well, to be fair, it's actually labelled very best, but to put the full title in would spoil a rather fine bit of alliteration, look you see. should you want (or need) some clarification as to what, exactly, this post is about, it is indeed about a David Bowie (very) best of tape (disc) what i gone done found. one that was very clearly a bootleg and, as it turns out, is off of bulgaria, wherever that is.
quite some time ago (as in north of five years) i did a "thing" where once a month i posted a good deal of random, meandering thoughts about each of the albums what he (Bowie) did. yes, of course, here is for your pleasure a link to, well, links to the posts for each album. i skipped the numerous "best of" sets and indeed the live albums, kind of intended to do them one day, but so far such a day has yet to dawn. oh well. should you want a quick guide to the best of sets, i think the one i would reccomend most highly is the two tape (disc) version of Nothing Has Changed, although the three disc set is not at all bad. personally i don't like the 90s two tape (or disc) Singles Collection purely because it features the album versions of singles rather than the single edits.
anyway, this one. David Bowie Very Best appears to be the "official" title. whereas i have seen bootleg sets before (and have a few live bootlegs) i have never really bothered with them. this one was intriguing though, mostly due to someone somewhere considering one specific song to be of his "very" best. so, i picked it up down the market. later research (here) shows that it is of bulgarian provenance, a place where i do not believe much respect for pesky things like copyright and royalties exists.
for a week or so it has, unexpectedly, very rarely strayed from my stereo. as in, despite my initial thoughts, this is a really good mix. perhaps not quite a definitive "best of", yet a mix that works really well. currently i suspect this is all down to the overtly and entirely random way the songs seem to have been slung together, rather than having them all chronological. if there is some sort of order to all of these, well, f****d if i can work out what it is.
just for fun, then, i figured that i would go through this one track by track (as it were) to see if i think the songs are indeed the "very best". this is all, of course, my "opinion" or view, and i do indeed appreciate that as such it is by no means a definitive take on the subject. basically any song you love by anyone is deemed the "very best" for you, and that's all that really matters. go on then, i shall use some capital letters for a change, and fancy colours.
REBEL REBEL : unequivocally yes. devastating guitar opening hook that immediately gets you bouncing, brilliant lyrics and one of the most passionate vocal performances you could ever hope to hear off of anyone. a best of sans this one is not to be trusted.
FAME : hmn. i go through phases of liking it and not liking it. possibly just a trifle too repetitive and monotonous musically as it plods on for me, but certainly i appreciate that was entirely the point David was making in respect of the subject matter. were i (moi) to select a song from Young Americans to represent his "very best" i would likely choose the album titular track over this. but, to clarify, no, it's not bad at all.
LET'S DANCE : any and all Bowie greatest hits are contractually obliged to include this huge selling pop single. loyal fans from the 70s kind of baulked at this overt pop song, but to do such is a great injustice to the lyrical wonders. yeah, it is a great song, it catapulted him from respected artist to true global megastar and to this day it feels so fresh and vibrant.
THIS IS NOT AMERICA : pretty sure there are meant (or supposed) to be some brackets in the title. difficult one this, for it is a masterpiece. whilst no, i am not a very good one, at heart i am a writer, and we writers (not that i am comparing myself to Bowie or anyone) like to set ourselves what one could deem challenges. i know i keep mentioning lyrics here, but still, the haiku like lyrics to say as much as possible with as few words as possible is damned impressive and highly effective. whereas all day every day i would reference this as being of his "very best", i would understand others leaving it aside for other, perhaps more well known ones. the film this is off, The Falcon & The Snowman, is very much worth your time watching, it was outstanding.
MIRACLE GOODNIGHT : and so we reach the song that i was baffled, or perplexed, to see included in a "very best" of David Bowie. in what universe, i wonder, is Miracle Goodnight considered in any way superior to any of the noticeable omissions from this set, such as Ashes To Ashes or "heroes". taken from the Black Tie White Noise album, from which the artwork was also "borrowed", one would think that as a minimum criteria to be included on a "very best" a song would at least have to be the best song on that side of the tape or vinyl record of the album it is from. it really isn't.
DANCING IN THE STREET : previously i have gone off on one (here) at people always so very keen to slate and deride this. i would get the criticism if it had been released as a "statement" or what have you, but it was not. the intention was a bit of fun by two mates, all for a good cause and to celebrate that incredible day when music felt like it could unite and change the world. sold loads of copies, of course, so if "very best" is purely sales based fair enough. musically and artistically, well, there is indeed a limit to which i will argue for this one.
ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS : just about the only decent thing to come out of the film of this name, with the only other possible plus being Patsy Kensit. a rather good love song, and should it seem effortless well it is really just a slowed down version of Sound And Vision with different lyrics, if we are going to be (entirely) honest about it. of his 80s film songs i am not sure this ranks as high as This Is Not America and i am comfortable saying Cat People is better, although not the re-recorded version of it on the Let's Dance album. you rank Magic Dance as you will.
DAY IN DAY OUT : you know what, it turns out that the Never Let Me Down album is as bad as it felt at the time. some of the reviews were scathing, with one famously saying "even the font for the track listing is rubbish". it is known that David was hurt, or upset, that much if not all of the album was dismissed without a proper listen, possibly due to the overt (ludicrous) theatrics of the Glass Spider tour which accompanied it. he considered Time Will Crawl as his favourite from the record, but this was a reasonable hit. wouldn't really call it one of his "very best", mind.
JUMP THEY SAY : a second song from Black Tie White Noise, and yes this is the best off this album. very wise choice as lead single and his first solo single for a few years at the time. one of may overtly autobiographical songs he delivered (i remain convince that Strangers When We Meet is him telling the entire universe a really curious episode), i never did get why so many wished him to do a full tilt autobiography. everything he wished to share with the world he shared, with of course particular emphasis on his sense of feeling about his death. potentially a song that the wider audience of the world neglected or missed and would discover with a "wow that's awesome" sense, but once again considering some of the omissions here i am not sure it's really "very best".
UNDER PRESSURE : iron clad, carved in stone, gilt edged yes. the origins of this song are the stuff of legend. and to give you that legend, Queen are recording in Switzerland, Bowie just happens to drop by, some (ahem) self medication takes place, John Deacon comes up with an astonishing bassline, Freddie and David have a "competition" to see who can come up with lyrics to go with it. to this end Freddie comes up with some "bedabeda bop" noises, Bowie comes up with cause love's such an old-fashioned word, and love dares you to care for he people on the edge of the night and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves, this is our last dance. this is ourselves. famously Charlie Watts once said that Bowie "wasn't some sort of genius". yes, actually, yes he f*****g was.
FASHION : this is from the Scary Monsters album, the one most quoted by professional music journalists as every album he did after it was described as "his best and most important album since Scary Monsters". legend has it that Bowie got so fed up of read that he actually gave consideration to calling a record My Best & Most Important Since Scary Monsters. also the album is home to Ashes To Ashes, Teenage Wildlife and Scary Monsters & Super Creeps. none of them feature here, all are demonstrably better than Fashion. is it a good, no great, pop song? sure, but if i were doing a mix tape and was making a "very best", this would not make the cut. apologies to those that love it.
SPACE ODDITY : Bowie's Sound+Vision "greatest hits" tour of 90 was a catharsis for him, for he made it clear that it was being done to "free" himself of being obliged to play the usual hits at every concert, with this one specifically being one he wished to retire. does not change the fact that this was arguably the start of David Bowie as a "thing" and of course it firmly belongs on any "very best" of set. rumour has it that he nearly brought it out of retirement "for fun" for Glastonbury 2000, but elected not to in the end. reasonably sure (and i am happy to be corrected) that he didn't ever do it (so to speak) at a gig between 73 and 83, but still, you can understand him getting bored of it.
CHANGES : yes, sure. i mean if it was only one off the Hunky Dory album it would be a fight between this, Life On Mars? and (let me censor a bit) Queen B!tch. but this one accidentally (or was it deliberately) anticipated his entire career, for goodness sake. also the Bowie quote from the start of the film The Breakfast Club is off this. much to argue for this being one of his "very best", quite little in the way of conversation to say that it is not.
ZIGGY STARDUST : iconic brilliance, the concept and character that really launched him to a high level of fame that was to get unbelievably higher. personally i might well have gone with Starman or even Moonage Daydream if it was some kind of "only one song from an album" thing, but it would take a particularly special kind of idiot not to consider Ziggy Stardust as one of his very best. such exist, i am quite certain.
SORROW : when you do a cover version that people assume is your own thing that's quite the statement. the great Nilsson pulled it off twice with Without You and Everybody's Talkin. i could not tell you who did the original of this, if that means anything. a really, really great song. does a "cover version" really belong on the "very best" of an artist renowned for their own remarkable compositions? debatable, i suppose. all day every day it is that Sorrow could proudly be on any standard "best of", but i just don't see it as his "very best".
KNOCK ON WOOD : which is another cover, in this instance a live one, specifically from the 1974 David Live album. as in my "least favourite" live Bowie album, right up until liveandwell.com got released as part of the ill-fated, badly named brilliant live adventures series. still, my gratitude goes to those what put this together, for hearing it "in isolation" (or what have you) amplified just how damned good Bowie's vocal performance is on it. that said, if i had to select another cover for a "very best" it would probably be Wild Is The Wind off of Station To Station. or, you know, his bonkers, can barely stop himself laughing cover of Love Missile F1-11 from the New Killer Star single.
MODERN LOVE : oh, good call! the opening track on the Let's Dance album, i think the third single from it and, i would argue, the best of the lot. whereas it feels like this tends to get overshadowed by the titular track and China Girl (both outstanding) i have noted this one is being "rediscovered" and gets a surprisingly decent amount of play on the radio. should the mandate be "very best" then i would absolutely rank this pop perfection worthy of inclusion.
HALLO SPACEBOY : hmn. were this the original from 1.Outside then i would argue a case for it, what with its devastating f*** you and f*** your ears drums and startling vocal. lyrically it is the direct descendant of Rebel Rebel so bravo the bootleggers for nice bookends. unfortunately this is the somewhat toned down, perhaps sanitised "subverted" single remix of it done in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys. never really a favourite of mine in this version, truth be told.
so, there you go. essentially this is my take on what some bootleggers have randomly taped together and labelled the "very best" of David Bowie. again, i stress, whatever songs you love by Bowie are deemed to be his very best. dig what you dig.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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