DEEP DISCOG DIVE: David Bowie

Rock n Roll Suicide is such an underrated Bowie song. It's a great ending to the Ziggy Stardust album but also holds out a message of hope. Personally, it has helped me through so much.

What makes "Blackstar" extraordinary is that Bowie turned dying into art. He knew he was on the verge of death and he did the one thing he knew he could rely on: He wrote songs. About life and death, his own and in general. It's a fitting end to a unique career.

when bowie died i was 16 and only knew the hits. his death caused me to dive into his catalogue and it was one of the best decisions I made for me as a young musician.

you're my youtuber of the year, keep making some of the best stuff on the website :)

Bowie’s music from the Labyrinth is SO UNDERRATED ! Within You and As the World Falls Down are some of his hidden gems.

Let's Dance is awesome! He did not sell out. He simply went into a new musical direction that just so happened to be popular at the time. Nothing wrong about this.

I'd love to see talk about The Velvet Underground's discography.

Everybody, including Bowie, is too hard on the Young Americans album. It’s a fantastic soul album, regardless of race.

God, the release of Blackstar was a weird time. It was coming out and there were really positive reviews pre-release about how it was this jazzy and dark album that feels simultaneously like a throwback to his early years and forward thinking. I actually hadn't listened to any of Bowie's work, but I was getting hyped so I downloaded all his albums and blitzed through them so that I could listen to Blackstar when it dropped (skipping from Let's Dance to Black Tie White Noise, based on the reputation of his middle albums). I fell in love with his music, and then immediately fell in love with Blackstar. It really did feel like an exciting new direction for a singer with a LONG discography. And then he died, and the conversation around the album instantly shifted from "what's next in Bowie's post-haitus post-Blackstar career" to "so, death was a prominent theme in that work, huh?" It's now considered his final artistic statement, and the album is certainly good enough and appropriate enough to warrant that, but I do miss those short two days in between the album dropping and his death, when the Blackstar wasn't a full stop, but the beginning of a new sentence.

I think his 90' - 00's is very underrated. I LOVE outside, earthling, heaven and reality

i'm not gonna lie, if bowie were still alive, Blackstar would still be among my favourites of his discography.

I love how David Bowie saw the good in all music and took inspiration from everything. That sort of open mindedness is essential for a musician.

You're honestly one of my favorites channels of all time, ily

I think what the narrator wanted to say about the Let’s Dance album is “Yes, it sounds INCREDIBLY 80s. But Let’s Dance has aged extremely well because of the fact that when you combine the talents at the level of David Bowie, Nile Rodgers, Tony Thompson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, great results are bound to happen.”

finally someone recognizes Alladin sane's greatness. It's my second favorite album oat.

While I agree that his first album was a little hit and miss (leaning towards the miss), I feel it's unfair to dismiss the Space Oddity record as more of the same outside of the title track and CC. Such an enchanting listen: Unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed is a great forshadowing of Bowie's longer, less straight-forward songs; Letter to Hermione is intimate and gorgeous; and Janine is some good pop songwriting. Where his Debut felt a lot like a young David Jones writing songs, Space Oddity feels to me like the first David Bowie album.

the man who sold the world is great. Its his first great album in my opinion

The Labyrinth Soundtrack is very underated.

I remember the day he passed. I’d just finished Blackstar the day before, it was just a normal afternoon when I heard what happened, and I legit cried. It was about half a year before I ever listened to Blackstar again, and my god it just hit so much differently. It seemed to me that Bowie was well aware that his time was near, and he wanted to leave what was the equivalent of his own eulogy for the rest of us. It’s tragic, but a beautiful sendoff to one of my favorite artists

Me, trying to get into Bowie for the first time: So HOW many records has this guy made??? He had no chill whatsoever!

There’s just something so special about David Bowie. Whether it’s the music, or the way he sings. I’ve liked him since I know him.

Out of all Bowie's albums, "Low" is probably my favorite. I didn't know about it until I watched some video on YT and then decided to listen to the Berlin Trilogy. Before doing so I knew most of his classic era and some songs from early 80s, so I had some idea how Low would sound like, and then - I was completely blown away. Brian Eno's influence on this album is fenomenal with use of synths, phase was good with great singles on side A and instrumental movie-soundtrack-like songs on B. They fell like taken straight of a sci-fi movie and I'm really sad they didn't appear in "Man who fell down to Earth" as they were meant to be. Other two albums of the trilogy don't even come close to "Low", especially "Heroes", which, in my opinion, is overrated. It has songs that feel different than anything in Bowie's career. I especially love "Warszawa", which I have a special attachment to, as Warsaw is where I was born and live. How he made this song sound both sad and full of hope is mindblowing, truly how 70s Warsaw would feel to a foreigner. In conclusion, Bowie's discography and "Low" is among one of the most influential albums in his career

I didn’t really get into Bowie until after he died. My sound of choice is modern pop, but my favorite artist is Gaga. Since she named Bowie as an influence, I consumed all his biggest hits and loved them, but so does everyone else who has a passing knowledge of his work. Thank you for this DDD Mic. It was heartfelt, insightful, respectful, and fun to watch 💕

I think a cool thing about both hunky dory and ziggy stardust is how they both use orchestral strings, I do t know why he didn’t continue this after those few songs

Not sure if this will ever happen, but a Weird Al discog dive would honestly be incredibly fun to watch

Some of the posthumous live releases are sublime. Personal favourites are "Welcome to the Blackout", which IMHO is a better document of an Isolar 2 tour show than Stage and "I'm Only Dancing" which is Diamond Dogs tour period after he went soul. The rawness and clarity of the sound on both is absolutely incredible.

24:20 "by time bowie got back to New York he was living like a king!" You can't just say that That hurt my heart

Never really paid attention to Bowie until I watched The Prestige and thought “Wow, this actor playing Tesla is great, who is this guy?” Edit: Having now listened to his entire discography multiple times, David Bowie is a damn legend. My personal favorites being Blackstar, Low, Ziggy, Hunky Dory, and Heroes with the title tracks of Heroes and Blackstar being my favorite songs of his. Heathen, Black Tie, Earthling, Young Americans, and Lodger are albums I also loved that aren't generally considered his "best". Such a great career and still oddly underrated simply because his hits are so overplayed at this point.

Ok, so Monsters is uneven, but Ashes to Ashes has the most unique sound palette of any commercially successful song. It’s my personal favourite Bowie track, and one of the greatest songs of all time. Also, Station to Station… before you finished saying the first Station I already wanted to listen to it. What an absolute beast of an album, what a stunning title track. What a shame it was at such a low personal point i in his life.

I actually like Lodger a lot, have listened to him today. It's a piece without a major hit and then, unmemorable. But it's really diverse and with different harmonies and pitched that catch me and want me to listen it in a loop. I understand that people don't care too much, specially compares with most memorables like the 2 previous others, but give it a chance. Easilly, is on my top 5 Bowie albuns.

He returns with a 46 minute Deep Discog Dive, holy hell, heaven is real

Fun fact about the guy who punched his eye, his name was George Underwood- and they where best friends at the time, and continued to be afterwards! George underwood (being a painter) helped Bowie work on numerous of his album covers

Black Star really does sound like an album with all the experience and weight of a 50 year career in mixing experimental music and pop. No one else could make that album and it took his whole life to get there.

As a huge Bowie fan I loved the poppiness of Tonight and Let's Dance since they were my window into the world of Bowie. I have since listened to every album and now can never really pick a favorite out of all his albums. The one album I can't bring myself to listen to is Blackstar. I listened to it when it was first released but once he passed I can't bring myself to listen to that masterpiece as I will cry so hard

“By the time he got back to New York, Bowie was living like a king” Nice reference

Blackstar is such a beautifully haunting record. The intro is just stunning, and it definitely motivated me to check out the rest of his work.

i think blackstar might be one of the greatest musical achievements ever quite honestly. to do a record of such quality while suffering and having it be one of the best of your career, better than probably anything you did in the last 25 years at least, is insane to me. and then to have a lot of the album reflecting on your life, as if you know your time’s ending, and then having it release and passing away shortly after - this is all just fascinating to me. i feel slightly inappropriate in saying that the album and its timing was a miracle, but i think it is. it’s really horrible that he died, but i think the fact that he did an exited with such a monumental and reflective statement is transcendent. i don’t think any other artist ever will do what David did by releasing blackstar. it’s as if he made the stars align for that moment, and made the universe take him on his own terms. because of all of this, i think blackstar is one of the most fascinating albums to ever be released. there’s something about it that feels transcendent, like one of the most ultimate statements of art to me. i am not sure why it intrigues me this much, but it really does.

If I'm completely honest.. David Bowie '67 is on of my favourite albums. There's this peculiar kitsch to it that's oddly appealing. I actually listen to it a lot along with Glass Spider. It's those story telling songs that make Bowie my all-time favourite artist. I also, 100% agree, Station to Station is an absolute masterpiece.

I would love to see a Beatles deep discography dive EDIT: And he took my advice

I can't say I would have listened to Blackstar if he hadn't died. I had become very bored with Bowie's albums since Earthling. But, the theme of the album is so apparent after his death. It's one of the albums where his lyrics seem clear now. "I know something is very wrong" , "Saying no but meaning yes", "That's the message that I sent", "I can't give everything away" wow. And it is an amazing album, and has caused me to revisit a lot of his older work I missed. Thats a silver lining to me.

As for the second album, I always felt "Unwashed" was a sign of things to come with a faint and distant Ziggy flare. But "Cygnet Committee" is very Ziggy-esque and yes, a great Bwie song.

I'm a bit late to this but David Bowie is a true figure in my mind. Good or bad. Whatever you see. He pushed all the way to the end & never seemed to really ever completely give up. Lazurus cane out right as my last grandmother died & it truly helped me accept mortality.

Fun facts about Bowie: I live in the countryside of Tuscany and I'm Always Surprise about the three weird links between my homeland and David Bowie. 1) In the 60's, Italy had the trend to take British and american songs and make an italian cover of that Song by an italian singer (for example i suggest the Italian cover of Stones' Paint it black by Caterina Caselli). We have an Italian cover of space oddity sung in Italian by David Bowie with his strong British accent. It named "ragazzo solo, ragazza sola" and It isn't about space but It was about a teen love story. 2) He Lost a contest for young musicians in 1969 in Monsummano terme, which Is a city Very near to where I live. 3) He starred in an italian Western movie in the late 90's with Leonardo Pieraccioni, the Italian Adam Sandler. And this movie was also made very near where i live, in the Mountains of Tuscany. Sorry for the wot but i wanna share this trivia with someone

I’ve always suspected that Bowie knew his time was short on Next. The line ‘The moment you know, you know you know ‘ on Where are we now to me says it all!

I used to argue with a colleague by telling him that Bowie and Madonna had a lot in common. Both were experts at taking other people's musical styles and making good records from them.

Prince would have an amazing Deep Discog Dive, easily the most expansive solo discography ive ever seen. Good luck avoiding the copyright on that one though.

I know Bowie fans usually hate it (too commercial) but Let's Dance is truly amazing ! I also love listening to Station To Station and Low.

Bowie was my first deep discog dive. Love his albums.

My favorite Bowie song has to be "Word On A Wing", Bowie's performance is haunting but incredible and outstanding, one of the best songs ever made imo

Black Star is especially great if you consider the death. Check Polyphonic's video on why that is. It's so fitting as a last piece of music one puts out, it's insane. Cohen's last non-post-humous album, You Want It Darker, has the same feeling. They're introspective, calm somewhat?, tender, and really, really awesome.

He's one of the few musicians I love so dearly.

As the world falls down always make me cry because it’s so beautiful even though it was written for a movie

I remember on my last day of high school I blasted space oddity on my headphones and walked through my school for the last time. It was completely unreal that something was coming to an end for me. I plan to listen to it on my wedding day to.

Personally I consider the young americans album a classic. songs like somebody up there likes me, win and the complex vocal arrangement of right blow me away. Love your picks but id definitely add young americans to a "must" listen x

Bowie's acting career is absolutely fascinating in tandem with his musical career. The Man Who Fell to Earth and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence are two that I think are particularly interesting

I’ve never really listened to David Bowie other than his hits but this has finally made me look into it after a very long 14 years of life being called Bowie. It’s astonishing I’m named Bowie and don’t even know many of his albums or his history. I’ve never met anyone else with the name Bowie though, has anyone met someone called Bowie? Im sure there’s more people out there somewhere.

I've been listening to "Outside" since 1995 and I keep finding new sounds and things in it. So dense. I feel fortunate that I so far have had 26 years to deep dive into what I believe is one of Bowie's (and Eno's) finest moments. Why it keeps being to underrated I don't understand. People don't WANT to get it. But they can if they would actually listen, I think.

Station to Station was one of the first cds I ever bought, and I really didn't even know who David Bowie was, I just knew I loved Wild is the Wind. Anyway, I could not believe how good it was, I listened to it on repeat for weeks. Then a couple years ago, I discovered that's when he was at his absolute rock bottom and honestly it makes me feel so strange. The album is a masterpiece, but it came at such a cost and so many people will never know, they'll just bop their heads and sing along, just like I used to.

Adoro tutti gli album di Bowie....stesso artista ma atmosfere e melodie diverse...per questo lo seguo da 40 anni...non è mai stato ripetitivo....un genio che ha precorso i tempi...sempre....Blackstar ne è la prova...Bowie è riuscito a surclassare anche la sua morte....grandissimo Ziggy...love forever

Well done. There has never been a better musical artist than David Bowie.

I took a whole 3 credit History of Music class on David Bowie’s career in college. I got more out of this 49 minute video than the 14 weeks of that class. Well done, I really enjoyed it.

Sound and Vision has become a sacrament for me. I listen to it as rarely as I can, when I feel like I really need to, and never twice in a row, and it's like an instant nirvana. I hope its magic lasts for as long as I live, because if it doesn't I have no idea how to replace it.

Blackstar is an incredible album, easily a top 5 Bowie album for me

Great video! I wish you had touched on Bowie's fascination with the occult and mysticism though as it is a defining subtext to all of his works. If you really want to understand Blackstar read Transcendental Magic by Éliphas Lévi (it is listed as one of his top 100 books).

Blackstar, I would say, is a kind of underrated song and album. Edit (2 years later): Within You and Underground (both from Labyrinth) isn't too bad.

Stumbled on this and I am so happy I did. Love David Bowie, sang Starman to my son as a lullaby when he was a little baby, have Bowie lyrics tattooed on my arm, and my wife even bought be a wonderful Heroes themed piece of art for my birthday. The man was an icon and this deep dive captured that very well.

Do a Soulja Boy Deep Discog Dive next year.

I liked The Laughing Gnome. His Anthony Newley phase is not to be ignored. I was scared to check this out because you are young and Bowie is such an icon. You did fine. Heathen is an amazing album. You didn't mention his time in Tin Machine. I wondered why that was. It's really important in understanding Bowie to mention that Tin Machine helped him take a break from the stuff in the 80's and get recentered. Once he did that, he was able to head into the 90's making music for himself, that he found interesting.

The "Lady Stardust" demo version - with just Bowie and a piano - is one of my favorite recordings of his. You can find it on the Rykodisc re-release of Ziggy Stardust.

he was and forever will be legend

The track Win on Young Americans, despite being an imitation of soul, is a beautiful song.

I was 12 when I was first heard Bowie singing Starman on tv and since then he has been a major part of my life. Can you imagine what it was like listening to those albums in the early years. For me , he was an alien who had come from nowhere with the most incredible lyrics and music. My favourite albums are Ziggy stardust, hunky dory, station to station, low, heroes and (sorry, I have to disagree with you) scary monsters. His last album Blackstar is also just stunning. I feel like my life has been so much better with David Bowie always there, I was shocked and beyond sad when he died.

Maybe you could do a Lou Reed deep discog dive? Dude's career had it's low points, comeback albums, underrated records, all while making lots of changes, and cementing his legacy as one of the most influential artists of all time

My favorite Bowie songs and albums were the ones most heavily criticized. Curious. But he made his point objetcively. I think "Station to Station" is one of Bowie's best songs ever, and I absolutely love the album "Man of words, man of music" as a whole. And not considering "Hours" an absolute masterpiece, calling it "boring", actually shocked me, but I guess different people have different preferences. 🙂

Anyone else notice that when Bowie passed away the Earth has been steadily going to crap? Five years, that's all we've got.

I remember seeing the Lazarus video the day before he died and I was like "damn.... I wanna learn more about his music!"

Low is personally my favourite Bowie album. It sounds like nothing else in this world

I'm just gonna say it. The Man Who Sold the World is as good as anything else he released.

Bowie also helped produce Lou Reed's Transformer album (classic), mixed the original version of Raw Power by The Stooges as well as co writing and producing Iggy Pop's albums 'The Idiot' and 'Lust For Life' (he also played a bunch of instruments on it and played keyboard on it's tour which can be heard on the Iggy Pop live album TV Eye) which are two of Iggy's best solo albums.

yeah, so I rewatched this. you asked to name off a favorite Bowie performance.....April 22, 2004 at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles. no performance by anyone will ever top this and I'm glad I was there to witness it. It started the day before my 29th birthday and ended around 12:30AM on April 23rd, 2004....my 29th birthday. Happy birthday to me indeed.

David’s first album compared to his future writings gives me hope

Thank you for this. I had no idea Bowie was making music into the nineties, let alone into the 2010s!

I actually like 1. Outside. 'A Small Plot of Land' and 'I'm Deranged' are awesome

It's an interesting piece of trivia that not only did David Bowie remain life long friends with the boy who punched him in the eye during that school yard fight, but that he would collaborate with him on many of David Bowie's album covers. That's right, the boy who punched David Bowie in the eye is world renowned artist George Underwood.

Bowie's is arguably my favourite career-spanning discography in all of music. I never get tired of listening to ut, talking about it, hearing about it. Its one of my favourite topics of discussion period.

Honestly Hereos is the best starting point for Bowie It's what got me hooked as a kid and the way he sings his heart out in the middle of that track. Life changing

I was kind of hoping that immediately after you said “well-aged” in reference to Let’s Dance, the Asian-eyes thing he did in the China Girl video would play

I don't usually comment on videos at all, but your channel - especially this series - is amazing. Please never stop.

I got to see his Reality tour! I was much too young, and I was too tired to dance by the end, but it was amazing. One of the best concerts on that tour, supposedly. It was a "birthday gift," but I just think my dad had no one else to go with.

The space oddity slander is ridiculous. I fucking love that album. It's so raw and emotional throughout the album it's beautiful.

Why does 2000s Bowie look like the villain from National Treasure

Up until I heard Fantastic Planet by Failure, Blackstar was my absolute favorite album of all time. It still has a very special place in my heart.

A David Berman DDD would be really interesting, he’s definitely not as large a name as the other artists covered previously, but his body of work is impressive and worth sharing with individuals who haven’t heard his music before.. (the natural bridge is a god tier album btw)

27:15 Fun fact: David Bowie invented the music video with Love Me Till Tuesday. The closest thing before this is Bob Dylan in the video where he held up the lyrics to the song. David Bowie got the inspiration for music videos from learning how to mime, and he used that to make video performances where he would mime the lyrics to his own songs.

Lodger and Scary Monsters are among my favourite and most replayed Bowie albums

Bowie's first album is brilliant! Nothing like it in pop.

I love that The Laughing Gnome is the first song on the playlist!!! That’s a deep meme cut right there

Very informative. Very entertaining. Very funny. Very clever storytelling and edition. Thanks for sharing your talent and your insights on Bowie!

Bowie has been my favorite artist for the last several years and at this point I think he affected my personality more than my own parents haha. My favorite record of his is probably the song heroes, as well as the album, also five years from ziggy stardust, and black star the album, of course. Rip. He was truly a legend and a genius.

Watching this I kept thinking that I will give a listen to more of his music, and that there was a great musicanship involved - but also that he was incredibly ambitious and wanted to be on top of the world artistically. In some sense, music was just a tool to do this. But there are actually few artists who have this strong drive and who don't stop when they reach success. This is why he would never simply repeat himself. Thanks for the video!