Track listing
- 1 Sound and Vision 3:05
- 2 Golden Years (Single Edit) 3:29
- 3 Fame 4:14
- 4 Young Americans (Single Version) 3:15
- 5 John, I'm Only Dancing (Again) 7:00
- 6 Can You Hear Me 5:07
- 7 Wild Is the Wind 6:00
- 8 Knock on Wood (Live) 3:00
- 9 TVC 15 (Single Version) 3:24
- 10 1984 3:29
- 11 It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City 3:49
- 12 Look Back in Anger 3:08
- 13 The Secret Life of Arabia 3:48
- 14 DJ 4:02
- 15 Beauty and the Beast 3:36
- 16 Breaking Glass 1:53
- 17 Boys Keep Swinging 3:20
- 18 Heroes (Single Version) 3:33
- Total length: 69:12
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3 Issues
9 Reviews
In some ways this provides an even more essential overview than the companion 1969-74 disc, even if it doesn't have that one's unalloyed solid-gold compendium of classics. The time frame takes in Bowie's move into "plastic soul" via Diamond Dogs' "1984" (wacka-jawacka alert!) through Young Americans, Station To Station (his best album) and the Bowie-Eno-Visconti trilogy of Low, ''Heroes'' and Lodger. This was a time when Bowie was at the cutting edge of rock -- hell, he was the cutting edge -- and if you don't get the immediate sugar hit of the glam years, you get something much more adult and deeper. Collectors will find a number of otherwise unavailable tracks, including a roaringly funkified take on Bruce Springsteen's "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City". Heck, it's worth picking up just for Adrian Belew's guitar solo on "Boys Keep Swinging". An ideal starting point for the uncommitted and curious.
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This sequel of "The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979" has for better or for worse the same problems and strengths as the already mentioned compilation.
The good things are that the track selection is great and that there are very few songs missing here, so it can serve as a great career overview as what whas Bowie's artistic peak.
But unfortunately, the lenght is very short (just 70 minutes), order is not chronolical, and we have three very cuestionable choices: "John I'm Only Dancing (Again)" is an overly long and unoriginal disco fueled sequel of the original glam version, it starts great but them becomes a total clusterfuck that doesn't even sounds like the original; the glam cover of Eddie Floyd's classic "Knock on Wood" might not be as awful as Mick Jagger said, but it certainly is a very mediocre rendition that doesn't even suit Bowie's style at all; what could've been a good cover of "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" ends up being almost unlistenable because of an embarrassing vocal performance by David.
Pick it up if you've just started listening to Bowie, if not you will not be losing that much, because the rarities presented here should still be just that.
The good things are that the track selection is great and that there are very few songs missing here, so it can serve as a great career overview as what whas Bowie's artistic peak.
But unfortunately, the lenght is very short (just 70 minutes), order is not chronolical, and we have three very cuestionable choices: "John I'm Only Dancing (Again)" is an overly long and unoriginal disco fueled sequel of the original glam version, it starts great but them becomes a total clusterfuck that doesn't even sounds like the original; the glam cover of Eddie Floyd's classic "Knock on Wood" might not be as awful as Mick Jagger said, but it certainly is a very mediocre rendition that doesn't even suit Bowie's style at all; what could've been a good cover of "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" ends up being almost unlistenable because of an embarrassing vocal performance by David.
Pick it up if you've just started listening to Bowie, if not you will not be losing that much, because the rarities presented here should still be just that.
Published
A good but flawed retrospective of Bowie's "Berlin" years
We begin the album with Low's most pop-friendly song "Sound and Vision" which despite the subdues lyrics and Eno synths, remains my least favorite track on the album. It is, however, a great way to start this compilation, and it was refreshing to me after listening to some snoozers before this.The next several tracks come from the plastic soul side of Bowie, a side of his musicality that I have never fully appreciated, and after listening to it this time, I still don't get the appeal. The playing, however, is impeccable and bouncy. It's just that other artists from the time did these sounds much weirder and better than Bowie.
In fact, on this album, we happen to have two embarrassingly bad ones. "Hey now," some of you say. "What did Bowie do during that period that could ever be classified as 'embarrassingly bad?'" Well, how about "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)," the disco nightmare sequel to the brilliant Ziggy Stardust number? And how about his live version of the '60s blues song (turned disco hit for Amii Stewart) "Knock On Wood?" Well, yeah. Every artist has some duds in their repertoire (though, I've got to say, those two seemed preventable via the use of a little something I like to call "common sense").
"Wild is the Wind" is a great song that was best performed by Nina Simone in my opinion. However, David puts together a blue-eyed soul/rock rendition, and I'm in love. Those classic Bowie wails and vibrato really shine through here with drums provided by Simple Minds drummer Mel Gaynor, and it is pure bliss. This was a great selection for the compilation, as it's unabashedly classic Bowie.
We also have a cover of Springsteen's "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City," and this is another true highlight. Bowie does the song justice, and in my opinion may be better than the original.
We finish off the album with some choice cuts from Bowie's Berlin Trilogy; Low, Heroes, and Lodger. These albums are my personal favorites, and they get a good showing at the finish of this compilation. Naturally, the album ends with the classic Brian Eno and Bowie collaboration """Heroes""".
Overall, this was a solid, if an overly-long ode to some of the best years of Bowie's long career.
3.5/5
God, this did make me miss him even more though.
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I rate this Bowie period as high as the 1969-74, still i think this compilation isn't as good as her sister. The first thing that bothers me are the edits of classic songs, 'Young americans' gets particulary butcher here. Also the track selection isn't as good as it could have been, in my opinion for instance the dreadful version of John i'm only dancing should have never seen the light of day. Knock on wood and 1984 are pretty weak too, they could have been replaced with better songs such as the epic Station to station, Always crashing in the same car and Subterraneans, a fine example of Bowies ambient work with Brian Eno, a side of his work that is not represented in this compilation.
Finally they should have extended the period covered to 1980 so essential tracks as Ashes to ashes and Fashion could have been included. Still i recognize that the addition of 'Its hard to be a saint in the city' is a great, hard to believe that such a good track wasn't included on the 'station to station' LP.
Finally they should have extended the period covered to 1980 so essential tracks as Ashes to ashes and Fashion could have been included. Still i recognize that the addition of 'Its hard to be a saint in the city' is a great, hard to believe that such a good track wasn't included on the 'station to station' LP.
Published
Rather than the 2 disc compilations , one could pick up 69-74 and this second volume 74-79 for a more in depth look at bowies amazing 10 years at the toppermost of the poppermost. You get all the signature tunes but you also get rarities and album tracks rather than just the hits.
For me this period is his most interesting and the track selection is spot on , and also highlights what a great soul singer bowie could be and when he moved on to more electronic ,funky experimental sounds he was equally at home .
The really great artists keep developing and moving into fresh areas , and bowie was almost schizo in his attempts to keep changing and making great art .
The only dissapointment is the single versions chosen on a couple of tracks particularly "young americans" whose brutal edit ruins the track . But for a bowie compilation its here and the 69-74 disc that you should be looking at .
For me this period is his most interesting and the track selection is spot on , and also highlights what a great soul singer bowie could be and when he moved on to more electronic ,funky experimental sounds he was equally at home .
The really great artists keep developing and moving into fresh areas , and bowie was almost schizo in his attempts to keep changing and making great art .
The only dissapointment is the single versions chosen on a couple of tracks particularly "young americans" whose brutal edit ruins the track . But for a bowie compilation its here and the 69-74 disc that you should be looking at .
Published
Up to the day I am writing this, three different similarly designed Bowie compilations have been released: The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974, 1974/1979 and 1980/1987. Each of them has a great number of top stuff, but also too many fillers to be called excellent. This one contains songs from the Young Americans era, and though I like the title track and "Fame", it is "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)" which blows my mind the most. I am not considering the later '70s the most essential era within Bowie's career, but beside the sophisticated album concepts that both hid and reflected the artist's mental dysphoria, also a number of catchy hits appeared. "Sound and Vision", "The Secret Life of Arabia" and "Heroes" are all fine songs, while "Golden Years", "TVC 15" and "Boys Keep Swinging" aren't much worse. By contrast, the 1974 live version of "Knock on Wood" and the Springsteen cover and Station to Station outtake "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" are nothing but fillers, that is also what "Breaking Glass" sounds like, et cetera. Nothing is perfect or even close when it comes to David Bowie, but after all, The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 is a very interesting Chapter 2 in a musical documentary.
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Not quite as good as _'69-'74_
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Catalog
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10 May 2023
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1
Sound and Vision
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2
Golden Years (Single Edit)
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3
Fame
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4
Young Americans (Single Version)
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5
John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)
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6
Can You Hear Me
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7
Wild Is the Wind
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8
Knock on Wood (Live)
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9
TVC 15 (Single Version)
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10
1984
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11
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
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12
Look Back in Anger
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13
The Secret Life of Arabia
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14
DJ
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15
Beauty and the Beast
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16
Breaking Glass
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17
Boys Keep Swinging
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18
Heroes (Single Version)
26 Feb 2023
2 Dec 2022
18 Nov 2022