Most jarring/surprising/interesting Bowie transistion?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Lyedecker, Jul 11, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    What Bowie transition do you find most shocking, surprising, or interesting?

    I find these most interesting:

    -shift from Mod Rocker to Novelty/Cabaret tunes circa '66-'67. From writing and recording songs like "You've Got A Habit of Leaving" and "I Dig Everything" to "The Laughing Gnome" and "We Are Hungry Men"...enough said.
    -shift from glam rock to Philly soul in 1974-75. It seems to be a logical progression in hindsight, if you look at Diamond Dogs, particularly on songs like "1984" and "Rock and Roll With Me", but I imagine Young Americans must have seemed like an abrupt change in direction at the time.
    -shift to shiny 80's dance pop in 1983. This is probably the most abrupt transition, as Scary Monsters and Let's Dance are worlds apart and nothing he did immediately prior to 1983 seems to give an indication of that direction.
     
  2. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    Think of how unexpected "Young Americans" must have been less than a year after "Rebel Rebel"
     
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    probably Tin Machine I reckon
     
    NumberEight and Lyedecker like this.
  4. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    Aye, coming on the heels of Glass Spider.
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  5. Sean

    Sean Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa
    Most jarring for me was when he transitioned out of this life into the next.
     
    CBackley, willy, NumberEight and 7 others like this.
  6. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Plastic Soul Man
     
    Lyedecker and mark winstanley like this.
  7. yarbles

    yarbles Too sick to pray

    It was very, very difficult to see the funny side of it at the time. Took me over 30 years to 'get' YA.
     
  8. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    "Scary Monsters" to "Let's Dance." I still don't get it.
     
  9. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    ziggy to the thin white duke.
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  10. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    Station to Station
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  11. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    If you take your time, there is at least always one track on each Bowie album that points forward to the next one. Take ‘1984’ for example, it is right next to all things ‘Young Americans’. Or ‘Queen Bitch’, a total ‘Ziggy Stardust’-like track. ‘Never Let Me Down (the album) has several ‘Tin Machine’-sounding efforts. Even for most of the eighties and nineties, you could read a sort of a ‘red line’ into it all.

    However, the BIG one, the one where you can’t connect any track to the next album, is ‘Scary Monsters’ -> ‘Let’s Dance’.
     
    CBackley, Chordeater and Lyedecker like this.
  12. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    A natural progression from ‘Young Americans’. Several ‘Station’ tracks also points forward to ‘Low’.
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  13. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    Interesting, I hear a lot of the Young Americans direction in "Rock and Roll With Me" as well in some of the renditions of his earlier songs appearing on David Live.


    I am surprised no one has mentioned Heroes to Lodger yet. Aside from the Eno factor, they're very dissimilar, though "Secret Life of Arabia" sounds like a preview of Lodger.


    I agree with you on Scary Monsters to Let's Dance. The closest thing on SM is "Fashion" and it's still far closer to Lodger than it is to Let's Dance in overall sound and style.
     
    Purple Jim likes this.
  14. Maurice

    Maurice Senior Member

    Location:
    North Yarmouth, ME
    For me it was the transition from Reality to The Next Day, where he went from a pretty prolific artist releasing albums at least once every two or three years to a ten year gap. Of course, knowing now what we didn't know then it seems likely that there were bigger issues afoot but at the time I was frustrated by those years of "no new Bowie."
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  15. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    It sure was but there were hints of it coming. On the back of Pin-Ups, we found him in a suit (WTF?) holding a sax. Then on Diamond Dogs he was becoming a crooner and there was the soul funk (Isaac Hayes) influence coming in on "1984".
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  16. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    Agreed. I think "fascination" and "fame" point toward Station to Station
     
    MHP likes this.
  17. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    I think there's even hints of it on Aladdin Sane
     
  18. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I was surprised and very pleased to see his Earthing re-vamped self, with the spikey orange hair and outrageous clothes. It was almost like an older Ziggy was back!
    I was perhaps even more surprised to see him clean up and go soft for "Hours" (the cover of course expressing that very graphically, with the Earthling geaser dead in his arms).
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  19. sekaer

    sekaer Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Thin White Duke, after the "WTF" of Young Americans (which I adore) he was back and the great "late" run had begun...
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  20. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Absolutely. Especially with "Panic In Detroit" (and Linda Lewis' soulful backing vocals).
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
  21. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    I think Next Day sounds like it could have been recorded right after Reality. However, Blackstar is a pretty big, albeit welcome change in style. Also, the transition from Earthling to Hours was a bit odd to me. I had just gotten into Bowie around the time Outside was released, so it was interesting seeing these transitions in real time as opposed to listening to his older stuff, where the transitions seemed like a normal part of the narrative of his career. Hours truly was unexpected and unpredictable after the high-energy techno rock of the previous album
     
    CBackley, pobbard and Purple Jim like this.
  22. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    To me, Station is still fairly close to YA, closer than it is to the "berlin" albums in styles. It sounds like a harsher, faster younger brother of YA.
     
    sekaer likes this.
  23. Lyedecker

    Lyedecker Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    somewhere
    what about the jump from hippie folk singer to metal on Man Who Sold The World? It's still one of the heavier Bowie albums, sounds like early Sabbath to me.
     
    CBackley and Purple Jim like this.
  24. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    That was quite a relief!
     
    mark winstanley and Lyedecker like this.
  25. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I always find it weird to reflect that Bowie was still sporting the quite outdated Mod look by as late as February 1969 for the 'Love You Til Tuesday' film. Just a few months later, he'd morphed into his bepermed hippy phase.

    [​IMG]
     
    Lyedecker likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine