the buff who fell to earthThis year for my annual Bowie vigil, I'll be listening to his studio albums in chronological order, from his bday (aka Bowiemas, Jan 8) until however long it takes to listen to 1 album/day, plus Blackstar on the anniversary of him leaving us (Bowienalia, Jan 10). We have 4 Bowie albums still to spotlight on the @1001otheralbums.com blog and I'm not planning on doing parallel posts like I did for Tom Waits week. BUT, if anyone wants to do a guest spotlight, hmu!
For anyone wanting to join us listening through all of Bowie's studio albums, we're doing one a day in chronological order, starting tomorrow (January 8) until we're done (February 2). I've posted a listening schedule on the @1001otheralbums.com blog complete with Songlink links, along with some bonus suggestions if you want moar Bowie. Feel free to use the hashtag #BowieADay to toot your thoughts.
Happy Bowiemas to all who celebrate! Up on today's #BowieADay schedule is Bowie's first LP, the 1967 s/t. Like a lot of first albums, it's quite different from what comes afterwards, but is an important glimpse at where this amazing artist came from. And this wasn't Bowie's first recording! I've added links to a few other releases that compile earlier singles going back to 1964, on the blog post with our listening schedule. 
Who am I kidding, there's no way I can only listen to one Bowie album a day. I'm currently already on the 4th LP, Hunky Dory, lol, and it's not even lunch. I'll probably just restart my playlist at the scheduled album each morning and end up relistening to all of them multiple times. 🤓
Ending my first 2025 #BowieADay with my 8th Bowie of the day: Blackstar, released OTD 9 years ago, on Bowie's 69th birthday. I literally have never listened to this without crying, why break tradition now. I've seen a few people asking others what their top album of the first quarter of the 21st century is. Picking one album would be absolutely impossible if Blackstar didn't exist, but it does, so, yeah, final answer.
Today's #BowieADay album is Bowie's second LP, the 1969 s/t aka Space Oddity. The first/title track is of course one of the most-known/played Bowie tracks (and was his first hit), but I always feel like it doesn't fit the rest of the album, which is more hippy/folk. I find the whole thing rather charming, particularly both of the long, almost prog-like side-closing tracks, Cygnet Committee and Memory of a Free Festival. May have spun this album 3x in the last 2 days. 🤓
Just added this link to the blog post - the posthumously released 'Mercury Demos' is a bedroom tape from 1969 featuring Bowie and his friend John Hutchinson as a folk duo. Sounds REALLY great, has some fun banter, and includes a demo of Space Oddity along with a couple other tunes that make the LP recorded later the same year once Bowie snagged a contract with Mercury.
Today's #BowieADay album is his 3rd LP, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), which had no singles but is best known for featuring the song by Nirvana, apparently. The US release came before the UK release, with artwork depicting the asylum Bowie's half-brother Terry was in instead of the photo of Bowie in a dress. (We'll hear about Terry again in Black Tie White Noise's "Jump They Say".) The 50th anniversary reissue reinstates the original US cover and original title, Metrobolist.
TMWSTW is a mood, very much hitting the spot today (on my 3rd spin this morning). There's a lot going on in the lyrics, with references inspired by Bowie's half-brother Terry who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and Bowie's belief that he would also one day inherit a mental iIlness, as well as a bunch of references to Nietzsche and sci-fi. In Chris O'Leary's entry in his book "Rebel Rebel" on the final track, "The Supermen", he writes:
Today’s #BowieADay album is his 4th, Hunky Dory (1971). Everything seems to have clicked into place with this album, and sets the stage for what is to come - it’s the first glimpse of the glam rock of Ziggy Stardust, foretells the piano-forward Aladdin Sane (and general heavy lifting of Mike Garson from then on), and is the first we hear of Bowie on sax. Almost every track is a favorite, including the often ignored closing track Bewlay Brothers, again inspired by his brother Terry.
Just realizing that the closing track on a Bowie album tends to be the standout track for me. The man knew how to end an album!
Today’s #BowieADay album is his 5th, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972). I'm probably one of the few who wouldn't put this in their top 5 Bowie albums. I do love it but, even though I have a crate dedicated to Bowie records, I don't even own a physical copy. I more often listen to the soundtrack to the film that documents the final Ziggy show, with its stunning cover of Jacques Brel's "My Death" being one of my most played Bowie tracks.
David Bowie - My Death (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1973) [4K Upgrade]
Today's #BowieADay album is his 6th, Aladdin Sane (1973), aka "Ziggy Stardust goes to America" (to produce Lou Reed and The Stooges), aka "Haaaaave you met Mike Garson?" Garson's piano playing is a goddamned delight, and happily he'll be a frequent collaborator with Bowie up to his final tour.
Random observation: the title track ends the same way the title track on Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) ends, including lines from the tune "On Broadway".
Today's #BowieADay album is his 7th, Pin Ups (1973), all covers of songs from 45s he had in his hotel room at the time. This is my least listened to Bowie album. Fun fact: news that this album was in the works caused a kerfuffle between Bowie and Bryan Ferry, who had just finished his covers album, These Foolish Things. While he's a bit more polite in a revisit of this entry, I love how Chris O'Leary gets to the point in his original post on the album's single "Sorrow":
Today's #BowieADay album is his 8th, Diamond Dogs (1974). This is when Bowie's discography really starts to grab me, perhaps because it is "jaundiced and cynical" as Chris O'Leary says. Also, this is the album where Bowie really starts to get into the "cut-up" method of writing lyrics, i.e., cutting a page of lines into strips and randomly rearranging them, often with batshit results.
A lot of standout tracks for me, but I really love the "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)" triptych.
Today's #BowieADay album is his 9th, Young Americans (1975). Going through chronologically, 50 years removed, it's sort of natural to assume Bowie's abrupt persona/genre changes were announced via album release, or at least the first single. But imagine catching the so-called "Soul Dogs" tour, still part of the Diamond Dogs tour but in the middle of the YA sessions. It included only 4 DD songs and these 5 new very much not glam songs - 5 SOUL songs, AND with a backing chorus! Like, I can't even.
Just added this link to our #BowieADay listening schedule on the blog - recordings from a couple stops on the so-called Soul Dogs portion of the Diamond Dogs tour. Bowie's voice sounds like total shit here due to his drug use. Apparently this is one of the reasons why he wanted a backing chorus for Young Americans, to help smooth over where his voice failed. Good call, since it gave us Luther Vandross!
Today's #BowieADay album is his 10th, Station to Station (1976), the beginning of my favourite run of Bowie albums. When I first heard this album, I played TVC 15 (i.e., Iggy Pop's batshit dream in song form) on repeat, but the long-term standout for me is Bowie's take on Nina Simone's take on "Wild is the Wind". His live performance of this track in 2000 is one of my favourite things ever. Also love that his outfit in the liner notes reappears in the "Lazarus" video.
David Bowie – Wild Is The Wind (Live BBC Radio Theatre 2000)
Yesterday's #BowieADay album was the 1st of the so-called Berlin trilogy, Low, which means today is the 2nd, "Heroes" (both 1977). I frequently listen to Low on its own but rarely listen to Heroes without first listening to Low, so I have both on today. I especially dig the Sound+Vision reissues from the early 90s, as they each have a few additional songs. Also, the Tao Jones Index version of "V-2 Schneider" (i.e., the Earthling tour band doing a drum’n’bass version)!
V-2 Schneider (TAO Jones Index)
Today's #BowieADay album is his 13th (of 26 - halfway done!) and the last of the Berlin trilogy, Lodger (1979). I swear the universe has been conspiring to keep me from enjoying this album. The 1st copy I bought ended up being a bootleg, after my local record shop owner assured me it was fine (it wasn't, was a total shit pressing and cover), and literally 2 seconds ago I realized my playlist with the entire Bowie discography plus extras WAS MISSING 2 SONGS FROM LODGER. WTF. Digital media blows.
Look Back In Anger!!!!! I feel like I haven't heard this song in forever because I literally haven't!!! Stupid Apple Music gremlins stealing my Bowie away from me for who knows how many gorram years, grumble grumble. Clearly I need to get back into listening to my vinyl.
ANYWAY, I flipping love this song and am VERY happy to be reunited with it.
weird herm@buffyleigh I think that’s my favorite Bowie album 
@weirdofhermiston Nice! In my top 5 Bowie albums!
Nic Dafis@buffyleigh he’s right about the relative merits of the two albums - there’s a fre tracks I enjoy on Pin Ups but the Ferry album was a big surprise - I recently got a copy in a donated collection, and it’s staying here!
Keep Left@buffyleigh
My fav!
My fav!
Thomas@buffyleigh
I won't be able to listen to anything this weekend, but I'll catch up on Monday.
And you know, after Bowie, we need to do Queen. Yes, I am serious.
@derthomas Sure, I'm in!
Defiance!@buffyleigh Probably my favorite Bowie album. Hard to choose from such an immense catalog, but this one has the most number of tracks I still listen to these days.
@Defiance It almost comes off as a best-of at this point, doesn't it? Pretty much perfect.
@buffyleigh Exactly. A few tracks have grown on me over the years too, like Kooks. So the whole thing is great!
daria@buffyleigh Well Nirvana’s song is the acoustic cover of Bowie’s song ;)
@daria And a fantastic cover!
Dan Kletter 🥑
The Man Who Sold the World
@buffyleigh the closing tracks were my favourites! Believe it or not, I never listened to them before.
@derthomas I believe it! There are SO many tracks that get no play/attention still, across his whole discography.
slotek@buffyleigh Excellent album! Very progressive!
Tim G@buffyleigh
When you get to The Next Day, @ShadowPlay shared this video earlier. Creating, bewitching and producing great work in collaboration with other artists to the very end.
David Bowie - The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (Video)
David Bowie's official music video for 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)'. Click to listen to David Bowie on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/DBSpotify?IQid=DBTSAs fea...
@TG_Esq @ShadowPlay Ooo yeah, love that video!!!
Avi_Miller@buffyleigh Blackstar is a really special album. It never fails to make me cry while listening to it.
@avi_miller Right?! It emotionally destroys me every time, and then I have to sit there with my headphones still on but no music for a few minutes afterward.
Crone Cold Kate Sherrod@buffyleigh @1001otheralbums.com I might just join you in this.
@KateOfMind Please do! There's a couple others joining me too, so I was convinced to take it easier this year and officially just do 1 album a day. I typically listen to JUST Bowie from Jan 8 to the end of the month or longer, so I likely will be listening to a lot of extras inbetween.
The Other Brook@buffyleigh @1001otheralbums.com Since January 8 is also Elvismas maybe you should alternate albums.
@theotherbrook Lol, and now I have the urge to quote some Public Enemy…
@buffyleigh The reply would have to be quoting Chuck D saying that line was about the system that elevated Elvis over Black artists, and that Elvis himself had his respect.
@theotherbrook Ah interesting. Still going to pass.
@buffyleigh Fair enough. For me the Complete Sun Sessions is a great listen but after that he's purely a singles artist. The '67 comeback special is worth watching to see him pushing back against the machine and doing what he wanted to do, but they reined him back in pretty quickly after that.
My dad was exactly one day younger than Elvis and couldn't stand rock and roll. (He had great stories of going to the folk clubs in San Francisco and seeing the Smothers Brothers and the Kingston Trio.) So every year I'd call him on the 8th and wish him Happy Elvis's Birthday.
@theotherbrook Lol, that's lovely. I can't help but have a knee-jerk reaction because only his Christian songs broke through my sheltered childhood, so that's what I still automatically associate him with. Silly I know, but I'm rather allergic to that stuff.
@buffyleigh Oh that is is more than understandable! And of course that's exactly the stuff of his I have the least exposure to and am least likely to ever intentionally listen to. I pretty much skip over Johnny Cash's gospel stuff too.
@theotherbrook It's so weird how those things affect me still. Like, I can recall infomercials that played on the Xian satellite TV station that was on 24hrs in my house of Elvis compilation albums that only had his religious songs. So, ick. Thankfully there was no such infomercials for Cash, and I don't think I even had any knowledge of him until I got out of the church, so I don't even mind his gospel stuff all that much. Brains are complicated.
@buffyleigh Religion only came up in my family situationally. My mom would drag it out for holidays along with the decorations, but we never once in my memory went to church. Most of the Sunday church services I've been to were with my friend's family and they belonged to a dissident Catholic sect that did services in Latin. That was a weird experience for a third grader.
When I was maybe 12 I flat out told Mom I didn't think I believed in God. She turned to Dad and yelled "I raised these kids to have open minds but thanks to you they turned out atheists!"
Anyway, now I'm thinking about how like anyone who deeply loves American-grown music forms I can really get a groove on to some religious music regardless of the lyrical content. (Here I cite "Diseases" by Michigan and Smiley, which is pretty much a litany of the worst beliefs of Rastafarianism but also a banger of a reggae song.) I know Elvis's secular music was heavily influenced by the Black church services he'd go to on his own, but it's the music of his mom's Pentecostal church that he drew on for his gospel records. And that stuff just doesn't fill me with any kind of spirit.
@theotherbrook Pentecostal was the flavor of Xianity I grew up in. Or, as I call it, a cult.
@buffyleigh Ah. You are absolved of any requirement to listen to Elvis. (Although the Sun Sessions might give you a different perspective.)
The older I get, the broader my definition of "cult" gets.