Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Best of Bowie (on CD)

The Best of Bowie
by David Bowie [Compact Disc 781.66 Bow]

The passing of legendary musician David Bowie had me digging out this 2002 collection, The Best of Bowie, to remember the iconic songs for which he’ll be remembered. This 20-track single-disc collection covers all of his “big hits”, but barely scratches the surface of his incredible, multi-faceted career. Continually reinventing his performing persona, Bowie had the ability to slide from glam rock, to R&B, to punk, to plaintive ballads, to infectious dance club beats, to in-your-face rock & roll, and mastered all those styles. He was highly experimental, and this collection’s only weakness is that it emphasizes the “hits” without including some of his more exotic material. None-the-less, if you’re looking for a broad snapshot of his lengthy career, you can’t go wrong with trying out this particular album.

I’m a happy camper, because my four favorite Bowie selections all made this album: The sad, mournful “Space Oddity” — check out Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s music-video cover of this, filmed aboard the International Space Station in 2013; “Suffragette City”; “Under Pressure” (teamed up with Queen); and “Dancing in the Streets” (an upbeat duet with The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger). This 2002 album was released alongside a 2002 DVD of the same title, which gives viewers the added benefit of seeing the incredible changes in Bowie’s physical appearance over the course of his career.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters, by Sean Egan, The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Star Icons, hosted by Nebraskan Dick Cavett, and Labyrinth, the cult fantasy film on DVD, directed by Jim Henson, in which Bowie acted/sang as The Goblin King!] [ official David Bowie web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you listened to this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
 

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

No comments: