Day 16 | Modern Love
Rolling Stone polled readers on their favorite Bowie videos, songs and deep cuts and from the polls came up with three top ten lists. It isn't clear if they are presented in order, but Modern Love is first on the video list. Album: Let's Dance
Day 15 | It’s Hard to Be A Saint in the City
Bowie usually included one or more songs on his albums that he did not first make famous. He covered the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Cream and many others. This, along with Growin' Up, is one of two Bruce Springsteen covers. This one is for Jesse Jackson. Album: Sound and Vision.
Day 14 | We Are The Dead
On the second week anniversary of his passing, I'm choosing another death related song in part to answer a request from Susan. This is from Bowie's abandoned project to make a musical out of George Orwell's 1984. The Orwell's widow put a stop to the project but a few of the songs which make direct reference to incidents or characters…
Day 13 | Ashes to Ashes
I read today that Bowie's ashes will be spread in the Catskill Mountains, near his Woodstock home, which is about an hour from where I live. Thus today's song, which comes with one of the handful of early videos that everyone remembers and comes from my overall favorite Bowie album. Album: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
Day 12 | Heaven’s In Here
I could never be in the same city as Tin Machine when the band was touring, usually performing in intimate venues. Subsequently Bowie never performed any of the band's songs in his solo concerts, so although I saw him live several times I never saw him perform any Tin Machine songs. This one is a good example of why I…
Day 11 | Breaking Glass
I've had this song in my head since I wrote about Bowie sketching the Tree of Life on the back cover of Station to Station. That's supposedly what he's referring to by the line, "Don't look at your carpet, I drew something awful on it." Album: Low Note from May 30, 2018: I still have this song in my head...
Day 10 | Under Pressure
This one is for Dianne. You know the studio version with Freddie Mercury. if you watch this video, you kind of get the impression Annie Lennox is excited about singing with Bowie. Just a little. Album: Hot Space (Queen)
Day 9 | Let’s Dance
You either like "Let's Dance" or you secretly like "Let's Dance." 35 years later we can all agree it is actually a great song on a great album. This one is for Susan Maggiore , Caroline Hassett Roeder and Rosemary Maggiore who saw Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour before I ever did! Album: Let's Dance
Day 8 | Everyone Says Hi
Yesterday, I wrote that today's song would be more cheerful, and it is, but it's still about death, or at least loss. "Said you took a big trip, They said you moved away, happened oh, so quietly they say." Some of the lyrics suggest that whoever everyone is saying hi to literally just moved away, but I always thought this…
Day 7 | My Death
On the one week anniversary of his passing, I offer a song he didn't actually write or, to my knowledge record in the studio. He had been singing about death for most of his career and this song is the least ambiguous. Tomorrow's song will be more cheerful. Album: Ziggy Stardust the Motion Picture Soundtrack
Day 6 | Five Years
A week ago was Bowie's last full day of life, so today I'm selecting his song is about impending doom and beginning of one of his very best albums. Album: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Note from 8/5/22: The original video I posted has since been blocked. I replaced it with what I’m…
Day 5 | Lazarus
On the one-week anniversary of the release of the album, "Blackstar," I'm going today with the song that apparently has become the most watched video in history. The lyrics and image of a very sick looking Bowie singing from his deathbed are beyond eerie. What you won't pick up on is that the striped outfit he's wearing in the parts…
Day 4 | Blackstar
Less than a week since its release, Bowie's requiem for himself is a staggering masterpiece. The song is worth contemplating, but look at the video imagery especially after seeing the one I posted yesterday of "Space Oddity" (which I'm pretty sure was a from 1967, rather than the better known 1969 version). The astronaut takes off, and half a century…
Day 3 | Space Oddity
Bowie's first well-known song, coincidently enough became famous the year of my birth, 1969. Bowie's life as a star began the year I was born and ended the week I turned 47.
Day 2 | “Beauty and the Beast.”
My favorite song. Bowie's voice at its strongest. I have long thought the song is about adultery, but it might be about nothing at all. Anyway I like the sound. Album: "Heroes”
Day 1 | Absolute Beginners
This song is the best thing about the movie of the same name. Catchy if long, evocative of the 1950s but a product of the 1980s. Absolute Beginners Soundtrack.