The song David Bowie thought was twice as good as ‘Modern Love’
With a multi-faceted career spanning several decades, David Bowie ascended to celestial heights as the iconic Starman, navigating the peaks of both commercial success and experimental reverence. However, Bowie’s enduring legacy as a recording artist can be distilled into a ten-year period during which he unleashed his most essential and influential material.
In contrast to many of his contemporaries in the 1960s rock scene, Bowie’s rise to success was discouragingly slow, putting perseverance and resolve to the test. His eponymous debut album of 1967 proved to be a tentative start, characterised by whimsical nursery rhyme lyrics delivered in a style few were prepared for at the time.
Fortunately, releases like ‘Space Oddity’ and Hunky Dory turned the tide heading into the 1970s, consolidated in 1972 by The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Towards the end of the decade, Bowie released his lauded and experimental Berlin Trilogy before reuniting with his pop sensibilities.
The 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) garnered both commercial and critical attention thanks to pioneering and accessible highlights like ‘Fashion’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Up the Hill Backwards’. Three years later, the follow-up Let’s Dance garnered similar attention for its danceable synth-era hits like ‘Modern Love’ and ‘Let’s Dance’; however, thereafter, Bowie tailed off into what he retrospectively tagged the “Phil Collins years”, with regret.
In 2008, David Bowie created a compilation comprising 12 favourites from his own back catalogue. Initially, the CD was intended as a collection of personal favourites available exclusively with an edition of The Mail on Sunday. Due to popular demand, the newspaper quickly sold out, and the CD became a highly popular collector’s item. Virgin/EMI later reissued the CD along with a booklet containing Bowie’s comments on each track.
Discussing ‘Teenage Wildlife’ as a particular favourite of his pop-transition era, Bowie compared the song to ‘Modern Love’. He said: “So it’s late morning, and I’m thinking, ‘New song and a fresh approach. I know. I’m going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes, I am. Ersatz just for one day.’ And I did, and here it is. Bless. I’m still very enamoured of this song and would give you two ‘Modern Love’s for it anytime.”
Elsewhere in Bowie’s collection were deep cuts from Young Americans, Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs. The only selection that frequents Greatest Hits compilations was ‘Life On Mars?’ See the full list here.
Listen to ‘Teenage Wildlife’ from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) below.
