tom@rlgvax.UUCP (07/12/83)
"Pinups" was an unusual album from Bowie. He did none of his own compositions,
instead recording his versions of the songs that he "grew up" with. Fans of
the "British invasion" will love his versions of "See Emily Play", "Here Comes
the Night", "Friday on My Mind", etc. My big recording goal is to get the
original of all these songs and make a tape alternating original-Bowie
versions. Generally unknown, I consider this the Great Lost Bowie Album.
"Alladin Sane" was pretty close time-wise, I believe. I like the album,
its rock tunes are probably the closest to "Pinups", but overall the album
is a bit more raw around the edges, and not as smooth and professional.
Very good rock tunes include "Panic In Detroit", the Stones' "Let's Spend
the Night Together", "Gene Genie". The album also has good ballads and
softer music -- "Prettiest Star" and "Time". But, this was also Bowie's
bisexual/unisexual/??sexual days. The songs contain enough of his
??sexual intonations to make both sexes squirm a little in their seats,
but perhaps not quite obvious enough for them to know why.
Other Bowie albums to satisy the rock fan would have to include "Ziggy
Stardust", but that seems so well-known it doesn't seem useful to review it.
"Diamond Dogs" is a great album, some of his strongest vocals, but not in
the same simple rock'n'roll vein as the others, a very sci-fi theme,
and some people still can't forgive anything with a disco beat. "Scary
Monsters" was a more recent return to rock, but contains several barely
worthwhile songs and probably still too tainted with his Berlin days for
a lot of folk. If one goes all the way back to the original album with
"Width of a Circle" on it, he again is doing rock'n'roll, but very raw,
and a bit heavy-handed, not the sophistacted Bowie we now know. Besides,
every copy I've picked up of this has been a TERRIBLE pressing, with
surface noise and poor fidelity enough to make me scream AARRGGHH!!!
- Tom Beres
CCI Corp.
{seismo, allegra, brl-bmd, mcnc}!rlgvax!tom