features in: Album Chart of 1971 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s ● 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die  |
Each passing album has been getting better since 1967 – “Hunky Dory” is the first proper good ‘un. Previous bass player and producer Tony Visconti sat this one out, as new bassist Trevor Bolder and producer Ken Scott stepped up to the mark. The string arrangements of Mick Ronson were to the fore on the album’s finest moments.
The album starts majestically with “Changes” which features Bowie himself on saxophone, with Rick Wakeman's on keyboards and Mick Ronson handling string arrangements. Artistic re-invention is the order of the day: “look out you rock n rollers.” The magical mystery which surrounds much of Bowie’s work bubbles to the surface once again on side 1 with “Life On Mars?” and, once again, it’s the key trio of Bowie / Wakeman / Ronson who make it happen. The singer noted that Wakeman “embellished the piano part” of his original melody and guitarist Mick Ronson “created one of his first and best string parts” for the song. Unbelievably, Bowie’s trite old cabaret roots immediately rear their ugly head again on the following “Kooks”, a song for his new-born son, Duncan Jones. It’s the audio-equivalent of “coochy-coo”. Torn between the light and dark, “Quicksand”, ensures the album’s recovery is instant – despair never sounded so damned gorgeous.
Side 2 has a flamenco-flavoured tribute to “Andy Warhol”, a rather dull soft rock “Song For Bob Dylan” (must be digging on the Band period) and a sizzling nod to Lou Reed, “Queen Bitch”, which sounds completely out of place on the album, but absolutely steals my utmost affection. Bowie himself considered the album to be one of the most important in his career. Speaking in 1999, he said: “Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, ‘Good album, good songs.’ That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, ‘Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?’ There was always a double whammy there.” Had I been there, he’d have been on my 1972 watch list for sure. What would he get up to next?
The Jukebox Rebel
18–Jan–2016
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [03:37]  David Bowie - Changes (David Robert Jones) Cerebral Pop |
| A2 | [03:12]  David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things (David Robert Jones) Pop |
| A3 | [02:55]  David Bowie - Eight Line Poem (David Robert Jones) Songwriter |
| A4 | [03:53]  David Bowie - Life On Mars? (David Robert Jones) Psychedelia |
| A5 | [02:53]  David Bowie - Kooks (David Robert Jones) Pop |
| A6 | [05:08]  David Bowie - Quicksand (David Robert Jones) Folk Rock / Americana |
| B1 | [03:07]  David Bowie - Fill Your Heart (Paul Rose, Paul Williams) Crooner / Cabaret |
| B2 | [03:56]  David Bowie - Andy Warhol (David Robert Jones) New Wave |
| B3 | [04:12]  David Bowie - Song For Bob Dylan (David Robert Jones) Soft Rock / A.O.R. |
| B4 | [03:18]  David Bowie - Queen Bitch (David Robert Jones) Proto-Punk |
| B5 | [05:22] David Bowie - The Bewlay Brothers (David Robert Jones) Alternative Folk |
