What is it with Bowie?

[Librarian on Fire]

While standing in a record shop on Saturday, the latest single by Goldenhorse tightly clutched in my mitts, (photo of the lovely Kirsten below) I noticed a huge poster advertising the 58th album by David Bowie was out now.

Maybe it's just me being awkward, but I just don't understand what it is about Bowie that everyone likes. Nearly every band I listen too cite Bowie as a influence, everyone expect me has at least one album by him but I can't see what all the fuss is about.

I was a bit young for all his face painting shenanigans back in the 70's, and lets face it, if we're talking facepainting it started and ended with Kiss in my opinion :-). I have a mild liking for "China Girl", "Changes" and "Major Tom", and "Laughing Gnome" made me laugh, but then if we're talking about novelty songs from the 70's so did "Ernie" by Benny Hill and "The Funky Gibbon" by The Goodies. What's Bowie's attraction? Has he ever muttered a sensible word in a interview? I always think he looks a bit of a prat really.

Should I go out and buy and greatest hits and change my life? Can someone please give me a sensible answer. I feel that there's this huge party going next door and I haven't been invited.

[Bluenose]

Something I've always wondered about you LoF. Where are you from?

[Dumbledore]

...beautiful/ugly, sexy/sexless, frail/strong, white, white, white/full of soul...he has a rich, velvety beautiful voice that he uses like an instrument. When he is performing, music radiates from his pores and extends the boundaries of his thin frame and into the aura of his strangeness. His lyrics are like like paint that has been cut into, rather than stroked onto a canvas. ("We're today's scattered creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature," "The brains talk, but the will to live is dead") And each album is a little world, a little universe unto itself for the listener to immerse himself or herself into. He is a powerful creative force and a celebration of an artist's symbiosis with the cultural trends of any given period of the last thirty years. He experiments and changes and grows. He makes mistakes. Sometimes they are tragic. But he's never ONE thing. There's something there for everyone if you are patient enough, and so inclined, to find it.
He just might not be for you. Or perhaps you need the right time and to hear the right lyrics or to feel the right notes rippling through you at some point in your life and in your mind's eye when it will make sense as nothing possibly could at that time. Timeliness is as important in discovering music that you'll love as the music is itself.
I'd stick with it, if I were you. Because it could change your life, for the better. And how many things can you list off the top of your head that will change you and become a part of you with no effort made on your part but making yourself still and listening intently? What do you have to lose, really, as opposed to what you could be gaining? Think about it.

> While standing in a record shop on Saturday, the latest single by
> Goldenhorse tightly clutched in my mitts, (photo of the lovely Kirsten
> below) I noticed a huge poster advertising the 58th album by David Bowie
> was out now.

> Maybe it's just me being awkward, but I just don't understand what it is
> about Bowie that everyone likes. Nearly every band I listen too cite Bowie
> as a influence, everyone expect me has at least one album by him but I
> can't see what all the fuss is about.

> I was a bit young for all his face painting shenanigans back in the 70's,
> and lets face it, if we're talking facepainting it started and ended with
> Kiss in my opinion :-). I have a mild liking for "China Girl",
> "Changes" and "Major Tom", and "Laughing
> Gnome" made me laugh, but then if we're talking about novelty songs
> from the 70's so did "Ernie" by Benny Hill and "The Funky
> Gibbon" by The Goodies. What's Bowie's attraction? Has he ever
> muttered a sensible word in a interview? I always think he looks a bit of
> a prat really.

> Should I go out and buy and greatest hits and change my life? Can someone
> please give me a sensible answer. I feel that there's this huge party
> going next door and I haven't been invited.

[Librarian on Fire]

> Something I've always wondered about you LoF. Where are you from?

Milton Keynes.

[Shirtlifter]

HUNKY DORY
ZIGGY STARDUST
ALADIN SANE
DIAMOND DOGS
YOUNG AMERICANS
STATION TO STATION
LOW
HEROES
LODGER
SCARY MONSTER & SUPER CREEPS
BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE
THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA
OUTSIDE
EARTHLING
...HOURS
HEATHEN

[Ruffian]

Should I go out and buy and greatest hits and change my life? Can someone
> please give me a sensible answer. I feel that there's this huge party
> going next door and I haven't been invited.

YES, buy a greatest hits by all means for the letre stuff.. (ignore mnost of the 80's excpt china girl and absolute beginners) buy Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane. And get Low for the classic 'Be My Wife'..
Some of it might be a bit dated in some respects.. but great tunes..

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..

Now, I'm off for a jog.. gotta get my fire brigade fitness up!
Ruffian