HUNKY DORY
Music I can’t help you with, but you’ll never forget seeing him in The Man Who Fell To Earth. I’m not necessarily saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing haha, just unforgettable.
Double post, sorry
His best period for me was his German stuff. HEROES, LOW and LODGER. You can’t go wrong with those IMO.
I agree with KAI. TMWFTE is his best role but Bowie was a better musician than actor, so it’s not saying much.
Trust me, you want Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Those are the two most important. Get those, go from there. The Man Who Sold the World, Diamond Dogs, Low… Bowie has gone all over the place. Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Do it.
Listen to The Man Who Sold the World
^ heh, what?
Bowie’s hasn’t really had any major roles besides Man Who Fell to Earth (I recommend watching, not listening to it) which is a pretty good film (directed by Nicolas Roeg) – typical Roeg really. Bowie’s a pretty good actor from what I’ve seen of him. He was in The Hunger (Ridley Scott film?) with Susan Surandon, but it’s not that great and he’s not really in a lot of it anyway.
He’s had some cameos here and there (Zoolander of course), but also in a film called August which is an utterly forgettable film. He was Tesla in The Prestige (one of Nolan’s better works). He did the soundtrack to Cat People. That’s about all I got.
As far as albums go… as a musician, the album of his I find most important is Heroes. It’s a nice blend of traditional songwriting (variations on Blues progressions mostly – but not Blues “sounding”) and some experimental ambient work he collaborated with Brian Eno. Joe the Lion and my favourite Bowie tune of all time: Blackout, as well as the well-known title track. All very unusual avant-rock with guitarist Robert Fripp (of King Crimson fame) putting his inimitable mark on everything (in a good way).
thanks to all of you.
He had a memorable scene in Extras.
Fuck Extras, see him in Flight of the Concords! Amazing!
Santa Monica ’72 is a great live show. Get the two disc Anniversary versions of Ziggy and Alladin Sane. Hunky Dory is a great hodgepodge. For some really good heavy guitar work get The Man Who Sold the World. Almost anything through Scary Monsters is good to great. After that, is a long fall down, until Heathen, which was pretty good.
screw the music, watch The Hunger and The Man Who Fell to Earth
I stand by my “not a very good actor” statement. He’s over the top in TWIN PEAKS and unbearable in MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE. Even in the HUNGER, I didn’t think he was all that great. But watching him act, I definitely get the impression that HE thinks he’s great and that’s my problem with him. But he sure knows how to write some great music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMhSjDqvRs
A finer example of his acting skills you will never find. Classic.
I will second Santa Monica ’72. Tons of great songs on there.
I agree with Nathan M.!!!!!!
The album Heathen is actually a masterpiece, and as great a cultural evocation of time & place as I know of.
Scary Monsters is worthwhile as a transition between the much heralded "berlin period’ (SEE ALSO Iggy Pop’s The Idiot & Lust for Life, produced by Bowie & Brian Eno in the same period) and his 80s pop stardom, which shouldn’t be dismissed; it may be most illustrative of many of Bowie’s musical themes; his 70s album Young Americans belongs here thematically.
After you’ve explored Bowie a bit, Scott Walker is likely worth your time, British crooner/pop star of the 60s & influence on young Bowie who goes off the map later on, with some truly dense, genius, and not for everyone albums.
You’ll find a lot of opinions about his music here:
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/4076/comments
People, can we agree he is great in LABYRINTH?
Granted, MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH is a much more interesting movie, and a major influence on Philip K. Dick’s VALIS and RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, thus very, very interesting to watch in conjunction with reading those two.
Albums:
1) Ziggy Stardust
2) Hunky Dory
2) Man Who Sold the World
Films:
1) Man Who Fell to Earth
2) Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
3) The Hunger
listen to “Strange Fame” by Sage Francis. first David Bowie sample i have ever heard in a hip hop song…….“i ain’t clearing no sample for this song, i’ll just give it away, david bowie ain’t my homie, is that strange?”……….classic
I would say start out with Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory to get a good feel for Bowie.
Then once you’re kind of familiar with him I’d move to the Eno-produced Low and Heroes: my two favorites.
Is Man Who Fell to earth an influence on VALIS? I thought the real, shining red light from the future/other dimenson & mysterious phone calls were the main influence there.
Bowie kind of predicted the prevalence mashup/sample heavy culture in some interview I read in the 90s, way before they took up as much space in mainstream music. I really wish I could find that.
David Bowie played the part of Andy Warhol in the movie Basquiat. He nailed it (I think I read that he knew Andy Warhol). It’s worth seeing the movie just for his performance. Brilliant!
MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH was the basis for the movie VALIS that Dick and his friends go to see in the book of the same name, and Dick’s experience of seeing MWFTE inspired the the second half of the book, a significantly less autobiographical read than the first half. Mother Goose/Eric Lampton is a stand-in for Bowie (he’s described as a cross between Bowie and Zappa) who was heavily into Kabbalah and some Gnosticism at the time of MWFTE/STATION TO STATION (he also claims to have been so far gone on coke, etc, during that period that he doesn’t remember recording the album) while Brent Mini is Eno, releasing albums of “synchronicity music”…his ambient or “furniture” musics.
@F-S: Go for LOW, DIAMOND DOGS, STATION TO STATION, SCARY MONSTERS, and OUTSIDE.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory belong into every household.Low is also great.
Films: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Man Who Fell to Earth.
I’d definitely listen to Ziggy Stardust which is a really great album. Get the 2 disc addition which has other recordings of the same songs as well as some songs that were not included on the original album. He’s got a lot of other great songs of other albums, but that album is really the only one I listen to completely. There is a 2 disc CD called Best of Bowie where you can get a lot of his good songs without buying all of the albums. However, I haven’t really heard many of his other albums, so I don’t know how they match up to Ziggy Stardust. Ditto on Basquiat for him playing Andy Warhol. I also thought he was great as Pontius Pilate in Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ.
I’ve always been a big fan of Station to Station. The opening sequence of the title song is one of the better songs that I know of turned up really loud.
Ben- I totally didn’t know about the influence on Dick & VALIS. I need to break out the dvd & the book again.
As a massive Bowie fan, I’ll admit to being a wee bit biased, but I think he’s actually quite a good actor, even in bad films (see: The Linguini Incident & Into the Night). That said, I do honestly think Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a great film and Bowie’s more than passable in it. I’d also argue that he’s by far the best “rock star/actor” out there. Mind you, I mean someone who’s known for music but dabbles in acting. Not the other way around.
His cameos in Yellowbeard and Into the Night are pretty damn funny.
LOW is his best album IMO, especially the second half.
Fandorin-san
I have just recently gotten into David Bowie and I am currently at the ‘Greatest Hits stage’, from which I usually move on to the album stage, when getting to know an artist.
Two basic questions:
which albums to start with (only one I have really fully listened to was Ziggy Stardust)?
and since this is a site dedicated to film: what are bowies best/most memorable appearences on screen?
appreciate your help