The Other Davy Jones – Part 1

I first started listening to David Bowie during my senior year of college and while I can’t recall how I acquired my copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars I listened to it repeatedly which may have annoyed my housemates but as an aspiring novelist the album really fired up my imagination and got my creative juices flowing. By the time I entered graduate school in the late ‘90s I was listening to Hunky Dory- the two albums are great companion pieces- and the precious, winning “Kooks” may be my favorite Bowie song.

Like other of my favorite British artists (Shakespeare, Morrissey, the Cure, New Order), Bowie seems to be a closet Catholic- or at least raised and educated in the faith- and he follows the Catholic notion that our broken world is cruel and unfair- but it’s beautiful. Bowie accepts the human condition- we are finite beings with infinite desires- but instead of complaining about it Bowie celebrates it, explores it, and let’s his imagination run wild. Throughout the ‘00’s I continued collecting genre jumping Bowie music- mostly one track at a time- and although most of his post-‘80s stuff doesn’t really appeal to me, much of David Bowie’s ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s work still holds up remarkably well- and even my newborn son digs it. Here are some of our favorites. Enjoy!

01. David Bowie – “Changes” (1971)

02. David Bowie – “Modern Love” (1983)

03. David Bowie – “Kooks” (1971)

04. David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold the World” (1970)

05. David Bowie – “Heroes” (1977)

06. David Bowie – “China Girl” (1983)

07. David Bowie – “Ziggy Stardust” (1972)

08. David Bowie – “Queen Bitch” (1971)

09. Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure” (1981)

10. David Bowie – “Blue Jean” (1984)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...