Customer Reviews

Changesbowie

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rykodisc Records originally released "Changesbowie" in 1990 to take advantage of David Bowie's "Sound and Vision" world tour that year. The tour itself was to promote Bowie's catalogue being released on CD by the small, then-independent label.

Despite being docked one star for its pointless re-mix of the #1 hit "Fame," this Bowie hits collection remains the best career-spanning, one-disc retrospective of his career. Taken together, Bowie's stylistic ch-ch-ch-ch-changes form a template of 70s rock; "Rebel Rebel," "Suffragette City," and "Jean Genie" constantly shift and evolve while never edging closer to the listener. Even after nearly 30 years they remain cool, strange; lyrics vaguely out of reach with music updating the hybrid British soul ("Fashion," "Golden Years"), British blues ("Ziggy Stardust"), British music hall. Few other than Bowie could kidnap American music styles to match such free-flowing lyric imagery. Even with the personal, painful vignettes of "Young Americans," this remains among the least sensitive, least intimate music any solo performer has ever made (at least until Nile Rodgers comparatively warm but trademark style on 1983's huge hits "Let's Dance" and "China Girl.")

The exciting time of discovery between Bowie fans and the CD format has come and gone. Bowie shifted his copyrights to Virgin Records, re-released his catalogue on the original LP form (at full price), and removed the bonus tracks that made those Rykodisc sets a revelation. This import remains faithful to Ryko's original approach; it, and the other Bowie CDs Ryko released, are of better value than either the new Virgin releases or RCA Victor originals, worth picking up wherever available. "Changesbowie" was victim to record company changes, but remains David Bowie's essential compilation.

This great snippet of Bowie hits should give one a taste of what this genius did for the music of today. He is truly a part of rock and roll history, and I don't mean that in some sort of old farty way - this guy still rocks, and went through so many 'changes' as this CD depicts, yet he is still out there...

Enjoy his peak moments, and listen, and you will soon realize that his influence never really stopped. Can one 'dance the blues'? Who knows, but after tasting this music, one has to stop and ponder at what this guy really started...and it's good!

Buy this and take home some true rock history without feeling like you bought Buddy Holly or something that the mass market told you was 'rock and roll history'....

David Bowie has an amazing history behind him, and this album shows how he has evolved musically. The only way it could give more variety would be to include some of his work from the 60's, but the album is quite sufficient without it. I would have liked to see starman on it.

The album is simply a must for anyone. DB has gone through so many styles musically that there has to be something that any music fan will enjoy (though songs from my favorite "earthling" and "hours" aren't on here) and it serves as a wonderful introduction to DB. A person ignorant of DB's work might not even be able to tell that the same musical genius did every song on it.

Simply a great cd. Good for any music collection, and a wonderful intro to DB. Nothing else can communicate his vast talent and ability like this collection of his work over multiple decades.

David Bowie saved Rock music from the turgid, monolithic, adolescent, linear sounds of the mid-70's and 80's, as Prince and the grundge bands were to save Rock again in the nineties. This CD show why. Although the breadth of Bowie's work really needs a boxed set, this is an excellent single-disc collection of Bowie's most popular years (although you'll undoubtedly regret the exclusion of one or more of your favorites: No "TVC-15," "Cracked Actor," no works from "Station to Station," "Low," or his brilliant "Pinups").

Still, I recommend it highly as a brief, but representative sampling of his prodigious output. Sound quality is excellent, but not much in the way of liner notes except personnel. Overall, some of the absolute greatest rock music in history.

Compilation albums are someting I useally dislike quite very much. They seem to always be confusing and downright misrepresentitive. Not in this case. Bowie managed to put together a very good "hits only" LP. Begining with the 1969 birth of Major Tom in "Space Oddity" through the Ziggy Stardust period and the poppy glam of "Yonung Americans" and "Sound & Vision", ending with a suprisigly good and funky 1990 version of "Fame". For those of you how have not been living on planet earth for the last 31 years and are unfamiliar with Bowie's body of work, this album is a good place to start. For all the rest of you, you probably don't need this, unless you want to listen to some David Bowie while driving your car.

So this is an Import now? I'm glad I bought it 10 years ago at one of NY's best record shops for half this price. Anyway, this is the definitive collection of his Top 10 singles & best album cuts. Enormously talented, for many years the release of David Bowie's albums was an event, you never knew what he'd come out with next, he always kept you guessing. This is highly recommended.

DAVID BOWIE-CHANGESBOWIE: If ever a word aptly described the former David (Don't call me a Monkee!) Jones, the title of his ethereal early classic CHANGES would be it. From the serenely eerie SPACE ODDITY to the wham-glam of JEAN GENIE and SUFFRAGETTE CITY, the neo-soul of YOUNG AMERICANS and GOLDEN YEARS to the coldly calculated club floor cut LET'S DANCE, Bowie seldom repeated himself, utilizing bits of SYD BARRETT, LOU REED, IGGY POP, and BRIAN ENO as he explored various genres. A seamless combination of his CHANGESONEBOWIE and CHANGESTWOBOWIE anthologies, here is most everything you could ask for hits-wise, the lone downer being a jittery, flatulent remix of FAME. Throughout his long career, the Thin White Duke smartly partnered with an impressive line of stellar guitar foils, including MICK RONSON, CARLOS ALOMAR, ROBERT FRIPP, and a pre-fame STEVIE RAVE ON...though there was never any question as to whom was the real STARMAN.

RATING: FIVE OH BOWIES!

I was looking for a good compliation, one that had all the hits and a bit more. This turned out to be a good choice. I have been thinking that the Thin White Duke had lost his relevance, but his creativity really comes through with this package.

Label changes can create headaches not only for the artist but for the music buyer. During Bowie's RCA years, there was ChangesOneBowie and ChangesTwoBowie. When Ryko bought his back catalogue, (Space Oddity to Scary Monsters) a single Changesbowie CD, consisting of his old RCA singles and EMI singles came out in 1990, and this is what launched the discovery of old Bowie for me.

Absent from this 18-song greatest hits is anything from The Man Who Saved The World, Low, and Lodger. However, the essentials are here, such as "Space Oddity," "Changes," "Ziggy Stardust," "Rebel Rebel," and the three Let's Dance singles that catapulted him to a new audience, myself included.

Well, if there's going to a single disc of Bowie's greatest hits, this would probably be it for me. This is available only as an import and is the best place to get "John I'm Only Dancing," which was added as a bonus track on one of Bowie's Ryko reissue albums--I think it was Ziggy Stardust. Also included here is "Fame 90," which is perfect if you don't want to buy the Pretty Woman soundtrack.

This is a mere condensed pocket history of David Bowie. Small wonder that in order to get the full effect of Bowie's material, the Singles Collection 1969-1993, a more complete but less portable collection, was released three years later.

this is the man who created one of the greatest dance tune's of all time...that of course, being the disco-like "let's dance." this is a musthave for bowie fans and an essential introduction for those who have never heard much of his music. david bowie has a voice that is distinctly bowie. he has a fashion sense that is distinctly bowie. the man is in a class all in his own.