David Bowie - Hunky Dory
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Free Music Notes for Hunky Dory
Free Music Review: Bowie's best
Hit: 5 Stars
This classic album from 1971 is one of Bowie's very best albums. It was largely forgotten with the success of Ziggy Stardust, but unlike that later fantasy themed album, this album references some of Bowie's idols and contains as many classic tracks as Ziggy.
Take three out of the first four tracks: 'Changes', 'Oh! You Pretty Things' and 'Life on Mars'. Has there been a stronger start to album than that? There is brilliant song-writing both lyrically and musically on little known songs like 'Song for Bob Dylan'. Bowie describes Dylan as "with a voice like sand and glue" then later that he "put the fear in a whole lot more".
Musically this is basically the Ziggy Stardust band but with the oddball extra of Rick Wakeman on Piano. This album was recorded a year or two before Rick Wakeman started his own successful career, and if you've been listening to this album as long as I have you can't imagine it without the Piano. Wakeman's Piano is most prominent on 'Fill your Heart" which is the only song Bowie didn't write.
As with most Bowie albums this is a marvellously perverse mixture. Take 'Quicksand' for example, this has a wonderfully catchy chorus but the lyrics are all about getting closer to death - "knowledge comes with deaths release".
The remaster is excellent and the album sounds as good as I've ever heard it. A must have for any serious rock music collection.
Free Music Review: "I'm closer to the Golden Dawn, immersed in Crowley's uniform"
Hit: 5 Stars
When I first heard that line, I had no idea what Bowie was talking about and because of that, it immediately sparked my curiosity. I always tell people that there is a limit to what can be reasonably deduced from a collection of words even though we all may interpret a song's lyrics somewhat differently, but I'm not sure if that rule applies in Bowie's case. He often leaves a lot of room for latitude. Bowie uses a sort of "cut-up", collage style of writing. He's quoted as saying, "all I do is assemble points that interest me and puzzle through it. That becomes a song, and people who listen to that song must take what they can from it". I would describe much of Bowie's writing as a sort of quirky and sophisticated stream-of-consciousness. It's filled with his unique sense of wit and he makes brilliant use of symbolism to make poignant points while remaining ambiguous enough to allow the listener to interpret his songs however they need to. That quote that I started off with is from "Quicksand" which I think is the single greatest song on this album. It slowly builds anticipation through a masterful grasp of loud/soft sound dynamics and ends with one of the most beautiful and moving melodies that I've ever heard. "Quicksand" basically seems to be about struggling with self-identity (and oh yea, the Golden Dawn was a secret society of people who practiced a unique style of Kabbalan mysticism, and Aleister Crowley was an instrumental, and apparently highly controversial figure who later became a part of it). The songs on the first half of the album are mostly spare with just piano, strings and light percussion and, a truly masterful sense of melody is displayed consistently (except for perhaps on the plaintive "Eight Line Poem", the melody on that song is scant at best). The music on the first half especially, has the feel of a conventional singer/songwriter album, but Bowie's wit, camp, quirkiness and sophistication make the material anything but conventional. I find the intentional camp of both "Kooks" and "Fill Your Heart" to be absolutely hilarious. The lyrics throughout are pretty quirky. I particularly love the romanticized references to superior, more enlightened beings from outer space (this album is littered with such references: "all the strangers came today, and it looks as though they're here to stay...let me make it plain, got to make way for the homosuperior!" from "Oh! You Pretty Things" for example). At first I was put off by what I saw as the blatently pandering references to hipster icons during the second half of the album--"Andy Warhol", "Song For Bob Dylan" and Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground on "Queen B*tch"--because at first, I thought that they were just cheap and completely obvious attempts at "hipster cred" so to speak. But, it's been said that Bowie was a chameleon of sorts who created characters and often took on the identity of those around him, and I now think that those songs were just his way of sincerely paying homage to artists that he really admired and respected. "Song For Bob Dylan" in particular is a really clever and spot on imitation. This is an album that I had to listen to closely in order to appreciate. Most of the songs build slowly with spare instrumentation so they absolutely demand close attention. But, this is one masterful piece of work that is well-worth it. Free Music Review: Once Upon A Time...
Hit: 4 Stars
...there were LP's, and LP's had a Side 1 and a Side 2, and sometimes the division meant something artistically. (I am aware that tape cassettes have 2 sides also, but sometimes the song lineup is altered, thereby compromising the artistic continuity.) Anyway, the 2 sides of "Hunky Dory" are easy to distinguish. The first 6 tracks comprised Side 1. They are more mainstream in form and more musically bright in execution, even though the subject matter of some of them is quite serious. What I am saying is, they are "pretty" in a pleasant, appealing way. "Changes" is, of course, one of Bowie's most well-known and well-loved songs. "Oh You Pretty Things" has great piano and an irresistable chorus, and "Kooks" is almost unbearably sweet (that's a compliment), especially the line "...and if the homework brings you down, then we'll throw it on the fire and take the car downtown." What a dad! "Life On Mars" and "Quicksand" are symphonic, lyrical masterpieces, works of pop genius by any standards. "Mars" makes you laugh and cry at the same time, but there's not much to laugh about in "Quicksand".
Then there's Side 2. Track 7 I dislike. I don't even want to discuss it. "Andy Warhol" has some good guitar action, and the lyrics are a fun and clever tribute to Andy. "Song For Bob Dylan" is a plea for the artist to return to his early protest roots. I theorized this, but I had to confirm it on Wikipedia. "Queen Bitch" sounds like Lou Reed music, which is a good thing. The final cut, "The Bewlay Brothers", is a strange, somber song with lyrics that make no sense to me - again, Wikipedia backs me up.
Rating this album, I give "Side 1" 5 stars, and "Side 2" 3 stars, so the combined score is a 4. If all tracks were as good as the first 6, it would be an unquestioned 5-star work. Bowie learned a lot before he moved on to "Ziggy".
Free Music Review: Bowie's Second Best Album Just Got A Little Better!
Hit: 5 Stars
David Bowie has many many albums and has gone through as many character and musical style changes but if I had to choose 2 of his best, I'd pick this with "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" in first place. While Ziggy is an all-time rock and roll classic, "Hunky Dory" isn't that far off either with some of Bowie's best ever tunes present on this disc. Just like on Ziggy, you'd by hard pressed to find any fillers on this baby. The greats are here like: "Changes", "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Life on Mars" but tracks like "The Bewlay Brothers" and "Queen [...]" also deserve honorary mention. This mini-lp replica sleeve very faithfully recreates the original lp design although it wasn't put together that well as the cardboard used is very thin and really not put together as well as other mlps designs I've seen. The sound quality is acceptable although again not as good as other remastered discs that I've heard but this seems to be a problem with all the "remastered" albums in David Bowie's catalog these days which is truly unfortunate. We also get all the lyrics in English and Japanese. Surely this is the best version of the album that is out there right now and comes highly recommended.Free Music Review: Hunky Dory
Hit: 5 Stars
David Bowie-Hunky Dory *****
Hunky Dory by David Bowie is easily the best lyricly written album of all time! Long concedered Bowie's best album next to, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. Released in 1971, just before Ziggy, and right after the hard rocking, The Man Who Sold The World. As metioned The Man Who Sold The World is a hard rock album, with heavy piledriving guitars by Mick Ronson. Where as The Man Who Sold The World was a rare album in Bowie cannon, so is Hunky Dory. This is an almost all acoustic guitar album, and mainly a pianon fueled effort. To me David Bowie never before or since wrote better songs then he did here, the lyrics are nothing short of amazing! Bowie vocals shine through beautifuly. Mick Ronson's acoustic guitar work still amazes as well as his great arrangements. A real treat is the feature yes keyboardist Rick Wakemen's piano playing.
Hunky Dory opens with the all time Bowie classic, 'Changes' which for most people is the first Bowie song that people ever heard. Though the song was not a hit it still to this day is played on the radio and is concedered a classic among classics! 'Oh, You Pretty Things' is one of the best songs on the album, with a nice catchy chorus and a great rythmicly sung verse that sounds really cool. I think Bowie wrote this song about himself. 'Eight Line Poem' is exactly what its called, the poem really doesnt make since but the guitar intro by Mick Ronson is absolutly stunning. 'Life On Mars' is one of David Bowie's all time best songs. Featuring one of his all time best chorus' and lyrics, it's really a shining moment in music history. 'Kooks' is a cheesey song about his daughter I think, it's really catchy. The next song contains some of the best lyrics ever written by anyone, 'Quicksand' is just down right amazing, and fantastic, and any other good word you could use to describe it. 'Fill Your Heart' is a cover song, that I dont really like to much, I mean its ok every once in a while but it's deffinatly not one of my favorite songs on the album. I love 'Andy Warhol' this song has one of the coolest chorus' ever. The songs lyrics are really great, and this song also features one of the all time best guitar riffs, Mick Ronson never fails to amaze me. Also the intro to this song where Bowie tells the guy in the soundboard how to say Warhol. 'A Song For Bob Dylan' is another cool song and it's about.... you guessed it Bob Dylan. 'Queen Bitch' was really a sign of things to come, it is straight up glam-rock, before there was even glam-rock proven that once again David Bowie is and always has been ahead of his time, the damn genius! The album closes with the epic 'The Bewlay Brothers' which is a long acoustic jam with great lyrics and amazing vocals by Bowie. I glad this is the song the end the album because it eases you out perfectly.
Hunky Dory is with out a doubt one of the all time best albums, certainly one of Bowies brightest moments. As I said before the lyrics and phnomenal. So as I think of a group of people to recomend this album to I can only say, I recomend this album to anyone because it is that good and fans of any kind of music would enjoy this, well except for rap!