Daily reminder: David Bowie will never write his memoirs. A

Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky (1971)
The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillett(1970)
The Quest for Christa T, Christa Wolf (1968)
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn (1968)
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg (1967)
Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr (1966)
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (1965)
City of Night, John Rechy (1965)
Herzog, Saul Bellow (1964)
Puckoon, Spike Milligan (1963)
The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford (1963)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea, Yukio Mishima (1963)
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin (1963)
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (1962)
Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell (1962)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (1961)
Private Eye, magazine (1961 –)
On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding (1961)
Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage (1961)
Strange People, Frank Edwards (1961)
The Divided Self, RD Laing (1960)
All the Emperor's Horses, David Kidd (1960)
Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse (1959)
The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958)
On the Road, Jack Kerouac (1957)
The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard (1957)
Room at the Top, John Braine (1957)
A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno (1956)
The Outsider, Colin Wilson (1956)
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (1949)
The Street, Ann Petry (1946)
Black Boy, Richard Wright (1945)

>>7572077

Is that you Mira?

>>7572077
That's a really no-must-read-in-a-must-read-list

pretty pleb list desu, david bowie was a pleb

>>7572098
yeah i'm glad he's dead

>>7572077
impressive - on an 100 book list he only manages a handful of actual worthwhile books

>earthly powers
>master and margarita
>darkness at noon

and arguably
>white noise
>lolita
>herzog
>sailor who fell from grace with the sea

>>7572098
>>7572176
>if he didnt read my favorites from Bloom Senpai's canon he's a plebe hehe

this meme needs to die like he did

>>7572319
this is a man who lists Dante's Inferno as one of his top 100 picks - probably because he never read Purgatorio and Paradiso, or even worse, he did and thought they were boring.

Definitely a pleb.

>>7572077

This list sucks because I haven't heard of most of the books. Most of them aren't ever even mentioned on /lit/! I can't stand people who are different to the norm.

He's a pleb. Despite not having read more than two of this, I can say this absolutely. I can also say that I am both smarter and superior to him.

>>7572094
>>7572098
>>7572176
>>7572342

We should all become friends. We are all extremely intelligent. I'm assuming you guys browse /pol/ and hate degenerates, huh? What are your favorite books?

>>7572359
this is embarrassing. you're embarrassing yourself.

>>7572359
Reddit, we meet again

>>7572359
He IS a degenerate though. Into gay stuff and even dated a black. Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly.

For me, he was not a real man.

This is what is destroying white society, degeneracy in many forms

>>7572363
>>7572370

Holy shit. Why are you guys offended so easily?

>>7572394
stop making a scene anon.

>>7572077

Pretty good honestly. Sad we won't ever get a memoir though

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>>7572359
Oh man I hope this is bait

>>7572397
We're redpilled, idiot

>>7572370

>taking the bait
>revealing yourself as a proud polack

anon was just trying to have fun. you, on the other hand, should kill yourself.

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>>7572412
>redpill

you know that doesn't make you "superior". You're just looking for validation to your own preconceptions.


Make way for the homo superior

>>7572370

Post a picture or your argument means nothing

Let's see true manly

>>7572342
> probably because he never read Purgatorio and Paradiso, or even worse, he did and thought they were boring.

Because it was the most boring part, accept it.

>>7572424
Stay bluepilled, brainwashed cultural Marxist cuck

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>>7572370
>Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly
Good grief!

>>7572431
Found the Redditor.

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>>7572439
(Probably some christian offended because the best part was inferno) Yes anon, you found the redditor.

>>7572433
Cultural Marxism isn't real

>>7572433

Great insult :-) very clever

>>7572436
>not standing up for white conservative values and instead bending over for the plot to breed out whiteness

/lit/ really is the most Marxist board

>>7572454
> standing up for white conservative values instead of bending over for the plot to breed out whiteness

wew lad.

>>7572454

>the plot

Maybe some of us are just too smart to fall for these ridiculous conspiracies that started out as memes along time ago but were soon taken seriously.

You'd be a comic relief character.

>>7572448
>implying

>>7572454

I've read over eighty Marxist works (I don't refer to myself as such, however). You have read none. All of your information comes from 4chan.

Yet still, you are superior and enlightened. Especially on Marxism!

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>>7572454
>>not standing up for white conservative values and instead bending over for the plot to breed out whiteness
>the plot

>he reads for the plot

Why the hell is /pol/ offended so easily and why do they never show their faces

>>7572472
>needing to read something that killed 800 million people

Thanks for proving my point.

Liberals everyone

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>>7572476
>>7572476

U guys im really upset that the cool old white pop music guy who was in the cool and cute movies is dead. So sad he was truly an legend

>>7572480
If we shouldn't read books because they kill people, we should burn bibles then.

>>7572480

How so? I'm imterested to learn.

>>7572487
Liberal logic everyone

>>7572480

Show your face, manly man

>>7572431
Only sadomasochists, voyeurs, and edgelords think that.

Oh and plevs

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>>7572492
>Liberal logic
>Applied your very same logic to bible.

Major Tom here, i cannot locate a brain!

>>7572480

Conservative intelligence everyone

>>7572480

Dude you just got BTFO in an argument, admit it

Or were you just "joking" or "baiting" or "just pretending to be retarded"

>>7572485
>not realizing different things have a different meaning for different people
>i dont like this thing a lot of other people like, therefore I feel better about the fact that Im superior

>>7572509

Basically.

You sound like you'd be a good friend.

(Not being sarcastic)

>>7572091
Can someone explain to me who Mira actually is?
Even Fantano is following her on twitter.

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>>7572498
>>7572498
>Someone actually thinks that

Now you will tell me it was better Ilyusha's story about Zosima than Then Grand Inquisitor.

>>7572509
>defending celebrity culture

>>7572526
no one who studies literature thinks inferno is the best part

stop being a pleb

>b-but muh COOL PUNISHMENTS and HELL and LUCIFER

>>>/reddit/

>>7572526
Lad u should lrn English before you try to banter in it or you'll only get spanked

>>7572077
Bowie was an infinitely talented pop musician but a mediocre writer. His taste in literature reflects that. Have you ever actually sat down and read some of his lyrics? They range from non sequiturs and nonsense rhymes to pop culture references, cliches and catchy slogans. Within the context of a pop anthem his writing works spectacularly, but once you remove the music and image, it does not hold up as literature.

When Bob Dylan dies maybe we can have a thread on /lit/ about Bob Dylan's lyrics. But David Bowie is not an author or a poet and was never specifically known for his lyrics. I'd like to invite OP to please return to /mu/ and stop fishing for /lit/'s approval.

>>7572359
This is /lit/

>>7572540
> Shitty comment
Into the trash
>>7572550
Jesus learn to english my friend.
>>7572553
OP did not talk about lyrics here.

>>7572452
Riiiiight

>>7572562
>trying this hard

man how pleb ARE you?

>>7572562
>>7572562
>>>7572550 (You)
>Jesus learn to english my friend.

This is exactly what I'm talking about you foreign fuckwit

You can't just copy what I said to you and say it back to me, like a drooling illiterate ape.

You think people don't see that shit? It's beyond transparent, now everyone knows without a shadow of a doubt that you're a mouth breathing mongoloid.

>>7572562
>OP did not talk about lyrics here.
That's kind of the point. David Bowie is not a writer or a particularly impressive lyricist, he was never connected to the world of literature in any meaningful way, so why are why are we discussing him on /lit/?

Take it to the board for discussing music. This board is for LITERATURE

>>7572077
It always amazes me how people can have so many books that I haven't even heard of in a must-read list. The world is a pretty big place.

>>7572600
There is a big list of stuff Bowie read, that's the point of the thread. Do you even read bro?

>>7572363
It's nothing more that all the other people calling Bowie a pleb. Finally they can express their frustration with always having felt inferior to others. The people calling others plebs are delusional. David Bowie was not a commoner. He was a fucking freak of nature.

>>7572567

Great argument.

I've noticed that /pol/ users can never EVER come up with an argument that's more than a sarcastic response or a reaction image.

>>7572553
>His taste in literature reflects that.

What books from that list have you read? :-)

...That's what I thought.

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>>7572370


>Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly.
>Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly.
>Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly.
>Not only that, but his music was sometimes about sex and he dressed unmanly.

I was honestly sad when Bowie died, but you cheered me up. Thanks, man. Haven't laughed this hard in fucking months.

>sometimes about sex

How dare he? Lmao

>>7572683
absolutely haram

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>>7572476

I cant breathe

>>7572553

I was going to agree with your post, but then you said that Dylan was clearly superior so I'll just have to drop you.

Both are among my favorite musicians and I worship them on a daily basis. Still though, don't talk about shit you don't know shit about.

Now for some actually good lyrics try Tim Buckley, Van Morrison, Robert Wyatt and Nick Cave.

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>>7572077

>>7572678
>>7572675
>>7572491
>>7572460
>>7572429

These posts still need responses, /pol/

>>7572094
>>7572098
>>7572164
>>7572176

Which books on the list have you guys read and didn't like? :)

>>7572742
>>>/reddit/

>>7572749

>>7572176 here

Read and didn't like:
oscar wao
money
white noise
in between the sheets
last exit to brooklyn
in cold blood
a clockwork orange (not that i didn't like it but it's pretty mediocre in a "top 100")
orwell essays
the leopard
1984
black boy

i don't relay read very much non fiction so im not familiar with any of those on his list.

>>7572768

What didn't you like about them? And what angers you about his different opinion? What are your ten (or five, if you prefer) favorite books?

Just trying to understand people like you.

>>7572768

I actually didn't mean to quote you btw since you were the only one who kind of backed up your opinion and appeared to have knowledge of at least some of the books

>>7572775
It doesn't anger me I just don't think his list is very good from a literary perspective (non fiction is, again, not my providence). And this is probably one of the most well-read popular celebrities which is pretty disappointing.

Also I only posted my original list and the follow-up (plus this post), none of the other stuff is me (besides one post calling the "muh inferno" guy a pleb :^))

In general I dislike books that try to make a single socioeconomic/demographic trait into the overwhelmingly in-you-face "point" of the novel, so stuff like last exit to brooklyn and black boy and oscar wao.

In cold blood just didn't really appeal to me much - seemed very middling, and I think a large part of its acclaim today stems from its "pioneering" of the non-fiction/fiction blend.

I think Orwell's a bit of a hack and his writing advice is bland and hypocritical, 1984 is heavyhanded and naively reactionary.

money was just a realtively early book from amis and i think it wasn't him at his best, something like time's arrow is much better. I haven't read amis' recent works.

similar story with in between the sheets - it's not mcewan at his best (something like atonement or amsterdam), it was just him throwing some ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. good prelude to his later stuff but on its own not that impressive.

>>7572697
Jesus, i can actually see myself crying over Nicks death...

>>7572775
>>7572810

oh and some books i like in no particular order and is no means comprehensive:

The Waves by Woolf
Doctor Faustus by Mann
The Unconsoled by Ishiguro
The Name of the Rose by Eco
By Night in Chile by Bolano
Master of Go by Kawabata
The Glass Bead Game by Hesse
Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov
Death With Interruptions by Saramago
If on a winter's night by Calvino
Ulysses by Joyce

>>7572779

t-thanks anon

>>7572821
>The Name of the Rose by Eco
ITALIAN
T
A
L
I
A
N

DAN BROWN

>>7572818

don't make me thing those thoughts, man...

been listening to nick ever since I was born, he's both my parents' favorite singer.

he was there on every single family vacation, almost every sunday breakfast, I'd cry like a little bitch if he passed.

>>7572077
Why is everyone talking about David Bowie today?

What's he up to these days?

>>7572821
>women and non-whites

back to reddit, kid

>>7573039
upboated

>>7573039
rotting mostly

Seriously you disappoint me /lit/. Both in musical and literature taste.

This is a great personal list, and Bowie was truly amazing artist. I never liked pop in any way, was always into classics with a bit of Vangelis on top, I hated his showmanship, his faggy appearance, but even I could see the greatness in his music. In pure creative artistic way, he truly was way up there among the true masters of his craft. And I'm not talking about his contemporariness that flash themselves on tv's, are pushed on radios, and are a pure product of production companies. I'm talking about the true troubadours.

Today died a proper Artist. You should mourn him!

>>7573669
Don't tell me what to do, you reddit cuckold

>>7573669
Back to reddit with you lad

>>7573669
reddit stfu

>>7572176
Nigga you badmouthing Herzog?

>>7573669

Some education for the braindead generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9mkm4CPB0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84RBZb8OxT0&index=1&list=RDz3qm2tTD_oQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMm4rJemtI

>>7573697
>>7573700
>ha ha le reddit meme XDDD

Why do i even come here?

>>7572821
How are those books in any way superior to the books on Bowie's list?
Calvino? Bolano? Seriously? kek

>>7573762
You haven't read any of Bowie books (maybe 1984?) and you haven't read any of his books. Go back to Reddit.

>>7573669
I don't. His music won't die, if it's good and his best years were behind him.

>>7573783
>His music won't die
>if it's good
>and his best years were behind him.
>if it's good

Yeah, I see you know nothing that he made, so how would you know that his new work is bad?

But, cya guys. You wouldn't see a complex music if it hit you in the eye.

>>7573876
You can see into the future and know what the historic view will be on Bowie?
I don't see music that's true enough. I do like Bowie though, best pop I know of. Wouldn't call it complex, especially compared to actually complex stuff like Bach.

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>>7572567
No, it isn't real Breivik.

>>7572683
>giving brownie points to Breivik
>posting a pic of a jew
Are you a schizo?

>>7572370

bretty gud bait my man

>>7572522
Literally who?

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>>7572077
>The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby (2008)
stopped reading there

>>7573687
>>7573697
>>7573700

>something I don't like
>I'll just tell him he's from reddit three times in a row!

God dammit /lit/. The word reddit has lost all meaning these days.

>>7572077
>Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Is funny because he was a pedo.
I hope he burn in hell with all his shitty music.

>>7572431
Purgatorio is the best book you tard

>>7572077

>must read
>like a 100 books
>most of them published ater the 70's when Bowie was already rich and lazy and had all the time in the world to read boring shit
>a handful of classics, biographies and pretentious books about art

yeah, ok.

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>>7572600
>so why are why are we discussing him on /lit/?

> 100 must-read books

We aren't discussing Bowie, but the books he recommended. Pretty sure books are considered literature.

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>>7572370

>>7573669
first person with something rational to say

also whats up with sperglords screaming reddit at every chance they get these days

>>7575258
spouting memes for small minds

>>7572553
It's music, not a book. Lyrics are a part, not the whole. There was absolutely no point to your post and no insight to be gained from it. I picture you, sitting at your computer, wringing your hands and nodding to yourself at your cleverness and your powers of examination. I picture you alone, in the dark, waiting for someone to save you. Maybe it will be someone on an anonymous message board?

>>7574208
Anthony Fantano, the most popular music reviewer on youtube

>>7572077
>no books before 1945

Illegitimate. My Struggle should be in there and that was written in the 1920s.

>>7572540

This. Paradiso is the pinnacle of the Commedia, as it was (brilliantly) planned by Dante.

>>7576184

Okay, I don't really read reviews of any kind. But at least I can kind of understand why people read movie, video game and book reviews. But music reviews? What the fuck? Just listen to it for yourself!

>>7577320
I might hate pitchfork and Fantano, but I hate plebs like you even more.

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Hunky Dory [RCA Victor, 1971]
After two overwrought excursions for Mercury this ambitious, brainy, imaginative singer-composer has created an album that rewards the concentration it demands instead of making you wish you'd gone on with the vacuuming. Not that he combines the passion and compassion of Dylan (subject of one song) with the full-witted vision of Warhol (subject of a better one) just yet. But he has a nice feeling for weirdos, himself included. A-

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars [RCA Victor, 1972]
In its own way, this is audacious stuff right down to the stubborn wispiness of its sound, and Bowie's actorly intonations add humor and shades of meaning to the words. Which are often witty and rarely precious, offering an unusually candid and detailed vantage on the rock star's world. Admittedly, for a long time I wondered who cared, besides lost kids for whom such access feels like privilege. The answer is, someone like Bowie--a middlebrow fascinated by the power of a highbrow-lowbrow form. B+

Aladdin Sane [RCA Victor, 1973]
The pubeless is-he-naked? illustration inside the doublefold suggests not bisexuality but asexuality--the affliction of a romantic for whom love turns nasty, awkward, and exploitative when touched by lust. So maybe the bleak future Bowie likes to scare his fans with is a metaphor for his own present, the American phase of which is reflected by these hardrocking mechanisms. But the cover, "Let's Spend the Night Together," opens other possibilities: its lyric suggests an alternative to the brutality of "Cracked Actor" and its music can help you through the bitterest realities. As a result, this is more interesting thematically than Ziggy Stardust, and it's also better rock and roll. B+

Pin-Ups [RCA Victor, 1973]
The idea of reviving these British oldies is the great one, but most of those fanatic enough to know all the originals aren't very excited either. I mean, it's good to recall the screaming-frustration-on-the-nine-to-five of "Friday on My Mind," but when Bowie screams he sounds arch. And that ain't rock and roll. Yet. B-

Diamond Dogs [RCA Victor, 1974]
In which a man who has always turned his genuine if unendearing talent for image manipulation to the service of his dubious literary and theatrical gifts evolves from harmless kitsch into pernicious sensationalism. Despite two good songs and some thoughtful (if unhummable) rock sonorities, this is doomsday purveyed from a pleasure dome. Message: eat, snort, and be pervy, for tomorrow we shall be peoploids--but tonight how about buying this piece of plastic? Say nay. C+

David Live [RCA Victor, 1975]
The artiste at his laryngeal nadir, mired in bullshit pessimism and arena-rock pandering--and the soul frills just make it worse. C-

>>7578473
Young Americans [RCA Victor, 1975]
This is a failure. The tunes make (Lennon-McCartney's) "Across the Universe" sound like a melodic highlight, and although the amalgam of English hard rock and Philly soul is so thin it's interesting, it often overwhelms David's voice, which is even thinner. But after the total alienation of Diamond Dogs and the total ripoff of David Live, I'm pleased with Bowie's renewed generosity of spirit--he takes pains to simulate compassion and risks failure simply by moving on. His reward is two successes: the title tune, in which pain stimulates compassion, and (Bowie-Lennon-Alomar's) "Fame," which rhymes with pain and makes you believe it. B-

Station to Station [RCA Victor, 1976]
Miraculously, Bowie's attraction to black music has matured; even more miraculously, the new relationship seems to have left his hard-and-heavy side untouched. Ziggyphiles can call it robotoid if they want--I admire the mechanical, fragmented, rather secondhand elegance of Aladdin Sane, and this adds soul. All of the six cuts are too long, I suppose, including the one that originated with Johnny Mathis, and David sounds like he's singing to us via satellite. But spaceyness has always been part of his shtick, and anybody who can merge Lou Reed, disco, and Huey Smith--the best I can do with the irresistible "TVC 15"--deserves to keep doing it for 5:29. A

Changesonebowie [RCA Victor, 1976]
The way La Bowie's vaunted concept albums reduce to greatest hits is a revelation. Non-dross form the likes of Diamond Dogs and Young Americans holds its own with the best discrete songs from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, and what's more, chronology resembles progress--like the Supremes regressing from "Where Did Our Love Go" to "Love Child" in reverse, although not as important aesthetically. A

Low [RCA Victor, 1977]
I find side one's seven "fragments"--since the two that clock in at less than 2:45 are 1:42 and 2:20, the term must refer to structures rather than length--almost as powerful as the "overlong" tracks on Station to Station. "Such a wonderful person/But you got problems" is definitely a love lyric for our time. But most of the movie music on side two is so far from hypnotic that I figure Bowie, rather than Eno, must deserve credit for it. I mean, is Eno really completely fascinated by banality? B+

"Heroes" [RCA Victor, 1977]
When I first heard the Enofied instrumental textures on side two, as background music, they struck me as more complex than their counterparts on Low, and they are. Low now seems quite pop, slick and to the point even when the point is background noise; in fact, after I completed my comparison, I began to play it a lot. But what was interesting background on "Heroes" proved merely noteworthy as foreground, admirably rather than attractively ragged. Maybe after the next album I'll get the drift of this one. B+

>>7578477
Stage [RCA Victor, 1978]
If James Brown is the only rock and roller who deserves more than one concert album, then the Bowie to ban is David Live. Stage kicks off with some well-chosen Bowie oldies before moving into refreshingly one-dimensional versions of his best songs since 1975, including the key Eno collaborations, which were often oversubtle to begin with. For fans only, of course. I'm one. B+

Lodger [RCA Victor, 1979]
I used to think Bowie was middlebrow, but now I'd prefer to call him post-middlebrow--a habitue of prematurely abandoned modernist space. Musically, these fragments of anomie don't seem felt, and lyrically they don't seem thought through. But that's part of their charm--the way they confound categories of sensibility and sophistication is so frustrating it's satisfying, at least if you have your doubts about the categories. Less satisfying, actually, than the impact of the record as a whole. A-

Scary Monsters [RCA Victor, 1980]
No concepts, no stylistic excursions, no avant collaborations--this songbook may be the most conventional album he's ever put his name on. Vocally it can be hard to take--if "Teenage Wildlife" parodies his chanteur mode on purpose the joke's not worth the pain, and if you think Tom Verlaine can't sing, check out "Kingdom Come"--though anyone vaguely interested has already made peace with that. Lyrically it's too facile as usual, though the one about Major Tom's jones gets me every time. And musically, it apotheosizes his checkered past, bringing you up short with a tune you'd forgotten you remembered or a sonic that scrunches your shoulders or a beat that keeps you on your feet when your coccyx is moaning sit down. B+

Let's Dance [EMI America, 1983]
Anyone who wants Dave's $17 million fling to flop doesn't understand how little good motives have to do with good rock and roll. Rodgers & Bowie are a rich combo in the ways that count as well as the ways that don't, and this stays up throughout, though it's perfunctory professional surface does make one wonder whether Bowie-the-thespian really cares much about pop music these days. "Modern Love" is the only interesting new song, the remakes are pleasantly pointless, and rarely has such a lithe rhythm player been harnessed to such a flat groove. Which don't mean the world won't dance to it. B

Tonight [EMI America, 1984]
What makes Bowie a worthy entertainer is his pretensions, his masks, the way he simulates meaning. He has no special gift for convincing emotions or good tunes--when he works at being "merely" functional he's merely dull, or worse. With Nile Rodgers gone, the dance potential of the second album of his professional phase is negligible, and he's favoring the tired usages that have been the downfall of an entire generation of English twits. In this setting, not even Leiber-Stoller's long-neglected "I Keep Forgetting" makes much of an impression. C

>>7578481
Never Let Me Down [EMI America, 1987]
Maybe he's lost touch so completely that he's reduced to cannibalizing himself just when the market dictates the most drastic image shift of his chameleon career. But maybe this is just his way of melding two au courant concepts, Springsteenian rock and multiproducer crossover. After all, why pay good money to outsiders when your own trunk of disguises is there for the rummaging? Of course, crossover artistes can generally sing. When Bowie wants to play the vocalist, he still puts on a bad Anthony Newley imitation. C+

Changesbowie [Rykodisc, 1990]
It isn't just the usual useless bonuses that make the self-serving Sound + Vision unlistenable--Bowie's personal reissue program monumentalizes a monumentally inefficient music machine. Sure he can hit the nail on the head, sometimes for a whole side (first five tracks of Hunky Dory, which now yields a prev unrel good song) or even album (the just-out Station to Station, though these days I find myself making allowances for "Stay" as well as the Johnny Mathis cover--and welcoming the prev unrel live bait). But he's always churned out pomp and dreck, especially in theatre mode. So given his nonstop chameleon act, the consistency of this 18-cut best-of--the superb Changesonebowie plus not much Changestwobowie and too much Let's Dance--is an industrial marvel. Just goes to show that when he lowers himself the man does understand how music works. And that sometimes horrible vocals are all the stylistic unity you need. A

Black Tie White Noise [Savage, 1993]
Having erected a whole label around this piece of history, the legendary artiste and his new management returned triumphantly to the corporate scene of the artiste's salad days. But within a few months it had stiffed irretrievably, whereupon BMG-né-RCA dumped both artiste and label for a comeback as spectacularly ignominious as any rock and roll has known. Oddly enough, the music is the artiste's most arresting in many years; the dancebeats and electrotextures make you prick up your ears and wonder where they'll lead. Then the artiste begins to sing--often lyrics of his own devising, as in the title tune, a metaphor for race relations. B-

Outside [Virgin, 1995] Dud

Earthling [Virgin, 1997] Dud

Essential David Bowie: Best of 1969-1974 [EMI/Capitol, 1997]
"All the Young Dudes" Choice Cuts

Hours . . . [Virgin, 1999] Dud

>>7578486
Heathen [ISO/Columbia, 2002]
The "Bowie's back" huzzahs that accompany every one of this music mill's new releases beg the question of what he's back to and from. The reason Englishmen have actually touted him as the greatest rock artiste of all time is that he's the least American major rock artiste of all time, which is one reason his careful brand maintenance isn't filling any arenas over here. Just to be mean I compared his latest phoenix imitation to 1979's Lodger, a certified nonclassic I always kind of liked. Lodger won easy. He has indeed Learned to Sing, thus rendering himself more the chansonnier only art-rockers ever wanted him to be, and the strain is hell on his sense of humor. The textures are nicer now, but whose aren't? And while the songwriting ain't bad, it also ain't that good. Just switch between the Black Francis cover and any other track and you'll know exactly what I mean. C+

The Buddha of Suburbia [Virgin, 2007] Dud

Station to Station (Special Edition) [EMI, 2010]
Normally I ignore "enhanced" classics, as should you, so to distinguish among iterations, this is the three-CD boxlet released in 2010. It includes three color photos of the Thin White Duke, a flier hawking Geoff MacCormack's "signed, limited edition" Travels With Bowie 1973-76, informative notes, the original album in its own wee sleeve, and--the bait, in a wee double sleeve--Bowie's March 23, 1976 performance at Nassau Coliseum, warm New York Times review by John Rockwell included, hot Village Voice review by Robert Christgau not. In addition to an echoing momentum with no precedent or aftermath in Bowie's melodramatic oeuvre, highlights include "I'm Waiting for the Man" with blues uptick, "TVC-15" with New Orleans accent, and a set list that stumbles only on the stone in his passway that is "Word on a Wing." It nails a galvanizing arena-rock that you can almost hear hitting a groove that had dissipated disappointingly just three days later at Madison Square Garden. But please note that I said "almost hear." As we all should know by now, rarely do galvanizing performances live on in artifact the way they do in memory. Whether this one you missed is worth your 25 bucks depends, I suspect, on just how seriously you credit the artiste's Anglophiliac legend. A-