David Bowie’s prominence began in 1971

Following initial single "Space Oddity," his unique sound took off

I first recall hearing the 1971 song “Changes” by David Bowie sometime in my early childhood, including the hook of the chorus, the stuttered “Ch-ch-ch-changes”, and the descending bassline. It stuck in my mind and intrigued me. Once Bowie was popular in the mainstream for his 1983 album “Let’s Dance” and its less successful follow-up, 1984’s “Tonight”, I tried filling the hole in my record collection with a 1984 singles collection from his 70s output, 1984’s “Fame and Fashion”. That record includes a good number of his hit songs, but I was, by that time, aware of some excellent material from before his mainstream hits, songs like “Suffragette City” and “Boys Keep Swinging”, and I wanted to locate those songs that I missed.

I called upon my buddy Andy White to let me to borrow a copy of the 1976 compilation, “ChangesoneBowie”, and from that album, I got better acquainted with “Ziggy Stardust”, “Golden Years”, and a song Andy had been talking about when we worked together, “Rebel, Rebel”. Once I got the album myself, I struggled to find more of Bowie’s output, because he was in a dispute with RCA Records about multiple compilations released without his input. So, it was not until his catalog began a re-release campaign in 1990 that I was able to begin collecting his albums from the start of his career up until that year.

The first releases were 1969’s “Space Oddity”, 1970’s “The Man Who Sold The World”, and 1971’s “Hunky Dory”. “Space Oddity”, despite its famous single, bore little resemblance as a whole to what was to come from Bowie in the next three years. Despite the later cover of its title track by Nirvana on its MTV Unplugged session in 1994, “The Man Who Sold the World” is still Bowie looking to focus his Rock approach. Produced by his later foil, Tony Visconti, the record introduces some of his most important bandmates, including lead guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey. These two musicians would play a bigger role in Bowie’s plan for Glam Rock success.

“Hunky Dory”, features Bowie on the cover in an artistically rendered photo that asserts androgyny. In the United States, the cover bore no title, a move that demonstrated either RCA’s certainty in the album or its indifference. “Changes” leads off the album and is followed by “Oh! You Pretty Things”, which almost plays like a sister song, with its refrain, “Don’t you know you’re driving your mommies and poppies insane.” The track keeps the album’s mid-tempo, heavy-mental lyrical twists coming, and I found myself returning to the largely mellow “Hunky Dory” more often than its harder Rock predecessor.

The bluesy lead guitar introduction to “Eight Line Poem” transitions into some piano/vocal interplay from Bowie, giving way to probably the album’s most gorgeous and highest concept song, “Life on Mars”. Interestingly, the title refers to the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States which was happening at the time rather than a science fiction theme as many of us listeners initially believed.

“Life On Mars” is a subtle satire of the Paul Anka-written/Frank Sinatra-performed hit “My Way” from 1969, a song which Bowie had been initially consulted to translate from a French song, “Comme d’habitude” by Claude François. The strings, the vocals, and the beautiful piano performance from Strawbs keyboardist Rick Wakeman all coalesce to make a high-level piece of aural majesty. Interestingly, the piano used on the song is the same exact instrument as was used by Paul McCartney on “Hey Jude” and Freddie Mercury a few years later on “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This was because the songs were all recorded at the now-defunct Trident Studios in London, England.

Bowie would have turned 75 years old on January 8. That “Changes” was originally released fifty years and one day before he turned 25 now seems a poignant event. Bowie was a cultural change agent, and his theme song remains that lead track from “Hunky Dory”, the first in a long line of outstanding recordings. For proof of Bowie’s brilliance, begin there.

©2022, 2025 Alex McGill