The Sleeve:
The Liner/Sleeve Notes:
None.
Personal Review:
I’ve always been one of Bowie’s biggest fans, and this being one of his greatest albums, I figured what they hey, haven’t reviewed Bowie in a while and listen to this record enough to want to review it. And here we are.
The album opens with one of Bowie’s most widely known song “Space Oddity“, the title track of the album (known to a lot of people in this current generation as being in that Adam Sandler film “Mr. Deeds” – god that movie was awful.) The song starts off pretty slowly, with some ambient noises and boy begins to sing his self duet, which is one of the most beautiful and psychedelic pieces of music – ever. The chorus eventually comes in and it’s so beautiful, (I remember once I had performed this song in front of a huge audience – no one understood.) anyways, it’s such a great song – so great Bowie wrote a squeal for it. Oh, and we can’t forget that there was that other guy who wrote a sequel for it also. After that comes a really great Bowie track, can almost be a top favorite if I didn’t have so many favorite Bowie songs, “Unwashed and Somewhat Slighty Dazed” comes, and the whole thing is a masterpiece, the vocals rock and the musicianship is amazing. “And now you can spend the morning talking with me quite amazed, because I’m raving mad and somewhat slightly dazed” – oh and the other line “there are children in the washroom, holding hands with the Queen” – this jam session going is absolutely beautiful. Then after that comes an intermission, so to speak, “(Don’t Sit Down)” which is a little bit of guitar playing, Bowie laughing and repeating the song title. After that comes the song “Letter to Hermione” and it’s not bad, soft, smooth and really great. The A-Side closes with the song “Cygnet Committee” and it’s another really nicely done psychedelic track, a lot like the second one, starts off slowly, then there is some drum playing and it picks up, Bowie sings amazingly the whole track. Eventually it begins to slow down, and Bowie turns it into an amazing ballad, getting more and more emotional as he continues sing on, the musicianship getting more and more beautiful as the song goes on. I can’t even take how greatly done this is, Bowie is so great. It’s like oh my god. Then boom. He goes back to singing slow and soft, I thought I was going to explode. Then it goes into the drumming again. The spacey thing happens again, and we’re all still amazed by Bowie. The guitar playing rocks by the way, it’s so amazing. Then there is another build up again, and boom! Ballad moment, Bowie singing like he is almost on the verge of tears, and the song gets sadder as Bowie does. “The silent guns of love will blast the sky!” why this this song so sad? Bowie gives it all in this track, and it’s 9 minutes of Bowie doing that, and it goes to show how great of a musician Bowie is, just belting it all out. Why is this happening? “I believe in the power of good, I believe in the state of love!” and it keeps going! The musicianship though. “And I want to believe!” I believe Bowie, holy mother of fuck I am a believer in David Bowie! “We want to live!” Bowie! Yes! Do it. Right now! Yes. Okay, I’m getting really carried away with this. And the A-Side ends.
The B-Side however opens with the song “Janine” which reminds me of an old internet friend by the same name, who I once told her about this song and her response to be was “You’re weird.” – nevertheless, Bowie just keeps going on and giving it all, I’m really enthusiastic about David Bowie. I love how he pronounces Janine. “Juuuuhnin” Bowie is so great. I love Bowie. “An Occasional Dream” follows next, it’s a slower song, but still a pretty good one, heck there is even some flute playing, and it’s not bad! I don’t even like flutes! “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud” comes next, and I feel another really good psychedelic track is coming around, if not it’ll still be amazing. No one is going to complain around these parts. Where is this new build up and musical outflow coming from, it’s amazing and beautiful and I love it! Like wow! This album is amazing. This whole album is amazing beautiful, Bowie just kicks it off and let’s it all out and it could make an amazing rock opera! I could see it now. Beautiful. The next song is “God Knows I’m Good” which is a song about a little old lady who gets caught shoplifting “a tin of stewing meat” and she gets nervous and begins to cry the songs title, I think she got caught because she was shady. Oh, she fainted. Also, she cries the song title again. The album closes with another long track, “Memory of a Free Festival” follows next, and it opens with some organ playing, and David Bowie saying the song title, before he eventually starts to sing after enough organ playing. Bowie sings this song so softly, and it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of music you could ever hear, and the emotion in Bowie’s voice is another surefire giveaway for his amazing voice and expertise in his field. He’s just such a talented man, and has all the right to flaunt it. If you haven’t listened to this album get a copy… we go into a psychedelic part again by the way, everything seems to get distorted, and you hear some inaudible voices and laughing before Bowie begins to sing “the sun machine is coming down and we’re gonna have a party…” over and over, slowly as the backing voices become audible and they’re singing the same thing as Bowie, and it’s slightly creepy but cool at the same time. I’m really liking this. The album really just continues and slowly fades out with that line being repeated over and over, not complaining, it’s cool and stuff. This whole album rocked. Bowie is amazing. I love him.
Interesting Facts:
None.
Track Listing:
A1 – Space Oddity
A2 – Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed
A3 – Letter to Hermione
A4 – Cygnet Committee
B1 – Janine
B2 – An Occasional Dream
B3 – Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
B4 – God Knows I’m Good
B5 – Memory of a Free Festival
Label:
EMI
Catalog Number:
DB SOLP 40
Studio Musicians & Other Album Credits:
All Songs Written by David Bowie
Producer – Tony Visconti
Arranged by David Bowie & Tony Visconti
Engineered by Ken Scott, Malcolm Toft & Barry Sheffield
‘Space Oddity’ Produced by Gus Dudgeon
‘Space Oddity’ Arranged by David Bowie & Paul Buckmaster
Other Albums I Own by David Bowie:
“Aladdin Sane”
“ChangesOneBowie”
“ChangesTwoBowie”
“China Girl / Shake It”
“David Live”
“Diamond Dogs”
“Hunky Dory”
“Images 1966/67”
“Let’s Dance”
“Let’s Dance / Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
“Life on Mars?: 40th Anniversary”
“Loving the Alien (Extended Mix) / Don’t Look Down”
“Never Let Me Down”
“The Next Day”
“Pin-Ups”
“The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”
“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)”
“Stage”
“Station to Station”
“Tonight”
“Young Americans”
Other Albums I Own That David Bowie Appears On:
Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time? / Feed the World”
David Bowie & Pat Metheny Group – “This is Not America / This is Not America (Instrumental)”
David Bowie & Trevor Jones – “Labyrinth: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Released:
1969
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