✅ Rolling Stone - David Bowie: 30 Essential Songs (2016)
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:02 pm
In the wake of David Bowie's death, Rolling Stone published a special edition focused on the late singer. Quite often, when Rolling Stone publishes these artist spotlights, they feature a ranked list of their best songs. Unfortunately, this issue contained no such list (quite a missed opportunity, if you ask me). But I did just notice that Rolling Stone did publish an unranked list on their website on January 11, 2016, entitled David Bowie: 30 Essential Songs, and appears to have been written by ten of the magazine's editors.
The list (presented in chronological order) is as follows:
"Space Oddity" (1969)
"The Man Who Sold the World" (1970)
"Changes" (1971)
"Life on Mars?" (1971)
"Five Years" (1972)
"All the Young Dudes" (1972)
"Ziggy Stardust" (1972)
"Starman" (1972)
"Moonage Daydream" (1972)
"Suffragette City" (1972)
"John, I'm Only Dancing" (1972)
"Rebel Rebel" (1974)
"Fame" (1975)
"Young Americans" (1975)
"Station to Station" (1976)
"TVC15" (1976)
"Sound and Vision" (1977)
"Warszawa" (1977)
"'Heroes'" (1977)
"Fantastic Voyage" (1979)
"Ashes to Ashes" (1980)
"Under Pressure" (1981)
"Let's Dance" (1983)
"China Girl" (1983)
"Modern Love" (1983)
"As the World Falls Down" (1986)
"I'm Afraid of Americans" (1997)
"Sunday" (2002)
"Where Are We Now?" (2013)
"Lazarus" (2016)
I'm kind of surprised that there is nothing from Aladdin Sane, and the title track from Blackstar is also absent. It would have been nice to see some more Hunky Dory ("Oh! You Pretty Things," perhaps?) and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" (although Ziggy Stardust is very well-represented), and where the heck is "Golden Years"? Nice to see Bowie's version of "All the Young Dudes" included, as well as "I'm Afraid of Americans" (it seems like everyone likes to crap on Earthling). While I understand the inclusion of "Where Are We Now?," I don't know if I'll ever understand why that song is loved so much more than "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)." It would have been nice to see what other songs could have benefited from a more expansive list (just 30, really?).
The list (presented in chronological order) is as follows:
"Space Oddity" (1969)
"The Man Who Sold the World" (1970)
"Changes" (1971)
"Life on Mars?" (1971)
"Five Years" (1972)
"All the Young Dudes" (1972)
"Ziggy Stardust" (1972)
"Starman" (1972)
"Moonage Daydream" (1972)
"Suffragette City" (1972)
"John, I'm Only Dancing" (1972)
"Rebel Rebel" (1974)
"Fame" (1975)
"Young Americans" (1975)
"Station to Station" (1976)
"TVC15" (1976)
"Sound and Vision" (1977)
"Warszawa" (1977)
"'Heroes'" (1977)
"Fantastic Voyage" (1979)
"Ashes to Ashes" (1980)
"Under Pressure" (1981)
"Let's Dance" (1983)
"China Girl" (1983)
"Modern Love" (1983)
"As the World Falls Down" (1986)
"I'm Afraid of Americans" (1997)
"Sunday" (2002)
"Where Are We Now?" (2013)
"Lazarus" (2016)
I'm kind of surprised that there is nothing from Aladdin Sane, and the title track from Blackstar is also absent. It would have been nice to see some more Hunky Dory ("Oh! You Pretty Things," perhaps?) and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" (although Ziggy Stardust is very well-represented), and where the heck is "Golden Years"? Nice to see Bowie's version of "All the Young Dudes" included, as well as "I'm Afraid of Americans" (it seems like everyone likes to crap on Earthling). While I understand the inclusion of "Where Are We Now?," I don't know if I'll ever understand why that song is loved so much more than "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)." It would have been nice to see what other songs could have benefited from a more expansive list (just 30, really?).