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I really think that Hunky Dory is David Bowie's greatest album. I mean yes, obviously I love and adore Ziggy Stardust, I wouldn't call myself a fan if I didn't, but I think Hunky Dory does more things. It represents all the things Bowie had been up to that moment, all the things that were happening in the world at that moment, all the things people thought might happen in the world at that moment and all the things Bowie would go on to become. Actually, that's inaccurate; it doesn't just represent them, it shows you them; you can hear it in ever bar and every change and every harmoniously-discordant shift from track to track.
Take the tracks individually and you could be forgiven for thinking they span a decade. Take them as a whole and you will be blown away every day for the last 40 years and every one for the next 40.
I like the Beatles, I do, but I really don't think Rubber Soul (my favourite Beatles album*) - released just 6 years before Hunky Dory sounds anywhere near as fresh. Christ, if we're going to get down to it, I don't think that The Holy Bible even sounds as coherent, fresh and complete as Hunky Dory. And you know how I feel about the Manics.
More interesting still is the fact that Bowie (or David, as I prefer to call him, on account of our Relationship) still plays a reasonable selection of songs from Hunky Dory live and doesn't just succeed in avoiding that most heinous of long-career-pitfalls of becoming your own tribute act but actually makes the songs live simultaneously in their past and our present. In live shows David himself leaps from the strutting, arrogance of youth which catapulted him to fame to the reflective melancholy of age; but it is not an act, and it is not conscious, I really believe that changing energy comes from the songs themselves. Just compare 'Oh! You Pretty Things' to 'Eight Line Poem' and you'll hear the voice which is absolutely appropriate to the writer/singer of 'Slow Burn' come up against the 24 year old Hunky Dory artist.
And it is fascinating.
It's well established that Bowie's career has had the longevity it has because of his incredible capability to reinvent himself (Let's Dance!) but most people look at that over decades; I'm saying it happens over the course of one, 11 track, album. And whilst other Bowie albums may approach that sort of scope, none of them do it as effortlessly and beautifully as Hunky Dory.
It's £4.93 on Amazon right now, if you don't own it, I suggest you remedy that now.
* The chronologically closest Beatles album being Let It Be which seems an unfair comparison on account of it being a bit rubbish and made during a Difficult Time for the band whilst Hunky Dory and Rubber Soul exist in that 'golden era' all artists experience if they make more than 3 albums; and in Bowie's case, occasionally manage to resurrect from time to time. Madonna and Kylie probably also being reasonable additions to that category of 'multiple, unconnected golden eras', but I digress.
Take the tracks individually and you could be forgiven for thinking they span a decade. Take them as a whole and you will be blown away every day for the last 40 years and every one for the next 40.
I like the Beatles, I do, but I really don't think Rubber Soul (my favourite Beatles album*) - released just 6 years before Hunky Dory sounds anywhere near as fresh. Christ, if we're going to get down to it, I don't think that The Holy Bible even sounds as coherent, fresh and complete as Hunky Dory. And you know how I feel about the Manics.
More interesting still is the fact that Bowie (or David, as I prefer to call him, on account of our Relationship) still plays a reasonable selection of songs from Hunky Dory live and doesn't just succeed in avoiding that most heinous of long-career-pitfalls of becoming your own tribute act but actually makes the songs live simultaneously in their past and our present. In live shows David himself leaps from the strutting, arrogance of youth which catapulted him to fame to the reflective melancholy of age; but it is not an act, and it is not conscious, I really believe that changing energy comes from the songs themselves. Just compare 'Oh! You Pretty Things' to 'Eight Line Poem' and you'll hear the voice which is absolutely appropriate to the writer/singer of 'Slow Burn' come up against the 24 year old Hunky Dory artist.
And it is fascinating.
It's well established that Bowie's career has had the longevity it has because of his incredible capability to reinvent himself (Let's Dance!) but most people look at that over decades; I'm saying it happens over the course of one, 11 track, album. And whilst other Bowie albums may approach that sort of scope, none of them do it as effortlessly and beautifully as Hunky Dory.
It's £4.93 on Amazon right now, if you don't own it, I suggest you remedy that now.
* The chronologically closest Beatles album being Let It Be which seems an unfair comparison on account of it being a bit rubbish and made during a Difficult Time for the band whilst Hunky Dory and Rubber Soul exist in that 'golden era' all artists experience if they make more than 3 albums; and in Bowie's case, occasionally manage to resurrect from time to time. Madonna and Kylie probably also being reasonable additions to that category of 'multiple, unconnected golden eras', but I digress.
