Screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo - like some cat from Japan

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#40 : The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars - David Bowie (1972)

This album documents one of the most elaborate self-mythologizing schemes in rock, as David Bowie created the glittery, messianic alter ego Ziggy Stardust (“well-hung and snow-white tan”). The glam rock Bowie made with guitarist Mick Ronson is an irresistible blend of sexy, campy pop and blues power, with enduring tracks like “Hang On to Yourself” and “Suffragette City.” The anthem “Ziggy Stardust” was one of rock’s earliest, and best, power ballads. “I consider myself responsible for a whole new school of pretensions,” Bowie said. “They know who they are. Don’t you, Elton? Just kidding. No, I’m not.”

Time for a quick break - I'd have to say I'm quite tired after having had to type the album title out...

Wow - I was 3 when this came out.  Which means it is very, very old indeed.  This is another of those Bowie albums where I know and like the singles but have never listened to the whole thing - I was quite looking forward to it, particularly given it's his highest entry on the list.  And having listened to it (twice), I like it a lot in places and think it generally hangs together pretty well (even if I didn't completely buy into the whole album concept).  When listening to the tracks I didn't know, I thought some of them were a bit too glam rock for my tastes these days, but then I really listened to "Starman" which I love and that's glammier (that's a word, right?) than all the rest of it put together (except for "Hang On To Yourself" which is very Sweet indeed)  As is to be expected, I totally suffer from recognition bias, but you'd have to say the closing stretch of "Ziggy Stardust", "Suffragette City" and "Rock'n'Roll Suicide" is a very fine collection of tracks (with the first two being my favourite tracks on the album).

I can imagine that sitting down, really listening to the lyrics and trying to work out what they meant (particularly on the title track) would have happened a lot in the early 70s - is this something that kids do any more though?  My kids seem to know all the words to everything (even the words I don't want them to know) but I'm not sure they spend any time at all thinking about what they actually mean.  I guess they know they've got the internet to access a thousand mad fan theories if they need them - why bother inventing their own?

Wikipedia both has a lot and very little to say about the album - mostly banging on about the concept considerably more than its obvious insanity deserves.  The album was well received critically, but didn't really do much away from the UK upon release, getting to #5 (this is another rare example on this list that has sold more in the UK than in the US).  Its historical charts positions are extremely bizarre though - #2 in Spain and #75 in the US in 1973, #61 in The Netherlands in 1990, #45 in France in 2002 and then, sadly, pretty successful everywhere in 2016 (5 years already!) and finally #32 in Greece in 2018.  To support the album, Bowie toured for 18 months and it included some particularly bizarre venues - The Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, South Parade Pier in Southsea, the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, a pirate-themed amusement park in Florida and finally finishing up in the Hammersmith Odeon, so I think we can say he became slightly more famous as the tour progressed.

His Wikipedia entry is (as I may have mentioned before) massive and it's not possible to do the man credit by including random snippets - so let me be completely unreasonable and include something I'm sure he wasn't at all proud of.  When he abandoned his Ziggy persona and disbanded The Spiders From Mars, his back catalogue became highly sought after, so various singles were re-released (often unofficially), including "The Laughing Gnome" which then somehow got to #6 in 1973.  And if you've never heard it, then you're in for a treat (for some previously unknown definition of the word "treat").  "Customers also listened to" a lot more David Bowie, Tin Machine, Iggy Pop, Mott The Hoople and Florence Foster Jenkins.  In the wise words of Sesame Street, "one of these things is not like the others".

So this was our fifth and final visit with Mr Bowie - I wasn't really familiar with any of the albums before so was pleased to be made to experience them.  The earlier stuff worked best for me - this, Station To Station and Hunky Dory - so I might give Young Americans and Aladdin Sane a go at some point.  I was quite surprised that only one of the famous Berlin trilogy made it (Low) and, given my experience I won't be rushing to experience the other two (Lodger and Heroes).  Personally I would have put Let's Dance on the list before Scary Monsters - I appreciate it's not as cool, but it certainly caught the public's attention more.  And I also think there's a good case for Blackstar being on the list - it's a good album approaching greatness through context, somehow managing to be both profoundly sad and joyous, mourning a fine man whilst at the same time also celebrating his existence.

#39 : Remain In Light - Talking Heads (1980)

David Byrne said Remain in Light “was done in bits and pieces, one instrument at a time.” The result was a New Wave masterpiece powered by Byrne’s revelation, as he put it on “The Great Curve,” that “the world moves on a woman’s hips.” It combined thrust of a P-Funk dance party, the ancient-to-the-future rhythm hypnosis of Nigerian funkmaster Fela Kuti, and the studied adventurousness of the album’s producer and Heads co-conspirator, Brian Eno. Remain in Light marked Talking Heads’ transformation from avatars of the punk avant-garde to polyrhythmic magicians with hit-single appeal. Just try not dancing to “Once in a Lifetime.”

This album had completely passed me by except for all the tracks from it that appear on Sand In The Vaseline, their best of album.  And by ALL the tracks, I mean "Once In A Lifetime" and "Crosseyed And Painless" - and I couldn't remember the second one in the slightest.  So I was interested to listen to what everyone agrees is their masterpiece.  And on first listen, I was struck by how clean and tight it all sounded, with interesting rhythms.  And on second listen, I was again struck by the same thoughts - and how much I didn't really care about any of it.  It's all very atmospheric but admirable rather than loveable, with the honourable exception of "Once In A Lifetime" which is indeed a marvellous track - although I'd have to argue with Rolling Stone and say I'm not entirely sure it's all that danceable too, as demonstrated by David Byrne himself here (particularly around 2'10").  Bizarrely, whilst we embraced it over here on release, it sank without a trace as a single in the US - but has, of course, like all these things since been re-evaluated as a masterpiece.  Some of the album tracks definitely overstay their welcome though - particularly the 7'25" of "The Overload".  My suspicion is that Wikipedia is going to tell me a million ways in which this album is technically great, but it didn't grab me, I'm afraid.

Wikipedia does indeed have a lot to say about the recording of the album, but to my unknowledgeable ear it all sounds like a lot of hard work and very dull, I'm afraid.  It was well received critically and did OK (if not spectacularly) commercially.  There are a couple of interesting side aspects though - the cover involved a huge amount of computer processing power on a mainframe which took up several rooms.  Which is interesting because I'm pretty certain my 11 year old could have done a similar job in a 5 minutes or so.   Also, a lot is made of how the songs on this album were all very much a combined effort (as opposed to earlier albums which were generally all written by David Byrne) and the intended result was that the group would become more united as a result, so they agreed that all band members and Brian Eno would be credited with writing them.  So imagine how happy some of them were when this happened - "the album was released with the label credit: "all songs written by David Byrne & Brian Eno (except "Houses In Motion" and 'The Overload", written by David Byrne, Brian Eno & Jerry Harrison)". Frantz, Harrison, and Weymouth disputed the credits, especially for a process they had partly funded.  According to Weymouth, Byrne told Kalman to doctor the credits on Eno's advice.  Frantz said "we felt very burnt by the credits dispute””.  I bet there were some strong discussions indeed - and the credits did change on later versions.

The band's entry is pretty short with David Byrne's being considerably longer.  Basically, they recorded some songs on some albums but they don't do that any more.  However, I did learn that one song of the songs they recorded is called "Radio Head" and it's the etymon (look it up, kids) for another band.  Can you guess which one?  "Customers also listened to" A Flock Of Seagulls, The B-52s, Men At Work and The Vapors - there's some fine 80s randomness going on there.

So, our second visit with Talking Heads (the last time being 325 albums ago!) and both albums are, in my opinion, more to be admired than loved.  Despite my misgivings about their suitability for consideration, given the appearance of other live albums on this list, I think I'd have been happier to see Stop Making Sense on here than either of the two that did make it - apparently it was on an earlier version but dropped off at some point.  The previously mentioned Sand In The Vaseline would obviously have been an unacceptable presence, but is a particularly good greatest hits demonstrating a clear musical evolution whilst also including, as every tiresome Radio 1 DJ would put it, "some classic bangers".

Our first head-to-head contest, and whilst the temptation is high to give it to Remain In Light because it's easier to type, Bowie's offering, whilst not perfect, is easily the more interesting of the two for me.  And thank you, Mr Bowie, for all the music and all the other things, over all the years.

#43-41 - another easy decision
#38-37 - two men from different times