Watch That Man

One cool thing about being a music fan is that even with all of the streaming and downloading technology available to us, there is still so much that I haven't heard yet. And I'm not even talking about new music. There are many classic albums by classic artists that I've missed or just haven't gotten around to checking out. I'm woefully uneducated on most of the catalog of Bob Dylan, for example. And there are glaring gaps with other artists that I'm ashamed to admit. One such artist is David Bowie.

I know the hits. Just from listening to rock radio as a kid, I heard all the big ones. I really became aware of Bowie in the '80s when he was in his Thin White Duke phase and was on top of the rock world. I picked up ChangesBowie when Rykodisc was re-releasing the Bowie catalog, as well as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Not long after, I bought Scary Monsters, mainly on the strength of loving "Ashes to Ashes." And a friend gave me Lodger several years ago. Oh, and I have the two Tin Machine albums when Bowie was doing his band thing in the late '80s/early '90s. But that's it. Which, from a cursory point of view, is enough to give one a decent overview of Bowie's career. But there's a lot missing. I mean, I had never heard "The Man Who Sold the World" until Nirvana covered it on their MTV Unplugged session.

A great way to fill in the gaps is at my local library, which I visit somewhat regularly with my daughters. While they're down browsing in the children's section, I'll dash up to the main floor and check out the CDs available for borrowing and pick four or five. So yeah, I rip the CDs onto my hard drive, but I've spent so much money on vinyl, cassettes, CDs and now MP3s over the years, I don't feel any guilt over it (and that's not even getting into concert tickets and merch).

Earlier this year, I picked up Bowie's Hunky Dory (1971) and Aladdin Sane (1973), the albums that bookended Ziggy Stardust and really brought Bowie to prominence in the rock world. Hunky Dory wasn't a huge hit but it had "Changes" and set the table for Ziggy Stardust, while Aladdin Sane was known (by me, anyway) for songs like "Panic in Detroit," "The Jean Genie" and the cover of the Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together." Bowie had put together a killer band for these albums, with Mick Ronson on guitar providing much of the musical muscle. Hunky Dory is a little more diverse sonically (featuring Rick Wakeman on piano), with songs like "Oh! You Pretty Things,"  "Life on Mars?" and "Queen Bitch" providing a taste of what the next album would deliver. Aladdin Sane was more of a hard rock record, with "Watch That Man," "Cracked Actor" and "Panic in Detroit" highlighting Ronson's louder guitar work. It's received mixed reviews over the years, but I really enjoy it.

I spent much of the summer cranking both these albums and really digging into them, which is something I tend not to do as much as I once did just because of the sheer volume of music that listen to. And of course now I want to pick up the earlier Bowie albums and the soul and German period stuff from the mid- to late '70s like Young Americans, Station to Station, Low and Heroes. This could take a while, but at the very least I can check that stuff out on Spotify. It's nice to know that musical exploration is something I'll be able to do for the rest of my life, and I still won't even scratch the surface of everything I want to hear.