Since the day alter ego Major Tom observed that ‘Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do’, a controversy has raged; namely are Bowie’s lyrics brilliant or bollocks. The following is a list of dubious couplets or lines, as imperfectly heard by the website’s author. You may notice a disproportionate amount of this questionable writing originates from Bowie’s earlier career, in fact the entire second page. All you have to do is decide whether they are brilliant, or bollocks?

Blackout

I just cut and blackout,
I’m under Japanese influence,
And my honour’s at stake,
The music’s great

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Tags: "Heroes", Blackout, DDR, Kiss you in the rain

Who am I to criticise Bowie? Someone who has bought Tonight, Never Let me Down, and pre-Space Oddity compilations featuring numbers as poor as When I’m Five, and Love you till Tuesday. Anyone who has endured the anti-climatic Black Tie/White Noise and the half-arsed covers on Pin Ups, has a near-constitutional right to have his/her tuppence’ worth. Therefore…

The first halves of the albums Low and “Heroes” are truly magnificent; the second halves are a dreary, ambient drone. Imagine if you will, a single entity containing such classics as Breaking Glass, Sound and Vision, V-2 Schneider, “Heroes”, Speed of Life, Be my Wife, Beauty and the Beast, Blackout, and Always Crashing in the Same Car. Now consider over half an hour of grinding, funeral parlour music (albeit technically competent) including such plodding examples as Moss Garden, and that one about Warsaw, that starts off dull, then rapidly turns silly, with tribal chantings and the like.

Am I alone in my sense of doubt? Please feel free to leave a comment:

Tags: "Heroes", Album of two halves, Be my Wife, Berlin, Berlin Divided, Berlin Wall of Sound, Bowie discussion, Low, Prussia, Sense of Doubt, V-2 Schneider

Unwashed and Somewhat, Slightly Dazed – Bowie at the Beeb version

The familiar ‘Unwashed’ is the second track of the Space Oddity album (originally the L.P. was simply named David Bowie). The poetry is so pitiful that a sixth-form Morrisey would be proud. The Beeb sessions produced this slightly shorter version, but she’s perhaps as addictive, and rewarding as her more celebrated sister.

Conversation Piece

I was introduced to the compositions of the ‘Duke’, as a callow youth in 1991. This coincided with a glut of Bowie compact discs being issued on the Ryko label. These technological innovations hosted bonus ditties, that to my mind will always be part of the records. Conversation Piece is one such example.

In keeping with the spirit of Space Oddity, Conversation Piece is a masterfully self-indulgent.

Memory of a Free Festival - parts one and two

In the author’s opinion this is a marginally better listen than the original singular effort; both are good, if verging on the ludicrous.

Lightening Frightening

Voted David Bowie’s greatest EVER song (amongst editors of Bowie’s Tin of Stewing Steak). Made an appearance on the early Nineties reissue of The Man who Sold the World. My personal copy of that album, spells the song ‘Lightening’, rather than ‘Lightning’, I don’t know which is correct.

Sweethead

“Move along now”…

Candidate

Not to be mistaken with Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing, though they are both from the Diamond Dogs phase.

Heldon/Heros

I’m in no position to judge his German accent, but to my untrained ears his yodelling sounds convincing.

I pray Olé

Features as a bonus track on some re-releases of Lodger. Like most of the songs on that album, it might take a few listens.

Tags: "Heroes", Beeb, Bowie, Candidate, Conversation Piece, david bowie, Diamond Dogs, Eyes in my backside, Heldon, I pray Olé, Lightening Frightening, Lightning Frightening, Lodger, Memory of a Free Festival, move along now, Rare Cuts, Ryko, Space Oddity, Sweethead, Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed