Why the hell...

Right then,

Was watching The Seven Ages of Rock on the Beeb last weekend and was somewhat irritated when just as they covered Floyd's contribution to rock (which in my opinion is enormous) they cut away to David Bowie. My problem is that apart from Space Oddity that single with Ground Control to Major Tom on it I just can't think of any songs he wrote which stand out. Funnily enough my old brother agrees with me so does my wife and we are fans of ancient 70s music.

Can anyone name for me some of his better songs? I am open minded to be convinced if someone can defend the man in the dress. Isnt that all he did really, wear silly clothes and lipstick?

Mind you my eyes lit up at the clips of Peter Gabriel with Genesis.(anyone checked out the stuff he did recently with Afro Celt Sound System)

Oh, isn't he the one from labyrinth?

Who is Floyd? Is that the fish bloke from Cornwall?

Jeremy, you admit to actually liking Genesis and I'll wager you are fond of both Supertramp and Yes. Which means that you really don't have a hope in hell of 'getting' Bowie. Sorry.

David who?

Hey! Don't pick on Bowie - Hunky Dory changed my life

You are putting me under pressure to think of more Bowie songs. Might be some young americans out there that can think of some?

Groan. Now I'll be thinking like that all day
Off to pop in my new bowie CDs thanks to a cool tter

Changes come and changes go, but Bowie is always modern, love.

He actually wrote a lot of Iggy Pops more well-known stuff too...

Sorry DDbug. I don't want you to look back in anger.

To appreciate Bowie you really must see him live – totally awesome.
All the Young Dudes (it’s a rock anthem)– awesome.

Not quite.


Bowie's influence is due to his sheer diversity.

China girl ... not one for the true believers though

Some of the guys you mentioned were my heroes, they would go dancing in the streets with a China girl.
EDIT: @ johnnyd, the last concert in Munich was considered crap with a capital S.

I know why you live in the country, with your business It's hard to be a saint in the city.

_{(Ok, you win. I'm going back to work).}

However, I only saw bowie live for the first time with the reality tour - not much call for him to tour Wyoming... Didn't need to see him live to appreciate the music.

EDIT - SB- was that Reality? Then I'm guessing his previous concerts were amazing, because I completely enjoyed it.

man who sold the world. One of my favorite nirvana songs.

Meh, pink Floyd, one of the most over-rated bands ever. Admittedly I think I've only ever heard "Brick in the wall" (or what ever it's called) and that maybe only twice, so I feel my opinion is well qualified. That music belongs to yesteryear, and thankfully it has stayed there!

saw David Bowie at the Olympic Arena here in Munich few years back (2 or 3).
His act and personality just shrunk that venue and the place just rocked for the whole show. The crowd was ecstatic.
He has a fantastic voice and can play many instruments. He started out by imitating Bob Dylan but soon developed his own
style as in the his album Ziggy Stardust. Why the hell is he so famous you ask – well the guy is a vocal and musical genius.

Well Mr.English, can I call you John, I'm only dancing with a Rebel, rebel I tell you, but that Changes nothing,after all the big question is, Is there life on Mars, so I said to this girl, my old China,Girl ,Lets Dance!

And vice-versa

must say am not a major fan of his music, like bits & pieces of what he's done, my fave track of his is Life on Mars!
but he was ace in Merry Xmas Mr.Lawrence, not to mention Hunger and Labyrinth.

Try looking. Try listening to the music.

Now try asking someone in their 20s to name a Fink Plyod tune.

As for clothes etc The trouble with looking back at radical stuff is that it does not look radical anymore.

(recently discovered this cool quote function!)


I heard that film was shot in Dinorwig Slate Quarries in Llanberis, a somewhat grim grey place I spent many Saturday mornings attempting to scrabble up its blue shiny slate faces whilst throwing off my Friday hangover whilst looking foreward to a chip butty and pint of tea at Petes Eats.


Funnily enuff I went to the BBC Centre to watch a show being made about him once. Interesting guy. Catch him on the Travel Channel cooking stuff in Africa.


Nope Sin Supertramp were a bit too polished for me. Remember I am an early Floyd fan too. That woman on the cover of Breakfast in America looked like my French teacher who almost succeeded in putting me off French.


Oh God...it is called "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" in fact. Listen to the whole album. Better still listen to Dark Side of the Moon or Wish you were here, also legendary albums.

So you think you can tell heaven from hell?

I only possess one Pink Floyd album and that is The Wall. It is the only album that I've only played twice, played it when I bought it and then again because I couldn't believe how bad it was, I've never played it since. I do, however, think Dark Side of the Moon is a fine album, but a long way off being the best album ever.

money, comfortably numb, the wall.. I much more familiar with Pink Floyds music than David Bowie, however I think mr. Bowie had a talent for writing hits. Bowie was also much more pop than Pink Floyd. Just for the record I am in my twenties.

Comfortably Numb is quite good when it's done by the Scissor Sisters

Its not just about hit songs that made the charts and catches attention. Its also the songs that make an LP sell and sell. There it a lot to Pink Floyd that never got to number one, but continues to out sell modern artists today. The Wall got a lot of attention. But theres better Floyd around than that. Thats is why peple still harp on about them.

You've missed the starting gun. No one told you when to run! _shivers

Spot on Ian. Mind you I put away my albums when the Reynolds Girls brought out

"Got no time for Fleetwood Mac,
I'd rather jack"

I love Bowie! Was just listening to David and Trent, I'm afraid of Americans

Johnny wants a brain, Johnny want to suck on a coke..

Pink Floyd = musos.
David Bowie = artist.

Well, I'm familiar with both Floyd and Bowie, and they really aren't up for comparisons, because they are significantly different.

However, getting back to Bowie. Yes, I believe he is the ultimate plagiarist, not in the 'ripping-off-other-people's-music' way, but in feeding off fashions, vibes and undercurrents to continually reinvent his music. That having been said, I haven't bought anything after Ashes To Ashes because his style and my taste went separate ways at that point. But, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is probably the most complete album ever released by any artist. There isn't a bad song on the whole album: Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, It Ain't Easy, Lady Stardust, Star, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City and the fuckin' brilliant Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.

The wall does contain a bit too much PAIN in many of the tracks. Some good stuff too of course. Not an album to get to know Floyd with.

He keeps hanging up!... There's a man answering!

i saw Bowie at the height of his "China Girl" phase. i guess that was late 80's, huh? geez.
he wore a normal suit & I was shocked to see he had two different colored eyes. it was a great concert.

Labryinth is one of my favourite movies and I am not ashamed of that fact.

And I thought David Bowie looked hot in those tights.



You remind me of the baby
What baby? baby with the power
What power? power of voodoo
Who do? you do
Do what? remind me of the baby

And don't forget his more recent efforts.
Respect.

Fat little man!

I LOVE Bowie and Space Oddity is the song I like less from the 'Space Oddity' album, but come on!
Some of the stuff in 'The man who sold the world', 'Hunky Dory', especially 'Ziggy Stardust', 'Aladdin Sane', 'Diamond Dogs', 'Young Americans', uff basically all his stuff previous to 'Let's Dance' is pure gold, as with every artist, not every single track of his albums is great but the gems are EVERYWHERE!


You are not the only one... HOT, HOT, HOT!

This video is probably the most posted on TT.
Arcade Fire & David Bowie "Wake Up"


If this doesn't move you, there's no hope.

I was lucky enough to see Bowie perform the Ziggy Stardust set in 1972, the night before my Phýsics O-Level exam. Failed the exam, never missed it, but the memory of Bowie performing that night will stay with me forever.

By which token you would have to give Bowie the same kudos: his influence, which I think is enormous, isn't just down to individual songs. There are the constant reinventions of his image and his sound: the alien, Ziggy, the Thin White Duke. There are the successive generations of musicians, stated explicitly in interviews or implicitly in their music or perhaps their image, who were inspired by him. There is his long-standing ability to market, with considerable success, Bowie, the brand. There is his, often less widely-acknowledged, work as a successful producer. Bowie's fingerprints are smudged all over the rock landscape.

Hmmm yes I did say I was open minded and yes Jean Genie I had forgot. Come to think of it there are a few songs he did which I tap feet to.

I had a crush on Jereth the Goblin King (he looked especially mysterious and sexy during the upside-down stairs scene) and wanted to look like "Sarah" when I "grew up" ...never happened. But I own that movie on DVD..along with The Goonies, 16 Candles and Pretty in Pink.

I also love Bowie's, Take me to the Disco King

I am with you Ladies on this one – if I was gay I would definitely want to do some docking with David Bowie.

Well thank you very bloody much for this topic, I had only just managed to get the bloody song "laughing gnome" out of my head and now it's started up all over again and driving me nuts.

Ha,ha, ha!- Hee,hee, hee!- I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me.-
Ha,ha, ha!- Hee,hee, hee!- I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me.-

I love Andy Warhol, just his delivery of the lines:

"Andy walking, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he's fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise"

Is that Andy War Hole, as in 'Holes'?

For me, one of Bowie's most important contributions was promoting Stevie Ray Vaughan. After hearing SRV in Montreux, he asked him to do the solo in "Let's Dance". Maybe it was bound to happen anyway, but that's when Vaughan's career really took off.

Only a shame that his career landed so heavily