By: David Bowie Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Original recording remastered Label: Virgin Records Us Number of Discs: 1 Release Date: October 22, 2002
Amazon.com: Though one of rock's most influential figures, David Bowie's accomplishments are pocked by some distinct ironies. His willful efforts at being a musical and visual chameleon spurred triumphs in genres as diverse as folk, glam, new wave, and electronica. Given the dizzying range and success of his '70s incarnations--from Ziggy to the Thin White Duke to the gaunt, goth-cypher of Low and Heroes--he seemed the artist most well-equipped to weather the changing tides of taste and trend, yet saw his career essentially shrink to cult status after scoring his biggest triumphs when he reshaped the soulless, dance-oriented club music of the early '80s into his own image. This 20-track compilation does little to address the Chinese puzzle that has been Bowie's post-'85 career, but it does deliver an artistically dizzying slate of hits as it skips from one early peak to the next, from evocative cabaret ("Space Oddity," "Changes") through muscular glam-rock ("Suffragette City," "The Jean Genie") to R&B ("Young Americans," "Fame") and post-punk flirtations ("Ashes to Ashes," "Fashion") to the dance-club hits ("Let's Dance," "China Girl," "Modern Love") and '80s one-off duets ("Under Pressure" with Queen, "Dancing in the Streets" with Mick Jagger) that essentially marked the end of his superstar reign. Whole eras and at least one classic '70s album (Low) go completely unaddressed, but all of Bowie's signature hits are here, as well as Earthling's powerful, underappreciated "I'm Afraid of Americans." --Jerry McCulley
Great Sound I'm happy as a kid in a candy store browsing and sampling the MP3's here at Amazon, and satisfied after many, many purchases. No more hard copies of CD's for me, I'm done with them.
"Best of Bowie": Not wanting to get heavily into a Bowie accumulation, I downloaded the MP3 of this album (and nine other chosen tracks from two other Bowie albums "Earthling" and "Sound and Vision"). The remastering and the sound quality on all 3 of these albums are excellent.
Good Collection; Start here Bowie is a phenomenon. His influence is massive, wether people acknoledge it or not, many musicians have had some influence from David Bowie's huge canon of work. Some directly, as in Frampton who lived nearby, or Bowie's influence on songs like those by Gary Numan ( with the occasional almost verbatim quote from Bowie's work).With so much to choose from, you could easily skip a manic song like BOYS that has such a great bass and drum work, which is so wild but still under control; however, its not on this collection. Its a great collection. I can understand the edits to a certain extent, since in Young Americans, the missing bit actually in the song is with a guitar that is massivly out of tune, and since this collection is more of a controlled collection, its presented as it is in its more neater form. If you want to see how wildly out of control and off beat Bowie can get, get Hunky Dory and check out ANDY WARHOL, where the song starts to get into "syncopation" ( to be polite) at one point, but its a pretty fun album. Like the CD cover seems to suggest, Bowie may be more than the sum of his parts... or not. Thats the fun of Bowie, the Artist who can create a Alice Cooper like tune in 1966 ( Please Mr Gravedigger) and then later become HEROES to the generation that wants MODERN LOVE.
Greatest hits without Diamond Dogs? Overall this is a decent collection of Bowie hits, but how can it be called "Greatest Hits" without the inclusion of one of his true masterpieces Diamond Dogs? Unfortunately I overlooked this glaring omission too late, after I made my purchase.
A Bowie Sampler The single-disc "Best of Bowie" is a greatest-hits package for absolute beginners. If you don't mind the edited versions of "Young Americans," "Heroes," "Ashes to Ashes" and "Let's Dance," by all means give this a listen. Otherwise, track down "Changesonebowie" or the revised "Sound + Vision" box set.
China Girl is enough reason Not really a Bowie fan, I always feel like he's contrived and a bit of a Queen. But years later, I gotta admit a lot of his songs makes you think of some your carefree days, I guess because the tunes are so danceable and they were always playing them in parties. The lyrics are never flippant and ofcourse there's that distinctive Bowie voice. This CD is also very generous with 20 of his best songs that span his illustrious career. Bowie is never boring, you can't be if you're an icon, and he's still around. The best thing about this CD is that, even if you're not a huge Bowie, I bet you can find a few of your favorites like "Modern Love," "Lets Dance" "Young American" and ofcourse everyone's favorite, "China Girl." Hard not to not like this one.
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