And while we're speaking of Bowie

Many people have asked me what my favourite Bowie track is. Well, it's not an easy question to answer - preference depends on mood and therefore my favourite may not always be the same. I tend to prefer album tracks - although many of his singles have been masterpieces I think there are many album tracks which are ultimately better...
So anyway - I thought I'd put together a top ten. The positions of these 10 would not always be the same but I think most of these would always figure somewhere in the list -

10 - The Lonliest Guy - from Reality... a great ballad and confirmation of Bowie's song writing ability.

9 - Moonage Daydream - Ziggy Stardust has so many good tracks but to me this is the best... freak out!

8 - Lady Grinning Soul - the final track on Aladdin Sane and well worth waiting for.

7 - Wild is the Wind - So, this has been recorded many times before  - Johnny Mathis to Nina Simone, but Bowie puts his mark on it and makes it his own.

6 - Station to Station - Ten and a quarter minutes of sheer brilliance. I don't think I can say any more!

5 - Look Back in Anger - Lodger was pretty under-rated for a long time but there are some excellent tracks on it. The extended version of this which is on some CD releases is worth finding - it was re-recorded in 1988 and is near as damn it 7 minutes long....

4 - Loving the Alien - from Tonight. One of my least favourite albums starts with one of the best tracks Bowie has recorded. The album version is good, but the version on Reality Live is better and Bowie admits that it was perhaps the way that it should always have been done.

3 - Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing - a brilliant track from Diamond Dogs... And it has the lowest note ever sung by Bowie on any recording. OK, so it's technically 3 tracks but I always consider it to be 3 movements of the same song.

2 - Heroes - but please - the proper album version and not the version you always hear on the radio or TV. Many people are far more aware of this song since the olympics. I have loved it since the first time I heard it. A very simple message is contained in the song, but it is put across so well. When I pop my clogs I will have this played at my funeral and just hope that there is something in my life I have done which will make it relevant.

1 - The Wild-eyed Boy from Freecloud - Maybe an unusual choice and possibly not rated at all by many. To me it shows Bowie's talent for narrative and bundles it together with a damn fine tune. You are transported into the song and it becomes more than a piece of music. I also get the opportunity to put a link to what I think is one of the best live medleys I've heard (although sadly I was too young to have been there). Bowie at this time must have been something special to have seen - and he snatches back his own song from Mott the Hoople and shows them how it should be done http://youtu.be/B58jucquCgo (yes - I know Bowie worked on the Mott the Hoople single and did backing vocals on it but you can't help thinking that his own version is how it should have been).

Where Are We Now??

OK, I'm a Bowie fan. A big Bowie fan. I have been for the best part of 35 years. So it was with some apprehension that I clicked on the youtube link I'd been sent on his 66th birthday. After all, it's been a fair while since any new material and there have been a lot of rumours about Bowie's health.
So... first impressions?? Well - I thought the video doesn't do Bowie any favours - he looks awful. The song itself? My first thoughts - a bit whiney... (Sorry David if you happen to stumble across this!)... that's not to say I didn't like it. No - it doesn't come out and grab you, but it's a ballad - it's not meant to. I found it to be a beautiful piece of music  - introspective, yes - but I think also optimistic and full of hope. I may be wrong but I think Bowie is saying 'yeah - it's shitty now but things will get better' and he puts this as a parallel to his own life back in the 70's when he was living in Berlin - when he arrived in Berlin he was hopelessly addicted to cocaine but he broke his habit and produced 3 of his best ever albums (in my opinion) whilst there... It's growing on me with every play - I don't think it has the lasting appeal of Lady Grinning Soul, Wild is the Wind, or Loving the Alien but then again, I thought that about The Loneliest Guy which is now one of my favourite Bowie ballads and that is probably closest to the style of Where Are We Now.
So - don't listen to the press who have been so quick to herald this single as the bell tolling for any musician over the age of 20, listen to the music. Bowie still has the same creativity he always had. He can still write songs which have meaning and which are still in your head more than 10 minutes after you heard them. Perhaps it's not the best thing he's ever done - so what? Did you buy Never Let Me Down? Just because it's not the best thing he's done doesn't mean that he's past it.
Me? I'll be playing it to death and looking forward to the album in March!!

Only 353 days to go

So, it's over. Tree down, decorations packed away until next year and everything back to normal.... Or not. Supermarkets seem to be incapable of restocking shelves with 'normal' products because they are still cramming the shelves with cut price 'luxury' mince pies and 'gourmet' Christmas puddings. Why they think that people will want them after Christmas when they didn't want the overpriced, over-processed muck during Christmas is beyond me. But hey... those of us who want potatoes or dog food will need to wait until the shops are 'fully restocked'. Now call me old fashioned, but is having stock that people actually want to buy not what the business model of any shop should be? It's not as if something like Christmas is a last minute thing - it comes at the same time every year and guess what? The shops can make advanced planning for it!
I expect exactly the same at Easter .. mad frenzied shopping with supermarkets bursting to the seams with crazed people pushing 3 fully loaded trolleys to the till - well, come on - the shops are closed for a day... you need to stock up... and then post Easter there'll be nothing on the shelves other than stale hot crossed buns (which have incidentally already been spotted on the shelves), and overpriced simnel cake (does anyone even know what one of them is??).
I don't know why I'm surprised. It's been like this for years and for some reason we just accept that the supermarkets tell us what to buy rather than us buying what we actually want. For example - can you imagine anyone sitting at home with their jar of nescafe and thinking "hmmm... I think I'll get some stale ground coffee, grind it to a fine powder and add it to the instant coffee - it'll taste much better" yet people are paying double the price of normal instant coffee for something which still tastes of instant coffee. My point is this - people have been quite happy with instant coffee for decades. No - it tastes nothing like real coffee, and yes - people would probably like a more realistic taste. But I bet no-one wanted the sweepings off the coffee factory floor to be added to their favourite jar! Oh, and I'll bet that until a couple of years ago no-one ever thought it would be a good idea to shove an orange in the middle of a steamed fruit pudding!
So - into the New Year and remember, the supermarkets only have 353 days to persuade you to buy more over-priced rubbish in the name of Jesus....