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The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 – David Bowie


Year Released: 1997

Label: EMI

Year Bought: 1999

My love of Bowie started as a wind up. There was a rumour round our school that one of the French teachers used to go out with Bowie, so as part of my ambition to be a cocky little shit I decided to try to sneak some Bowie song titles into our lessons. "I don't understand how this verb ch-ch-ch-changes, Miss" – that sort of thing. It turned out that not only had she dated him, she was still friends with him, and even had side-of-the-stage tickets when he played Glastonbury in 2000. She might still be the coolest person I've ever known.

In my bid to learn some more Bowie tunes I dug out my mum's old vinyls and fell in love with 'Hunky Dory'. For Christmas 1999, my mum got me 2 CDs, this one, which covers 1969/74, and the next one which goes up to 1979. 

That Christmas, I had them both on repeat as I played FIFA 2000 on the PC (which had a picture of pre-Judas Sol Campbell on the cover).

This compilation really is fantastic. It's got most of the singles from the era on the record – including the original 'Prettiest Star' featuring Marc Bolan on guitar – plus some album tracks – 'Ziggy Stardust', 'The Man Who Sold The World' – and a B-side in the form of 'Velvet Goldmine'.

It flows brilliantly. The shift from 'Suffragette City' to 'Oh! You Pretty Things' works fantastically well, and putting the piano-led tracks of 'Life On Mars?' and 'Aladdin Sane' next to each other perfectly show how Bowie could flip from from musical hall to experimental by switching piano players (Rick Wakeman out, Mike Garson in).

The real joy of this record is Bowie's recording of 'All The Young Dudes'. It's mad that he gave the song to Mott The Hoople in early 1972, when he had been without a top 40 hit since Space Oddity three years earlier. I love his version. The way Mick Ronson makes his guitar sing as Bowie powers out 'My brother's back at home with his Beatles and his Stones, we never got it off on that revolution stuff' is just sublime.

Indeed, the presence of Ronson, and the rest of the Spiders from Mars, on much of these tracks really underline what a fantastic band Bowie had in the first part of the 70s. It all sounds so instinctive and melodic.

A glorious way in to the Bowie back catalogue.

10/10


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