This is the third of three posts in which I am proposing Bowie albums I’d have rather had released than the recently announced The Shel Talmy Recordings. The Shel Talmy Recordings promises to include ten previously unreleased tracks along with others that we originally released in 1965, but not well remembered. While I’ve ordered the album, my hopes are not…

Yes, I’ve ordered the upcoming compilation of Bowie songs produced by the recently deceased Shel Talmy in 1965, which includes ten previously unreleased tracks. I can’t complain, but I’m not expecting this collection to have a lot of replay value (there’s a reason these songs have been around for more than 60 years and several have never been released before)…

I have a theory that I’ve tried to articulate, to limited success, in a few interviews: that had Let’s Dance been followed by Black Tie White Noise, and everything that happened between the two albums never happened, Bowie’s reputation would never have taken the hit that it hadn’t recovered from by the time Black Tie White Noise was actually released…

Bowie contributed to many soundtrack albums, especially in the 1980s. In most cases he recorded one song for the album (as with, for instance, Cat People or The Falcon and the Snowman), but a few are different. The soundtrack for Absolute Beginners includes three songs recorded by Bowie, while the soundtrack for Christiane F. is a (pretty good) Bowie compilation…

Starting with Hunky Dory, Bowie seems to have made a concerted effort to include at least one song on each album that hints at what the next album is going to sound like. That, for the most part, ends with Scary Monsters, my favorite album. I know, I know, there’s an argument that can be made that Bowie did this…

Although I have been writing my comments about listening to Bowie’s albums in order in batches of four albums at a time, that wasn’t by design. The experience itself is far more continuous. By the time I got to Young Americans, while that album stands apart in many respects, I also feel like Bowie had firmly established the pattern of…

While I have listened to every Bowie album many times, this is the second of a series of blog posts about my immediate reaction to listening to them in order. —- While there are connecting threads between Bowie’s first four albums, they are really very different from one another. This is less so for the next four, which really form…

I think, at some point, I've listened to all Bowie's studio albums in order. I just don't remember when I did this, so I have decided to do it again. Or maybe for the first time. In any case, my intent is to keep a little journal of my reaction. This is, after all, a blog. I should note that,…

My interview tomorrow is with Don Klees, author of On Track: David Bowie, 1983–2016. Don had been on the show last year, and while his book covered pretty much the entirety of the second half of Bowie’s career, I felt like I wanted to talk with him at greater length about Heathen (2002). The interview was recorded in October, and…

From 2021 until earlier this year, Bowie fans were treated to an excellent podcast called Fantastic Voyage. Hosted by brothers John and Jesse Malloy out of Winnipeg, the show featured discussions about every Bowie album in chronological order, plus episodes about tours, movies, and more. The show gained an international audience and consistently high ratings—I was a regular listener. But,…

I recently responded to somebody else’s Facebook post asking if Bowie’s ’90s output is underrated. My response was a concise version of some of the themes I have been trying to explore through some of my interviews, and I thought it was worth adapting here. To begin with, I certainly think 90s Bowie is underrated. I am tempted to go…

Just for fun I Googled “Bowie Albums Ranked.” As you might imagine, I got a very long list of results. So, I wanted to see what patterns emerged and, as you might imagine again this turned into a bigger exercise than I was thinking. I didn’t look at all the lists, and not all of them ranked the same albums…