Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes through the Ages

Nancy Tabor

From the Heart

I come from an error where James Taylor and Carly Simon ruled the roost. One of my favorites of hers was on the flip side call “Hotcakes” which went something like this: “Hotcakes, round and round. Sizzle. Round and Round. Sizzle. Round and Round. Now Stop. Now Flip ‘em. Then the music would swell and you would get this very syncopated riff of “Do, Dah, Doo, Doo, Dah, Dah, Doo, Doo, Doo, Dah.” Well you get the drift.

What does this have to do with anything? Well two days ago David Bowie died and he was hot cakes to me. When you take a look at his “top 10 hits” both critically and commercially (Watchmojo.com), many trends appear that really pop.

There are 10 songs I could touch on here but I am only going to stay with five. I’m choosing them in order but picking the ones I think have the most to say about this very interesting singer.

On the golden countdown comes Number 10, “Golden Years,” this being one of the older songs on the list. He is at his most tame. His usually auburn hair is muted and while there’s no doubt you want to shake it to this one, it’s less raucous and more steeped in funk and soul.

Next, at Number 8. “Young Americans” rolls in with a classic 1970s Samba tune. Here the light is brighter, swirling in yellows and reds and the music picks up faster as you can’t help but move to the beat. Here Bowie makes magic with a group of rockin’ backup singers and band that in some ways upstage his performance but not quite because he still delivers.

At Number 7 is somewhat of a turning point for the singer, his song “Heroes” which comes out of the shadows and is painfully subdued for this playful singer. His outfit: all black. The set: all pale. The sound and movement: agonizingly comatose.

At Number 5, his most iconic tune hits the charts, “Changes.” The man who changes outfits and poses more times than he can count creates an upbeat but fiery persona, with his face and body blanketed in blood red flanked by a flashing electric bolt. This is to be remembered in his vault of breakout tunes. It should be remembered because it is very danceable with a pulse.

An outtake from Duffy’s photo shoot for the album cover of David Bowie’s “Aladdin Sane” in 1973.

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And finally, last but not least at Number 1, Bowie’s strange but otherworldly number “Space Oddity” which was launched in 1969 with the Apollo 11 and a darling of both critics and audiences alike. Watchmojo.com calls this first hit “a mind blower”—his skeletal cheeks bathed in hot red light singing in a deadpan fashion about a macabre and compelling accidental occurrence which lives on today.

As the critic who compiled these tunes takes pains to point out that Bowie created some hits that were “to die for” and tempered them with punctuated guitar riffs, I quite agree that he was never to be matched in his hardened talents. Such is the incredibly sad and regretable  truth.