Changesbowie - Bowie, David (CD 1990)

It was late 1991 and I knew exactly a handful of things about David Bowie:
1)I knew he sang Let s Dance [#1]
2) I knew he sang Modern Love [#14]
3) I knew he sang China Girl [#51]
4) I knew he sang Blue Jean [#8]
5) I knew Stephen King s failed mini-series Golden Years [#10] was named after another Bowie song I d heard only in bits when the show aired.

Then I discovered my step-dad s CD collection and saw he had a David Bowie CD called CHANGESBOWIE, so I looked over it to see what songs were on it and what do you know, there s Golden Years . Finally I could hear the entire thing. So I copied it off, along with Fame 90 because, while skipping ahead to Golden Years , I caught a bit of this song, too, and it sounded pretty cool. I spent an entire weekend listening to those 2 songs over and over and over. Later that winter, my friend Mike and I were out shopping for music and I stumbled across the CHANGESBOWIE. I grabbed it and Mike gave me a What the hell do you want to buy THAT for? look, but I got it anyway. It was one of the wisest album purchases I ve ever made.

I got it home and put it on and was immediately introduced to Major Tom and his plight in the classic Space Oddity [#15]. My first thought was, Well, THAT S a depressing song I probably won t be listening to very much. But the next song, John, I m Only Dancing [#12], is a lively number with a very bouncy bass-line, a cool guitar intro, and a slightly distorted vocal, making it very hard to understand what the hell he s saying half the time. Great song, though.

I must have played that cassette to death. In fact, I m surprised it still plays at all. I think if I didn t also own it on CD, my tape would have been worn out a LONG time ago.



The thing about greatest hits collections like CHANGESBOWIE is that, often they don t really contain the greatest hits. They contain the few actual hits and then a lot of other stuff that was released, regardless of its performance on the charts. Rebel Rebel only reached #64, but it s included on the disc. And that s fine; it s a great song. But that s been the Bowie curse for most of his career: great songs that perform like crap on the charts. Hell, it wasn t until 1975 with Fame that he made it to #1, 7 years after he really started making records (and for those keeping track, the original Fame isn t even on CHANGESBOWIE, replaced instead with the Fame 90 remix which went to #14 . . . on the Hot Dance Music chart). But whoever was in charge of lining up the track list did a great job. A few years later, SINGLES 1969-1993 was released and we got a chance to see what didn t make it onto CHANGESBOWIE and, while there were some good songs that didn t make the initial cut ( Life on Mars? Oh! You Pretty Things ), most of the omissions were warranted. CHANGESBOWIE may not contain strictly hits, but it is packed full of GREAT Bowie songs.

My friend Mike and I spent weeks driving around listening to songs like Ziggy Stardust , Heroes , and Jean Genie [#71] as loud as we could get them.

Then I started paying close attention to the inlay card that came with the cassette. Each song is listed, along with who worked on it and its running time. But there s also the title of the record it came from. And that--along with some help from STAGE--is how I got into buying the rest of the Bowie catalogue. Unbeknownst to me, Ryko Records had rereleased all of the early Bowie catalogue and I was able to fill in the gaps over a period of time until I had all the classic Bowie records (along with some of the not-so-classic ones).

CHANGESBOWIE does what any good greatest hits collection should do: it introduces you to the best from an artist, and gives you a good overview of what they do (CHANGESBOWIE spans 1969 s Space Oddity all the way up to 1984 s Blue Jean ) so you can, if you re so inclined, then go back and start collecting the complete albums the great songs came from.

What CHANGESBOWIE, unfortunately, does NOT do, is give a COMPLETE look at Bowie s output. It wasn t until much later that I even knew the albums LOW or LODGER existed. The only thing from the Berlin era is Heroes , and it s hardly indicative of the rest of that time period. Nor did I know there was a PIN-UPS. But maybe those choices were made for continuity. See, the songs on CHANGESBOWIE may not be flat-out hits, but they do all rock. Life on Mars? is a fantastic song, but it s not near as energetic as Suffragette City , and there s a good solid 5-song block ( Ziggy Stardust , Suffragette City , Jean Genie , Diamond Dogs Rebel Rebel ) of old-fashioned rock songs. And Heroes really is the best song from the Berlin albums. Any other omissions may have been made for space. I mean, if you re doing a Bowie greatest hits collection, you can t run out of space before getting to the LET S DANCE songs, can you? They brought the man back to the top of the charts, they HAVE to be included.

In the end, CHANGESBOWIE may not be nothing but hits, but every song does deserve to be there and the collection as a whole is a GREAT introduction to the uninitiated as to just what Bowie can do. I know this because I was one of those uninitiated, and now I m one of the converts who buys everything he releases. It s all part of his master plan, I think.



track list:
Space Oddity
John, I m Only Dancing
Changes
Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Jean Genie
Diamond Dogs
Rebel Rebel
Young Americans
Fame 90
Golden Years
Heroes
Ashes to Ashes
Fashion
Let s Dance
China Girl
Modern Love
Blue Jean