All the talk on the radio over the past few days about David Bowie’s 65th birthday started me thinking about his music and the impact it has had on me. If asked to list my favourite artists I doubt I would think to mention Bowie but checking my Last.FM stats he just ‘super’ creeps (see what I did there?) into my top 30 so obviously features in my playlist more than first thought.
My first memory of his music is Absolute Beginners from 1985, something in the song and David’s laid back vocals obviously appealed to my 7 year old self. Needless to say, like any good child of the 80′s I watched Labyrinth and am still scarred by his enormous crotch in those leggings to this day….
Apart from purchasing a ‘Best Of…’ at some point it wasn’t until the release of Earthling in 1997 that I rekindled my love for his music. Earthling is a far cry from the early days of Bowie and the Man Who Fell to Earth, an eclectic mix of drum n bass and heavy guitar riffs. It is a noisy album and one that I still listen to a lot now with the stand out track for me being Seven Years In Tibet, best listened to very loud so the massive chorus can wash over you in a wall of sound.
The combination of working from home, being able to listen to what I want and Spotify has allowed me to discover a lot of artists back catalogues and I spent an enjoyable few days listening to Bowie from past to present back in the summer. The discovery of the Berlin Trilogy, recorded with Brian Eno and so named due to Bowie living in West Berlin at the inception of the first album, Low, was a very pleasant surprise.
The final album in the trilogy, Lodger is the stand-out of the three for me and in particular the track ‘Look Back in Anger’ which I think is just fantastic and though not widely known is a brilliant example of Bowie and his unique, ever evolving and quite rightly celebrated talent.
