The album David Bowie thanked God everyone forgot about
It’s about time we face the cold, hard truth: life hasn’t been the same since David Bowie passed.
He will certainly be missed for generations to come, but aside from the memory of him as a person, the music that he left behind has been one of the most eclectic in rock history and helped millions of people find their own voice when they first started to figure out who they were. But even if Bowie was ever-evolving, it’s not like he sat down with a scrapbook of hits and saw nothing but gold stars.
He was never one to consider himself a perfect artist by any stretch, but as far as he was concerned, that was only a good thing. No musician should ever try to have a spotless track record, and even if some periods weren’t any good, they all serve to make up the greater picture. We can’t remember John Lennon without also bringing up his experimental albums with Yoko Ono, but even if they are borderline unlistenable, they are each a different step in seeing what made one of the greatest artists in the world tick.
But for all that Bowie has done, there are at least some pieces on every album for people to explore. The glam rock period in the early 1970s and his Berlin trilogy might be a bit too overexplained, but even on records that some would consider his worst, like Tonight and Never Let Me Down, there are still quality tunes in there if you’re willing to look past some of the dreaded 1980s production that’s thrown into the mix.
If anything, it was a decent creative choice for the time whenever Bowie came out with a brand new idea. No one would have thought that a concept album about killing people for performance art like 1. Outside would have worked, but the fact that Bowie managed to pull out a song like ‘The Heart’s Filthy Lesson’ is still one of the greatest leaps into industrial rock that anyone of his age had ever made.
Through every single one of his transformations, though, none of them were able to justify his proper debut, though. The fact that his second album was eponymously released as well already indicated that Bowie wanted nothing to do with the original, but even when his label was re-releasing his material, he was counting his lucky stars that they decided to leave that part of his musical persona in the past.
Despite not being all that bad, ‘The Starman’ didn’t hold back when talking about how much of a misfire it was, saying, “Thank God it doesn’t [get reissued]! I’m glad they couldn’t get their hands on it! It seemed to have its roots all over the place, in rock and vaudeville and music hall and I don’t know what. I didn’t know if I was Max Miller or Elvis Presley. The Cheeky Chappy with a… with a… hip. [Laughs] I don’t know. It’s quite funny.”
While the album is nowhere near a poor recording or anything, Bowie’s assessments aren’t exactly wrong. Even in an era that championed some more abstract lyrical ideas and song formats, this feels like Bowie is trying to be three different personas all at the same time and not really settling on anything before we get footage of him sounding like he’s getting over a cold on the piece ‘Please Mr Gravedigger’.
Although a lot of bands have tried their best to cover up some of their more embarrassing moments, Bowie’s feelings towards his debut almost went one step further. Anyone can try their hardest to make the best record they can, but Bowie was among the first to almost purposely will one of his albums out of existence.
