r/DavidBowie • u/Elvis_Gershwin • 1d ago
Q. from a Gen. Xer
The only post-Scary Monsters albums I have played as much as the classics from his golden years decade are Heathen and Blackstar. Might this be because I grew up listening to his 70s output and found his 80s output to be increasingly disappointing? Is there anyone out there who is a fossil like me but who kept listening? (I did have one girlfriend the same age as me who loved Labyrinth and Tonight and would spar with me over it. I was more of a rock 'n' roller than her.)
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u/MrAlgeriaTouchshriek 1d ago
I’m 56. I listen to Hours and Earthling all the time. I love Buddha of Suburbia. As for 80s, I did my initial deep dive into Bowie in 1987, so NLMD has a warm spot in my heart, heaven help me. I can even make an argument for the pleasures of listening to Tonight. The 70s output is flawless, I agree. But there’s something from every decade for me to appreciate.
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u/IdontunderstandAE 1d ago
Earthling and Outside are amazing albums. Earthling is one of his more experimental albums and it’s really solid front to back. Outside is dark and atmospheric and is very cinematic. Very cool worldbuilding. I also think Heathen is very very good. Reality has a lot of really good stuff on it, there are just some mediocre songs mixed in, I think. It’s definitely worth checking out to see how you feel.
I know Never Let Me Down is one if most people’s least favorite Bowie albums, still now and when it came out, and it is very inconsistent and has forgettable songs on it, but I like Time Will Crawl and Glass Spider a lot. I wish the whole album was just based on Glass Spider.
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u/Upstream_Paddler 1d ago
90s Bowie is my Bowie, the 70s were some other guy so I’m pretty much the polar opposite to you. From 90s onward, personally considered black tie, white noise, and hours… to be imperfect, prototype versions of black star but worth a listen. All three were playing around with that jazz, EDM rock, hybrid, in some capacity. Outside, earthling, reality, the next day are great listens in their own right.
You want more rock Bowie than electronica Bowie, I’d look at reality and the next day in particular. Earthling plays around with the industrial sounds of the decade, an outside is just all over the place in the best of ways. There’s a great live recording from the reality tour or you actually just see them jam a little and it’s fantastic.
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u/yabyad 22h ago
I’m similar, post scary monsters output for me was not as exciting as discovering his back catalogue during the 70s and 80s I was born in 69, and Lodger was the first LP I got in real time as it came out. At the age of 4 to 5 the reissue of laughing gnome caught my imagination, hearing it on the radio a lot on a Saturday morning. Then the reissue of Space Oddity getting to number one blew me away at the age of 6. Lol I remember I was so young I believed Rocket Man and Space Oddity was by the same person. His Aladdin Sane cover was the ultimate trigger, my mum said she brought me that LP around the age of 6, I wanted it for the cover, his alien face. The music came later for me when I was about 8 years old lol …..remember catching the marc show after school was another trigger moment.
By 1980 when Scary Monsters came out, I was 11 that summer already a Bowie fan with every LP (except David Live as it was really expensive for some reason). Bowie was on fire super cool. However after the Lets Dance explosion, initially I felt proud of him, I was lucky to go to the first night at Milton Keynes. But Tonight seemed uncool tbh, at the age of 15 The Bunnymen and The Smiths were more exciting. From this point Bowie was still special to me but only his back catalogue and the unheard bootlegs that I was discovering. I guess I’m trying to say I was lucky as a kid to grow up whilst this magic time was unfolding, but as an adult, noticing all the other great music that was breaking through from 84 onwards, it always seemed our Bowie struggled to complete a masterpiece, some great songs but no great LPs for me, and I felt this way right until the sad end, Blackstar was a full comeback
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u/arthurcowslip 23h ago
Gen X. I firmly believe that people are kidding themselves if they believe anything after the 1980 watershed was as good as what came before. It baffles me that the prevailing view on the internet among younger generations is that he created this great canon of work right up until his death, because I just can’t see it.
He had some amazing singles in the 80s, but his last truly great song was Jump They Say. Some of the 90s stuff was woeful.
Well, there you go. I’m probably wrong but I’m too old to care or argue about it now! I’m happy listening to Diamond Dogs and Station to Station.
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u/Maleficent-Rain-2194 16h ago edited 16h ago
For me Earthling was a revelation long after I left Bowie for a while, after his 3 more commercial albums. I rediscovered a new facet of him, flirting with jungle and Drum and Bass rhythm. It's my favorite album these days. To know more about that period, I suggest you to watch his 50th anniversary video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXHzek1CJ3E
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u/RipMassive4000 10h ago
I did keep going, though it took some time to appreciate something like Outside. For me it’s always been about the art of the voice, art of movement, lyrics secondary. The Nature Boy cover in Moulin Rouge is particularly satisfying because I didn’t hear it until this year. It mirrors the newer version of Cat People with a slow start and sudden explosion of powerful vocals. The older stuff was benchmark genre revolutionary, but the later year stuff was incredibly artistic, and one might say even more satisfying.
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u/sagebrushstuff 1d ago
Xennial here. Labyrinth was my gateway and I went from there, mostly grabbing whatever was available whenever I had the money and opportunity as my family was living in a tiny rural town until about 1994 so actually acquiring stuff was a little difficult. That means I ended up listening to Never Let Me Down A LOT along with the more celebrated 70s albums and I still enjoy it. 1. Outside was the first album I got right when it was released and it's been my favorite all these years. Buddha of Suburbia, Heathen, hours..., and The Next Day are albums I revisit frequently. Blackstar is amazing but I definitely have to be in the mood for it.
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u/Live-Assistance-6877 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think Outside is as good or better than Heathen,and there's good stuff on Reality as well. I do agree that his 80s stuff was pretty spotty,but I like some of the 90s stuff Earthling is decent too