie's vocals seemed kind of bored and lifeless which made me prefer the Nirvana version. "The Supermen" A decent riff and pounding timpani make this a pretty good song. I think the ending is a little abrupt but it's otherwise a pretty solid stomper. Final ThoughtsThe songs are becoming a lot less "LOL random!" than they were on the last two albums, but personally this one didn't do it for me. There were some cool parts in a lot of the songs so I can see a possibly awesome David Bowie album on the horizon, but outside of "The Man Who Sold The World," I didn't really think any of the songs were particularly great songs from beginning to end. That being said, with the exception of the problematic "Running Gun Blues," none of the songs were bad per se, it's just that none of them really rose much beyond the pretty good filler track level either. I think my biggest gripe about this album (beside getting yelled at for listening to "racist garbage") is how early 70s it sounds. There are masturbatory guitar all over the goddamn place, but they're not even interesting masturbatory guitar since most of the solos just sound generic as fuck. I hope that Bowie moves away from the bland 1970s hard rock he's doing here soon because there are hints that he's capable of doing something unique and interesting and I hope stops with the casual old timey racism sooner. Unfortunately I know that "China Girl" is a thing so it looks like I've got a ways to go with the later at least.
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Post by ganews on Dec 5, 2016 20:59:47 GMT -5
"The Man Who Sold The World" Unpopular opinion time: I prefer the Nirvana version to the original. The organ part in the Bowie's version is pretty fantastic and the guiro is always welcome in a rock song, but ultimately Bowie's vocals seemed kind of bored and lifeless which made me prefer the Nirvana version. You child of the 90s. This was easily my favorite Nirvana song from the radio. Then in college I first heard this awesome cover that was way better, which I didn't immediately recognize as the Bowie of classic rock radio because of the effect on verse vocals.
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Dec 5, 2016 21:26:30 GMT -5
"The Man Who Sold The World" Unpopular opinion time: I prefer the Nirvana version to the original. The organ part in the Bowie's version is pretty fantastic and the guiro is always welcome in a rock song, but ultimately Bowie's vocals seemed kind of bored and lifeless which made me prefer the Nirvana version. You child of the 90s. This was easily my favorite Nirvana song from the radio. Then in college I first heard this awesome cover that was way better, which I didn't immediately recognize as the Bowie of classic rock radio because of the effect on verse vocals. Slightly off-topic related, I feel similar to Nude on the live vs. acoustic versions of the Foo Fighters' "Cold Day in the Sun." The live version is this rollicking electric Neil Young-ish jam. The original feels like it's been artificially slowed down, and I just wanna break it loose.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 6, 2016 0:44:45 GMT -5
"The Man Who Sold The World" Unpopular opinion time: I prefer the Nirvana version to the original. The organ part in the Bowie's version is pretty fantastic and the guiro is always welcome in a rock song, but ultimately Bowie's vocals seemed kind of bored and lifeless which made me prefer the Nirvana version. You child of the 90s. This was easily my favorite Nirvana song from the radio. Then in college I first heard this awesome cover that was way better, which I didn't immediately recognize as the Bowie of classic rock radio because of the effect on verse vocals. You didn't recognize the Nirvana song as a David Bowie song when Kurt quite clearly mumbles "That was a David Bowie song" to the audience at the end of Nirvana's version?
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Post by ganews on Dec 6, 2016 8:29:20 GMT -5
You child of the 90s. This was easily my favorite Nirvana song from the radio. Then in college I first heard this awesome cover that was way better, which I didn't immediately recognize as the Bowie of classic rock radio because of the effect on verse vocals. You didn't recognize the Nirvana song as a David Bowie song when Kurt quite clearly mumbles "That was a David Bowie song" to the audience at the end of Nirvana's version? First there's a couple seconds of applause, and the radio always cut off his mumbling. I didn't hear it until after I had heard the Bowie original, when I downloaded the live cover.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 10:47:51 GMT -5
Coincidentally, Hunky Dory was just announced winner of the Anniversary Record Club.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 6, 2016 11:15:56 GMT -5
Coincidentally, Hunky Dory was just announced winner of the Anniversary Record Club. It's a Christmas Miracle®! I can kill two birds with one stone! AW YE YE THIS ONE WEIRD TIME SAVING TRICK!!
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Post by Powerthirteen on Dec 6, 2016 11:47:49 GMT -5
You child of the 90s. This was easily my favorite Nirvana song from the radio. Then in college I first heard this awesome cover that was way better, which I didn't immediately recognize as the Bowie of classic rock radio because of the effect on verse vocals. Slightly off-topic related, I feel similar to Nude on the live vs. acoustic versions of the Foo Fighters' "Cold Day in the Sun." The live version is this rollicking electric Neil Young-ish jam. The original feels like it's been artificially slowed down, and I just wanna break it loose. This is how I feel about virtually every acoustic version of a song which can elsewhere be heard being performed electric.
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Dec 6, 2016 13:02:10 GMT -5
Coincidentally, Hunky Dory was just announced winner of the Anniversary Record Club. It's a Christmas Miracle®! I can kill two birds with one stone! AW YE YE THIS ONE WEIRD TIME SAVING TRICK!! Threadposters HATE him!
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Dec 6, 2016 13:19:54 GMT -5
Anyway second Nudeviking on this one being the first that’s not “LOL random!”—it’s a coherent-sounding album, even if that coherent sound is seventies English hard rock, complete with bits of folksly Olde England flute and folksy Olde England synth. While I agree a decent amount of this album is filler, that filler tends to fill better (random slurs excepted—I’d never actually listened to the whole thing closely enough to notice until last night, though I assume from the lyrics he was in character for an anti-war song). Oddly it also feels like a bit more of a precursor to Ziggy Stardust—rock sound with bits about saviors and utopias and grand-sounding but ambiguous lyrics. Hunky Dory, on the other hand, feels a bit to me like Bowie finally getting his early Bowie-style experiments to work—I wonder about the timing of the recording of these two. Incidentally the album art—not just the cover—for The Man Who Sold the World—is the best. Just a photoshoot of Bowie in a ton of elegant dresses. It’s hot and awesome. ETA: Listened to it again this morning and man “Running Gun Blues” is just way too happy sounding for whatever comment Bowie was hopefully going for to work.
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