Heston and Marky's Friday Top 5

[Marky Dread]

'Darklands'! I meant the 'Darklands' LP...

...and all things end in nothing.

[Wolter]

Albums:
1. Ziggy
2. Diamond Dogs
3. Space Oddity/Man Of Words, Man Of Music
4. Lodger
5. Station To Station

(That could change at any time)

Album Tracks (all-time)
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Sweet Thing/Candidate
3. Bombers (Okay, technically an outtake, but it should have been on Hunky Dory)
4. Station To Station
5. Cracked Actor

Drilled Down By Artificially Created Eras:

Early Days (1964-1968)
1. London Bye Ta-Ta
2. I Dig Everything
3. Karma Man
4. Let Me Sleep Beside You
5. In the Heat of the Morning
[Some of these might technically be singles, but they would never have charted and I only know them from compilations. This is an odd era where he tried everything to see what would stick. There are actually a lot of great songs, but also a lot of derivative nondescript 60s rock and frankly insane novelty songs]

One Hit Wonder To Glam Superstar (1969-1974)
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Sweet Thing/Candidate
3. Bombers
4. Cracked Actor
5. Queen Bitch
[Literally could be a top 50 and I'd feel like I left things off]

Plastic Soul to Thin White Duke to Berlin Survivor (1975-1979)
1. Station To Station
2. TVC15
3. Blackout
4. Always Crashing the Same Car
5. Repetition
[See note above]

Art Rocker Turns Pop Megastar (1980-1984)
1. It's No Game
2. Cat People (Putting Out Fires)
3. Scream Like a Baby
4. Loving the Alien
5. Kingdom Come
[He started the 80s so strong, but each album was worse than its predecessor for the whole decade. A case could be made that every song on this list should be from Scary Monsters, but I decided to be nice an put one from each this time around.]

Wilderness Years (1985-1994)
1. Bleed Like a Craze, Dad
2. Pallas Athena
3. I Can't Read
4. Pretty Thing
5. Dead Against It
[There's a lot of hidden gems in here, but honestly, it's maybe 1.5 albums worth of material spread over 5 albums. And as reviled as Tin Machine were and still are, they are probably the strongest albums from this time period. I could not even bring myself to put anything from Never Let Me Down]

Return to Respectability (1995-1999)
1. Battle For Britain (the Letter)
2. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
3. I'm Deranged
4. Looking For Satellites
5. The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction
[This one is tough because most of the best songs off these albums were the singles. I don't think Hours even had a song that made my cut.]

21st Century Elder Statesman (2000-Present)
1. How Does The Grass Grow?
2. Fly
3. If You Can See Me
4. Reality
5. Afraid
[Same caveat as above]

Honestly, once you get past Scary Monsters, Bowie starts having less consistent album tracks. When I say Bowie Is God, I am definitely talking about 1969-1981, when his very worst album is still pretty entertainingly good, and almost all his album tracks could either have been singles as well or are well crafted parts of an excellent whole.

[Flex]

I'm not quite at Wolterian levels of Deep Dive, but I likes me some Bowie.

Albums:
1. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
2. Station to Station
3. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
4. Space Oddity
5. Low

I think I switch out my fav of the Berlin trilogy albums pretty regular-like. The others actually kind stay fixed fairly well.

Album Tracks:
1. Kingdom Come
2. Station to Station
3. Five Years
4. Panic in Detroit
5. Warszawa

[Marky Dread]

Albums:
1. Ziggy
2. Diamond Dogs
3. Space Oddity/Man Of Words, Man Of Music
4. Lodger
5. Station To Station

(That could change at any time)

Album Tracks (all-time)
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Sweet Thing/Candidate
3. Bombers (Okay, technically an outtake, but it should have been on Hunky Dory)
4. Station To Station
5. Cracked Actor

Drilled Down By Artificially Created Eras:

Early Days (1964-1968)
1. London Bye Ta-Ta
2. I Dig Everything
3. Karma Man
4. Let Me Sleep Beside You
5. In the Heat of the Morning
[Some of these might technically be singles, but they would never have charted and I only know them from compilations. This is an odd era where he tried everything to see what would stick. There are actually a lot of great songs, but also a lot of derivative nondescript 60s rock and frankly insane novelty songs]

One Hit Wonder To Glam Superstar (1969-1974)
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Sweet Thing/Candidate
3. Bombers
4. Cracked Actor
5. Queen Bitch
[Literally could be a top 50 and I'd feel like I left things off]

Plastic Soul to Thin White Duke to Berlin Survivor (1975-1979)
1. Station To Station
2. TVC15
3. Blackout
4. Always Crashing the Same Car
5. Repetition
[See note above]

Art Rocker Turns Pop Megastar (1980-1984)
1. It's No Game
2. Cat People (Putting Out Fires)
3. Scream Like a Baby
4. Loving the Alien
5. Kingdom Come
[He started the 80s so strong, but each album was worse than its predecessor for the whole decade. A case could be made that every song on this list should be from Scary Monsters, but I decided to be nice an put one from each this time around.]

Wilderness Years (1985-1994)
1. Bleed Like a Craze, Dad
2. Pallas Athena
3. I Can't Read
4. Pretty Thing
5. Dead Against It
[There's a lot of hidden gems in here, but honestly, it's maybe 1.5 albums worth of material spread over 5 albums. And as reviled as Tin Machine were and still are, they are probably the strongest albums from this time period. I could not even bring myself to put anything from Never Let Me Down]

Return to Respectability (1995-1999)
1. Battle For Britain (the Letter)
2. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
3. I'm Deranged
4. Looking For Satellites
5. The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction
[This one is tough because most of the best songs off these albums were the singles. I don't think Hours even had a song that made my cut.]

21st Century Elder Statesman (2000-Present)
1. How Does The Grass Grow?
2. Fly
3. If You Can See Me
4. Reality
5. Afraid
[Same caveat as above]

Honestly, once you get past Scary Monsters, Bowie starts having less consistent album tracks. When I say Bowie Is God, I am definitely talking about 1969-1981, when his very worst album is still pretty entertainingly good, and almost all his album tracks could either have been singles as well or are well crafted parts of an excellent whole.

Well, hallo spaceboy.

Fantastic you took this much effort to break it down into eras. I love a lot of your choices and it's amazing that you could pretty much compile an album from each ears album tracks and it would be all killer. One early favorite of mine is Mr. Gravedigger.

[Heston]

I only wanted a top 5 and Wolter wrote a novel.

[Marky Dread]

I only wanted a top 5 and Wolter wrote a novel.

Yeah but in fairness I would read that novel and put it in my Top 5 Bowie novels. In fact it's more a novella.

[Wolter]

I only wanted a top 5 and Wolter wrote a novel.

Yeah but in fairness I would read that novel and put it in my Top 5 Bowie novels. In fact it's more a novella.

[Joe Moses]

Ok here's my 5 album tracks - glad to see I'm not the only one that really struggles to pin Bowie down to just 5 - so here's todays or even this hours top 5 - it constantly changes

The Bewlay Brothers
Drive In Saturday
Look Back In Anger
Station To Station
Rock and Roll Suicide

[Wolter]

How did Look Back In Anger not make it into my novella? Such a great song.

[Joe Moses]

How did Look Back In Anger not make it into my novella? Such a great song.

'tis indeed - it'll have to appear in the sequel

[gkbill]

Hello,

I'm not sure if any of these were singles; I'm pretty sure some of them were: - maybe they all were
1 - Scary Monsters
2 - Cat People (the original version - not the album version - whoops, single)
3 - Fashion
4 - I'm Afraid of Americans
5 - Never Get Old (live)

Albums:
1 - Scary Monsters
2 - Lodger
3 - The Next Day
4 - Diamond Dogs
5 - Heroes

[Wolter]

Ack. I just remembered TVC15 was a single, so second editions of my Bowie novella get "Look Back In Anger" after all.

[tepista]

good post, wolt

[Heston]

Marky suggested one for this week but I can't remember what it was. Anyone wanna jump in for a guest slot?

[Marky Dread]

Sorry a bit under the weather.

Top 5 Clash Alternate mixes.

1. (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais (RAR version)
2. Straight to Hell (Rat Patrol/Clash On Broadway/Sound System version)
3. Sean Flynn (Rat Patrol/Marcus Music/Sound System version)
4. Ditry Harry (Mag 7 version)
5. 1-2 Crush On You (Marquee session version)