For “Hunky Dory”, this was a David Bowie who was a person who was reinventing himself and now meeting a woman who would lead to a drive to move towards glam-rock, this album could be seen as the pre-stage of Ziggy Stardust but yet, can be seen as a more accessible album and experimental as well. The reinvention of David Bowie as a music artist that would make him as an artist deviate to something more different, more daring.
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BAND: David Bowie
ALBUM: Hunky Dory (2015 Remaster)
DURATION: 11 Songs (42 Minutes)
RELEASE DATE: December 17, 1971
1 Changes (2015 Remaster)
2 Oh! You Pretty Things (2015 Remaster)
3 Eight Line Poem (2015 Remaster)
4 Life on Mars? (2015 Remaster)
5 Kooks (2015 Remaster)
6 Quicksand (2015 Remaster)
7 Fill Your Heart (2015 Remaster)
8 Andy Warhol (2015 Remaster)
9 Song for Bob Dylan (2015 Remaster)
10 Queen Bitch (2015 Remaster)
11 The Bewlay Brothers (2015 Remaster)
David Bowie is a music artist that was no doubt persistent.
With failures in the ’60s that would make one just give up, his first self-titled album in 1967 was not promoted well by Deram Records and thus it was a commercial failure.
By 1969, Bowie would followup with another self-titled album (aka “Space Oddity) and this year would bring two people who would play a big part in David Bowie’s career, producer Tony Visconti and Angela Barnett, who he would marry but she would be instrumental for his fashion and glam rock style of the ’70s.
And by 1971, David Bowie would release his fourth album “Hunky Dory” and he would bring in band members who would prove to be a defining moment for Bowie. Brought to play guitar was Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey. But a trip to the United States and meeting people like Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed created a spark to reinvent David Bowie, the music artist.
Wanting to go for a warmer sound that was more melodic and art pop, so Bowie composed the songs on piano rather than guitar and would over three dozen songs, songs that would go to “Hunky Dory” and the other for his fifth album, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spider from Mars”.
While most people remember David Bowie from his second album song “Space Oddity”, he would release a few songs from the album such as “Changes”/”Andy Warhol” and “Life on Mars?”.
But there are a good number of songs on this album that were never released as singles but songs that are beloved today. While it wasn’t popular when it was released, many retrospective reviews have now regarded the album as one of the greatest albums made of all time.
Q Magazine had it listed in 1998 as the no. 43 “Greatest Album of All Time”, Rolling Stone had it at no. 88 in 2020. Pitchfork had it at no. 80 of “100 Best Albums of the 1970s”, NME had it at no. 3 in “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” and “Time” magazine had it in their best 100 albums of all time.
“Changes” is a recognizable song but a song about David Bowie distancing himself from mainstream rock and creating a new art-pop style, if anything, this song is the reinvention of David Bowie as a music artist.
Another wonderful song on the album “Oh! You Pretty Things”, a song that was based on the provocative ideas of Friedrich Nietzche writings especially when it came to Ubermensch (superman).
“Eight Line Poem” is a short song, featuring Bowie on piano but also Ronson’s country style of guitar playing.
“Life on Mars?” is a fascinating and catchy song by Bowie about the US vs. USSR during its space race and who would get to Mars first. I felt the arrangement was well-done throughout this song. One of the big musical highlights off the album.
David Bowie created “Kooks” as a dedication to his baby boy at the time Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. More uplifting of a song for his son compared to The Beatles “Hey Jude” by Paul McCartney who created the song for a very young Julian Lennon after Lennon left his wife and child to be with Yoko Ono.
“Quicksand” is a song about David Bowie going to America trying to find inspiration within himself. “Fill Your Heart” is the only song on the album not by written by Bowie and features Bowie playing saxophone, Ronson on strings and Wakeman on piano.
The next three songs were written by Bowie wanting to create songs by people who inspired him.
“Andy Warhol” is about Andy Warhol who was such a major creative talent during the ’60s and ’70s and surprisingly, when he met Warhol and played the song for him, Warhol disliked it. Bowie would say later than Warhol had no words to say anything about it at all. For me, I will remember the song for its guitar riff.
The next song “Song for Bob Dylan” is a tribute song to the music artist but also more of a personal song for Bowie, who was struggling with his identity (which would become a major struggle throughout his career) as David Jones (Bowie’s real name) became David Bowie who would then become known as Ziggy Stardust and needless to say, I like the song for the Dylan-like chord changes.
“Queen Bitch” is a song inspired by Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground. Of the three tribute songs, I felt this song to be very catchy glam rock which foreshadowed Bowie who would embrace the Ziggy Stardust persona.
The final song on the album is “The Bewlay Brothers” which Bowie who made the song obscure and really never discussed what the song was about. But it is assumed that the song is about Bowie’s step brother Terry Burns who was a big inspiration for him at a young age (Terry got David interested in Tibetan Buddhism, jazz and Beat Generation authors) and both would attend concerts with each other. But Terry would be committed to a mental hospital and later take his own life. A side note face: In David Bowie’s third album “The Man Who Sold the World”, for the cover artwork, the building behind the character is Cane Hill mental hospital, where Terry stayed.
For the most part, this is a well-rounded album. But part of the musical journey with David Bowie oeuvre of albums as a music fan is to be entertained by his music because each release signifies a major part of his life at that stage in time, he was no doubt a chameleon, because each album is different and right up to the end of his musical career, you get something different.
For “Hunky Dory”, this was a David Bowie who was a person who was reinventing himself and now meeting a woman who would lead to a drive to move towards glam-rock, this album could be seen as the pre-stage of Ziggy Stardust but yet, can be seen as a more accessible album and experimental as well. The reinvention of David Bowie as a music artist that would make him as an artist deviate to something more different, more daring.
It’s a very good album and that is why I do recommend it (is it better than “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”? I’ll leave that up to the listener.), but do know that 2022-2023 will feature the release of “A Divine Symmetery”, a 4 disc album set that features unreleased tracks, demos, live recordings and more.
David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” is highly recommended!
Click here to the purchase David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” on Amazon
