I’ll stick with you baby for a thousand songs…
Two newly-published books (or soon to be) have more than a smattering of Bowie recommendations among the selected best songs of all time.
First up, 1001 SONGS YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE (Edited by Robert Dimery and published by Cassell Illustrated) has the following, not too predictable selection of twenty five Bowie tracks…
Great to see the likes of Everyone Says “Hi” in there alongside more obvious choices such as Life On Mars?
Bowie is among the handful of artists with more than twenty tracks in the list and that’s not taking in to account co-writes mentioned under other artists’ lists, such as Under Pressure, Lust For Life, Dum Dum Boys and Funtime.
Neither does this take in to account Bowie songs recorded by others, such as All The Young Dudes and collaborations like Without You I’m Nothing….and while we’re about it, co-productions such as Walk On The Wild Side. All are present here bringing the Bowie count up to 3% of the 1001 SONGS YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE…which I think gives you lot a bit of a head start!
Each of the Bowie entries in bold text above has a page regarding the recording given over to it, sometimes accompanied by a full-page picture.
The book also has a lengthy and informative preface by Tony Visconti, who was involved in the recording of a good slice of the above list. However, he’s not talking about the music he had a hand in creating, more the recordings which helped inform his own tastes. Here’s the conclusion from that preface…
Well I never knew that about black vinyl. Surely a good eco reason why the practice should stop. Who’s bothered by clear vinyl if it’s cheaper and has just the same imperfections as black vinyl anyway?
The other book available about now is THE XFM TOP 1000 SONGS OF ALL TIME, published by E & T. Again, David Bowie is represented by a healthy selection of recordings which might be closer to the ones you would expect.
There are five pages in the Bowie section with appraisals of the following fourteen songs and the songs performed by aforementioned artists in the other book…
Space Oddity
The Man Who Sold The World
Changes
Life On Mars?
Starman
Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
The Jean Genie
Rebel Rebel
Diamond Dogs
Golden Years
Sound And Vision
“Heroes”
Ashes To Ashes
If you’re a newcomer to the music of David Bowie, then this list is as good a place to start as any.
In fact, your very best VFM would be to purchase EMI’s 3CD The Platinum Collection set as it contains all of the songs on the XFM list and forty three other tracks too, all chosen from the years 1969 to 1987…and you can still find it for under a tenner.
Actually, doing the maths on the amount of tracks on it, perhaps they should have called it 57 Varieties instead of The Platinum Collection!
However, you will have to delve a little deeper into the Bowie back catalogue to hear all of the Bowie-related tracks listed in 1001 SONGS YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE.