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23 June 2008
What is your favorite David Bowie song? And why? →[More:] (That last question is also for those who don't have a favorite David Bowie song.)
I'm sorta torn, myself. Part of me wants to say one of the rockier numbers, like "Suffragette City" or "The Jean Genie" or "Diamond Dogs", but I also can't deny the hypnotic appeal of "Heroes": Eno's wall of synths and Fripp's guitar bits and, over the top of it all, Dave wailing about doomed Berlin lovers. The version sung in German is especially great.
Time! It was sort of "our song" for me and my college theatre geek buddies. Many good times yelling along with "You just SCREEAM with boredom!" And it mentions wanking, which is always great fun for singalongs.
Oh, so hard to choose. I was just chatting about this the other day with my two favorite fellow Bowie freaks! If I absolutely had to pick one and only one, I would probably go with "Station to Station." One, because it's TEN MINUTES LONG and every second is awesome. Two, because I looooove the weird tremelo in his voice as he sings "the retuuuuuurn of the Thin!White!Duke! throwing daaaaarts in lovers' eyyyyes...." And then three, how it shifts basically into a second song entirely with "it's not the side effects of the cocaine / I'm thinking that it must be love."
Other much-adored songs on the Bowie shortlist would be "Andy Warhol" (for his laugh at the beginning alone!) "Suffragette City," "Time," "Rebel Rebel," "Sound + Vision," "Warszawa" (I love all the instrumentals on Low, actually, but that's probably the one that kills me the most), "Heroes" and "Ashes to Ashes." The Berlin period, overall, is my favorite.
Oh, and "Ziggy Stardust," too, even after hearing it one million times -- Mick Ronson's opening guitar lick and Bowie's "Oh!" at the beginning just make me giddy every time.
-Changes
-Space Oddity
-Rebel Rebel
-Young Americans
-Fame
-Golden Years
-Heroes
-Ashes to Ashes
-Fashion
-China Girl
-Let's Dance
-Criminal World
-Jump They Say
Whichever happens to be playing would be my favorite.
Bowie's one of those artists my favorites are dictated by moods. Like bmarkey my first inclination is to go with the rockers like "Suffragette City", "Panic In Detroit" "Rebel Rebel", and "Moonage Daydream". But I first started getting into Bowie in the beginning of video era, which is probably why I still lean towards my first favorites: "Fashion", "Fame", and "Ashes to Ashes". I'm also real partial to the beauty of "God Knows I'm Good" and the chorus to "Oh You Pretty Things" is so damn catchy that it regularly pops into my head when I least expect it. As I type I've thought of twenty more songs that would have to be contenders - the man has a pretty amazing catalog.
But I think if push came to shove I'd go with "Up the Hill Backwards" from Scary Monsters as my favorite. David's vocals are perfect, there are two great melodies in that song, and I love the guitar (which I think is Fripp). Plus from a production standpoint the song just sounds cool - it's one of Tony Visconti's best productions. As a bonus it's got the best pop use of wood blocks since "Magic Bus." The "I'm OK, You're so-so" segment just kills me every time.
"Aladdin Sane" because it's such a completely bizarre package of song. Like a lot of Bowie songs, it seems to recall other genres of music without actually specifying which ones. The piano accompaniment is both melodic and atonal, but is internally consistent. The lyrics seem to tell a story but don't really talk about anything. It's style over substance with lots of substance anyway.
It's also a great album, there's not a weak song on it.
Man, this thread is reminding me how many great songs DB did. I agree that "Panic in Detroit" and "Moonage Daydream" are awesome. And I love "Suffragette City," But I think I have to list "Golden Years" as my top pick - great to run to. When it comes on the Shuffle I always shake my booty down the street a little faster. The vocals are awesome - falsetto and vocal percussion.
The Ziggy Stardust version of "Width of a Circle" is what I want played at my funeral. NO ONE likes this song but me and I am a het butch who will only ever be here for herself.
I challenge you! Play this and resist the shaking of booty!
One interesting thing we were discussing is, in retrospect, how much soul and funk Bowie worked into these recordings. I tend to have him in a post-psychedelic, proto-punk, New Wave box in my head - but good God, listen to the percussion in his songs! They're complex, syncopated, Latin-y, and definitely soulful.
I also love Life on Mars. I love the dame for many reason, not least of which is that I find despite all his changes over the years, there's always a Bowie-esque feel to everything he does. Plus, he's an amazing raconteur. His VH1 Storytellers was a ton of fun.
And like scody, I also get a chill from both Ziggy (and to add my own overplayed Bowie song,) Changes.
I'll add though, that my favourite EVER Bowie vocals are the backups he does on Lou Reed's Satellite of Love. So Bowie, and so WONDERFUL.
That song gets overlooked, maybe because it's tucked at the back of Ziggy Stardust. (Another possibility: I just like it a disproportionate amount accountable entirely to my idiosyncrasies). It begins with Bowie playing an acoustic guitar and singing quietly, and just explodes into this incredible, powerful, three-minute pop-rock symphony.
I've always been partial to "The Laughing Gnome". :)
"the Laughing Gnome" has been a punchline for a friend and I for 20 years. In the pre-internet days we had never seen any other mention of the song, so it was one of those things that we felt like we were the only ones to laugh at. And then Bowie did that tour where he picked songs based on fan submissions to (I think) his fanclub. We were going to send in "the Laughing Gnome" and laugh our butts off, but then we saw an interview with him on MTV talking about how he would be editing the votes. He said if he did the setlists based on vote totals he'd up singing the Laughing Gnome every night. We realized that our "in" joke wasn't so in. The world seemed so small before the internet.
No love for "Joe the Lion"? And "Heroes" makes me weepy. "Just for one day...."
My iPod tells me that "Five Years" is my favorite Bowie song, but I don't believe it.
Actually, everything on Ziggy Stardust makes me very happy. It is that very record that got me hooked on rock'n'roll when I heard it (and then listened to it obsessively) in sixth grade. When I bought my first crappy guitar, it wasn't to play "Stairway to Heaven", it was to play "Suffragette City". And from reading about Bowie in Rolling Stone and Creem I discovered Iggy and the Stooges and then my fate was sealed...
I'm with BoPo, his span is too great to pick one song.
That said:
Five Years. Cuz, you know, five years. That's all we got. The shit is urgent.
Heroes. Pretty much the birth of bliss pop.
Sound and Vision. Because I sing this song to myself at least once a week.
Life on Mars.
Rock and Roll With Me.
Golden Years. Cuz it's like crooner doo-wop.
Young Americans. Ain't there one damn song that can make me...break down and cry-hyyy?
Hellbient-- OK, I've got to make a muxtape of songs featuring David Sanborn. Tuesday Heartbreak (Stevie), Young Americans, Your Party (Ween)... hmm, gotta look through my CDs, I know there's more in there...
And glad to hear I'm not the only "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" fan, eatdonuts!
Part of why i like Bowie so much is that he has a something for a wide range of moods. i could give a totally different heartfelt and honest opinion on any given day if i did that kind of thing, which i usually don't.
TVC-15. I am just a sucker for the odd switch in stress on the lines:
oh my TEE VEE SEE one five, oh oh
tee vee SEE ONE FIVE.
And China Girl. There was a time not so long ago when I would be blaring drunk at 3:40am, with headphones, playing karaoke with myself to that one. The deep voice going "oh baby, just you hush your mouth", mmm so good. If I was gay, I would have a rich fantasy life involving David Bowie.
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