Customer Reviews

Best of 1974-1979

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

From CD jacket, this looks like a great deal - 18 of David Bowie's good songs including a couple of rarities. But wait, how did they fit 18 Bowie songs on a single CD? Most of his tunes, the good ones in particular are over six minutes long, right? Easy, butcher them. You know, cut out the long saxaphone rifts in the middle of Young Americans (I thought my CD player was skipping the first time), the end of Heroes. As long as people here the bits where he is singing they'll be happy right?

And record companies wonder why people want to be able to freely copy their own songs and make their OWN "best of" collections? Well guys, keep churning out stuff like this and see how long people are willing to pay for it...

I always hated Rykodisc's "The Singles" double CD because of the presence of severely edited tracks. Why would they go to all the trouble of gathering so much good music, but then chop the songs up? When I heard these new "Best of..." CDs were out and saw the track listings, I felt better about the whole mess, and I bought this one. Well, Virgin is apparently taking a cue from Rykodisc and including pared-down "radio edits" which omit essential elements of Bowie's great songs (such as the distorted guitar solo of Young Americans). I hate to break it to these out-of-touch fools, but this is NOT the version the radio stations play! When I saw that the disk contained extra CD-ROM material, I hoped that there would be some pictures/videos/interviews to calm my blood pressure, but it was only an advertisement for his website. Curse all of them. Don't get suckered into buying this.

I find it funny when people review a compilation cd and criticize it for either not having their favorite songs or for having edited versions of songs. These songs became hits because they were played on the radio. The versions that were played on the radio were edited! I am probably different than most in that I enjoy having an edited version on a compilation, since most of the songs I already have the album version on the album. What does bother me is when obvoius hits are left off in leu of other material or worse just left off leaving 15 or 20 minutes of space on a cd that could have been filled! Look at The Police, Synchronicity II, Secret Journey and So Lonely were all singles and left off of most compilations of theirs. My ownly complaint about this particular compilation is that of another reviewer in that it did not go up to 1980 and include songs from Scary Monsters.

It wouldn't have killed the record company to extend this into a six-year retrospective - 1974-1980, which would then have included songs from what is arguably Bowie's greatest album, 'Scary Monsters and Super Creeps'. What you're left with instead is a severely butchered selection - and a fairly predictable one at that. (There's considerable overlap with 'Changes2Bowie' and other compilations - but, hey, when you're just out to make money, stick to what works!) This artist deserves a more thoughtful, better presented retrospective of his most fertile and influential period, especially as he has now ceased to make worthwhile music.

This great compilation reflects my favourite Bowie period, the middle to late seventies. Drawn from the albums Young Americans, Station To Station, Heroes and Lodger, it covers his "plastic soul" excursion, the Thin White Duke period and the three albums of synth experimentation. The sequence of tracks is odd - I think a chronogical one would have made more sense. My favorite tracks from Low are here: the sublime Sound & Vision and the ominous Breaking Glass, of which the latter inspired Nick Lowe's brilliant song I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass from 1978. Station To Station, in my opinion the best ever Bowie album, provides the energetic TVC15, the classic soulful Golden Years and the wistful ballad Wild Is The Wind, but a serious omission has been the magnificent Word On a Wing, one of the greatest and most poetic Bowie tracks of all time with its transcendent spiritual quality, its inspired lyrics and soaring melody. Fame and Young Americans, the "plastic soul" songs, still sound good after all these years, especially next to the disco version of John, I'm Only Dancing. I don't find some of these tracks from Heroes, like Secret Life Of Arabia or Beauty And The Beast, as memorable as some of the other songs here, but I love his cover of Knock On Wood and of course the title track of Heroes remains a landmark composition, one of the most psychologically trenchant songs of all time. Artists as diverse as Blondie and Nico have covered it and I still listen to the German and the French versions on vinyl. To me, Lodger was the least satisfying of the trilogy of Eno albums, but Boys Keep Swinging still swings after all these years and I remember its dramatic video clip from 1979. I consider this his most creative period based on the sheer quality of songs such as Sound & Vision, Breaking Glass, Heroes, Golden Years, Fame, Young Americans and Wild Is The Wind. That's why, although I regret the omission of the breathtaking Word On A Wing, I have awarded this album five stars

The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979 starts off sounding invincible. The first four tracks are some of Bowie's very best songs, certainly of the latter half of the 70s. "Sound & Vision", "Golden Years", "Young Americans", and "Fame" are all taut, meticulously crafted, shimmering chunks of white soul and white funk. "Fame" - an unlikely candidate for his first #1 single - starts off with those slithery riffs that became a Bowie trademark during this era, and which pop up more than a few times on this disc. Several of the lesser-known tracks included here - "Can You Hear Me", "Look Back In Anger", "Breaking Glass" - are damn good, too.

Some have been critical of this disc for the reason that several of the songs ("Golden Years", "Young Americans", "TVC 15", "Heroes") are presented in their single-edit form. Yes, this is unfortunate, but almost all career-spanning compilations of Bowie's career do the same thing. Thus, I consider this to be a forgivable shortcoming. It is also too bad that the disc is cut off in 1979, since it has become a rule in rock criticism to describe every decent new release by Bowie to be his best since Scary Monsters, which was released in 1980. Again, forgivable. In my opinion, the major flaw of this CD is the absence of the song "Be My Wife". This is one of Bowie's best hard pop songs from this era, and its absence leaves its parent CD, Low, represented by only two tracks, whereas Young Americans, Station To Station, Heroes, and Lodger are all represented by three. This omission is particularly disturbing when one considers the fact someone judged the 7-minute "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)" to be more worthy of inclusion. (The 3-disc, 39-track set Singles 1969-1993 swaps "Breaking Glass" for "Be My Wife", leaving Low better represented in terms of quality, if still not quantity.)

Still, as a collection of Bowie's latter 70s songs, 1974/1979 is about as good as one could hope. As stated above, four of his albums from this era are represented by 3 songs each, so his collaborations with Brian Eno are featured prominently. Since it begins chronologically in the same year that the previous compilation left off, there is also space for the topically trite but musically dynamic "1984" from Diamond Dogs. And like the 1969/1974 disc, this one also has two cover songs: "Knock on Wood" from David Live and an interesting take on Bruce Springsteen's "It's Hard To Be a Saint in the City". The fan who is reluctant to purchase Bowie's CDs from the late 70s - which is understandable, since there are many experimental instrumentals on them - will find about all they need on this disc. It achieves a rare feat for a compilation: it does the artist justice.

So why 4 1/3 stars instead of 5? Well, I can recommend the 1969/1974 compilation to anyone, but I would never suggest that one buy it in place of the CDs The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, or Ziggy Stardust. Those albums are just too good. However, I can recommend that the frugal Bowie newcomer start with 1974/1979 before moving on to the proper albums from this era. Granted, these albums were challenging and cutting edge, but not as equally brilliant and entertaining as the early ones. (Oops, if I had any rock critic cred to lose, that statement would do it for me.) Thus, I would give this collection 5 stars for usefulness, but not for how good all of the material is. Yes, some of it is great, but some of it...not so much. But Bowie should certainly be praised for his willingness to shed the Ziggy Stardust image, and his ability to successfully mine new musical territory.

(While reviewing the 2 compilations of Bowie's 70s material, I discovered that there is now a 3-CD, 57-track set available called The Platinum Collection. This includes both 1969/1974 and 1974/1979, as well as a 1980/1987 disc. The disc of 80s material is not, as far as I can tell, available as a disc by itself. This is unfortunate for those who already have the other two, but for those who have none of them, it makes The Platinum Collection all the more with the money, as 1980/1987 contains four songs from Scary Monsters, "Under Pressure", and all the MTV hits that one would expect.)

This David Bowie captures his career of the second half of the 1970s. It really shows the best songs from the period like 1984 and young americans.

Best of David Bowie: 1974-1979 is a compilation of Bowie's hits between 1974 and 1979 and was released 1998. It contains such hits as "Heroes", "Golden Years" and "1984" to mention a few. The CD booklet has a very odd cover with an altered photo of Bowie but we get excellent liner notes written by Kevin Cann. 4/5.

I can't believe some of the negative reviews on here (especially the guy who calls the album a 'desecration' because some of the songs are single edits- you need to get out more, my friend). Actually, this album is a perfect introduction to Bowie's most interesting and, in my opinion, his best period. This really is an intoxicating stew- Here we have plastic soul (Young Americans, Can You Hear Me), Krautrock-influenced rock-funk (TVC15), heart-stopping balladry (Wild is the Wind), electro-pop (Sound and Vision) and avant-garde guitar noise (check the startlingly weird guitar solo on Boys Keep Swinging). There's even a great version of Knock on Wood, from the coked-up David Live. To be honest, after getting into this stuff, Bowie's glam period, great as it is, just sounds a little conventional in comparison, mainly because the late 70s saw Bowie experiment with different procedures for making music. For instance, Sound and Vision has no vocals for almost 2 minutes (very unusual for a pop single), and on Boys Keep Swinging, Bowie instructed the musicians to swap instruments, giving the song a suitably shambolic, teen-punk feel. 'Chance' procedures were also employed on Low and Lodger through the influence of Brian Eno.

All of the albums from the period are well-represented, except Low, (which is his best album, so you should own it anyway). Although some of the tracks are edited (TVC15, Young Americans, Heroes, Golden Years), this doesn't matter, because if you come to this album as an introduction, never having heard the originals, you won't notice this anyway. In fact, Heroes and The Secret Life of Arabia (another gem) actually sound better than on the "Heroes" remaster, which has a thinner mix.

The only stinkers are It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City, which is pretty dreadful, and the disco version of John, I'm Only Dancing, which is actually rather enjoyable in a camp, Bee-Gees kind of way;) One thing's for sure, Bowie was never less than interesting during this period, whether or not his experiments came off successfully.

Def. not 'the best of' in this period.. but still great stuff.