David Bowie - Hunky Dory - 1971
This is most likely Bowie's "coming of age" album. The one in which he really became himself, and i know that "himself" is a slippery subject when referring to the eternally chameleonic Bowie. But I do believe that in this album he found his footing and managed to bring together everything he had done right in previous albums, including the strange type of music-hall from his first ever. More than anything, he sounds so at place in this album that, looking back, several moments in the previous albums seem a bit forced.Also, this one is the closest to bona fide pop music he did in the first few years of his careers. And it's one of the finest examples of how good, creative and energetic pop can be when done right.
This could easily be my favourite Bowie album, which is something I realised these couple of days while listening to it again. There's only one reason why I can't quite call it my favourite, which is that right after this one, Bowie hit us again, twice as hard, and gave us Ziggy Stardust, and left us all not knowing what had happened. But Ziggy is out of this world, and this album comes pretty damn close to it, to be honest.
Not too long ago, when talking about a previous Bowie album, I mentioned how it wasn't really a perfect album, but Bowie was never about perfect albums. And it's true, because Bowie at his best (and he always had a good few moments of him at his best, even in his "worst" albums) is orders of magnitude than most good artists. But here, even the "lesser" tunes are absolutely brilliant. I'm talking about "Song for Bob Dylan", "Kooks", "Queen Bitch", among other songs that I hadn't really listened to in a few years, and had forgotten how good they were.
And, of course, there's the small detail that this album contains my favourite song ever. No, not my favourite Bowie song, my favourite song of all songs. My "favouritest", so to speak. Of course, "Life on Mars?". I'll talk a bit about it in detail at the end.
As for the lyrics, all the classic Bowie topics are here: the Nietzsche-like vision of the world, sexuality, art and artists, madness. This album, though, seems to rely a bit less in the traditional storytelling style of lyrics that Bowie so much used in previous albums (and that he would return to in the next one). The lyrics here seem more opaque, or oblique, one of those words. Maybe "oblaque", even. I'll mention this again when I talk about "Life on Mars?", a bit more in depth.
- How come I never realised that Rick Wakeman (yes, the Yes guy) plays keyboards in this album?
- Of course, it seems only natural that Bowie would have written a song called "Changes". It combines two of his obsessions: One being change, of course, but the other is this idea of us being phased out, and the younger ones being almost a "new race".
- This is also the subject of the next song, "Oh! You Pretty Things", which has lines like "Homo Sapiens has outgrown their use / all the strangers came today and it looks as though they're here to stay". And, of course, "let me make it plain, you gotta make way for the Homo Superior". I've said it before, Nietzsche would be really proud.
- "Kooks", one of the happiest and sweetest songs here, was dedicated to his son, Duncan Zowie Jones. Incidentally, Duncan is a movie director, and at least two of his movies, Moon and Source Code, are brilliant.
- I had pretty much forgotten about "Quicksand". It's a song that catches you unaware, in a way, with its seemingly harmless acoustic tone, that belie lyrics that are, probably, amongst the darkest he's ever written. He references the occult, politics and, of course, yes, you guessed right, Nietzsche.
- Apparently, Bowie played "Andy Warhol" for Warhol, who reacted in his always extremely understated way, and Bowie never knew if he liked it or not.
- There's only one cover in the album, the song "Fill your Heart", written by Paul Williams and comedian Biff Rose. It's the most music-hall in this one, and it makes me smile how much fun Bowie seems to be having singing it.
- There are two more songs in honour of contemporary artists: "Song for Bob Dylan", and "Queen Bitch", which is a tribute to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Both are done in the style of the artists, and I think that in both cases, he did a much better job at being them than themselves.
- The album closes with the strangely beautiful "The Bewlay Brothers", a song that Bowie said at some point it didn't really mean anything, but he's also admitted it could be about his brother, who suffered from schizophrenia. I'm going to put it here because it's so little known and so touching and brilliant. But you should all go now and listen to the full album.
A sad awful small affair for the girl with the mousy hair
Life on Mars
As I said, my favourite song of all times. And it's never really easy to tell why a song becomes your favourite. Clearly, there must be something there that somehow manages to connect with you. But, as I mentioned above, the lyrics of this album can be pretty opaque, full of compelling imagery, but otherwise very hard to tell what they are about. And still, I always found them touching.
So today, while I was reading a bit, I found this comment made by Neil McCormick, with The Daily Telegraph, and I'm going to share it with you because I was blown away by how accurately it describes how I feel about this song.
"Gloriously strange sci-fi anthem. A stirring, yearning melody combines with vivid, poetic imagery to accomplish a trick very particular to the art of the song: to be at once completely impenetrable and yet resonant with personal meaning. You want to raise your voice and sing along, yet Bowie's abstract cut-up lyrics force you to invest the song with something of yourself just to make sense of the experience, and then carries you away to a place resonant with intense, individual emotion. The magic and mystery of music and lyrics. It is something to behold".
This description is so good that leaves me with nothing to add, except for a small story: In 1990, David Bowie played a gig in Buenos Aires. Days before the show, there was this contest of sorts. A very comprehensive list of his songs was published in the newspapers, and people were asked to vote for up to 5 songs. The most voted would make it to the setlist. I remember a good friend of mine and myself, both big fans of this song, getting our hands in as many newspapers as possible to vote for this song. I can't even remember what other songs I voted for. Of course, he played it. Of course, he played it because we asked him to. I can still remember the moment the song started as if if was yesterday.
So now, watch the video, listen to the music, let yourself be tempted to raise your voice and sing along. Make the lyrics yours.
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