Bowie he was without a recording contract and was only several years removed from “dustbin shopping” for clothes on Carnaby Street with Marc Bolan of T-Rex fame. With the exception of the heavier sounding The Man Who Sold the World (1970), his previous album, Bowie was more or less a folky singer-songwriter whose clever lyrics set him apart from his contemporaries and promised a bright future ahead.
Two singles were released from the album: 'Changes' / 'Andy Warhol' in January 1972 and 'Life on Mars' which was released late June 1973. Bowie himself considered the album to be one of the most important in his career.
About a lustrum before his death, David Bowie handpicked 12 of his own favorite songs for an exclusive (free gift) CD compilation for the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday.
When first released and became a collector’s item and here are some of Bowie’s favorite songs chosen by Bowie himself. (Excerpt from Americansongwriter)
1. “Life On Mars?” (Hunky Dory, 1971)
“This song was so easy,” said Bowie of his Hunky Dory classic. “Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. ‘Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.’ An anomic (not a ‘gnomic’) heroine. Middle-class ecstasy. I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn’t get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road.”
“The Bewlay Brothers” (Hunky Dory, 1971)
David Bowie feared ending up like his schizophrenic brother who walked into a train.
Bowie’s second Hunky Dory pick is probably one of his more understated songs next to “Life on Mars?” The softer acoustic “The Bewlay Brothers” alludes to a story about him and his half-brother Terry Burns, but Bowie also offered more abstract meanings behind the song, so it’s not clear what “The Bewlay Brothers” is truly about.
“The only pipe I have ever smoked was a cheap Bewlay,” said Bowie in the liner notes. “It was a common item in the late ’60s and for this song, I used Bewlay as a cognomen, in place of my own. This wasn’t just a song about brotherhood, so I didn’t want to misrepresent it by using my true name.”
He added, “Having said that, I wouldn’t know how to interpret the lyric of this song other than suggesting that there are layers of ghosts within it. It’s a palimpsest, then.”
“Lady Grinning Soul” (Aladdin Sane, 1973)
Bowie’s sixth album, Aladdin Sane, “Lady Grinning Soul” was a ballad Bowie wrote in 1972 about soul singer Claudia Lennear—
“No, you don’t need to refresh my memory,” said Lennear of the cheeky lyrics in 2016. “The line about the clothes being strewn, that gets the eye roll. He’s so dramatic.”
In his notes, Bowie said the song was “written for a wonderful young girl whom I’ve not seen for more than 30 years. When I hear this song she’s still in her 20s, of course.” He added, “A song will put you tantalizingly close to the past, so close that you can almost reach out and touch it. The sound of ghosts again.”
“Loving The Alien” (Tonight, 1984)
Bowie moved a little further into the ’80s with this pick. The 1980s were another transitional time for Bowie. After kicking off the decade with Scary Monsters hit, “Ashes to Ashes,” he catapulted into multi-platinum pop stardom by 1983 with Let’s Dance. Following the commercial success of Let’s Dance, Tonight was a hit for Bowie with the erogenous “Blue Jean,” his Tina Turner duet on the Iggy Pop-penned title track, and “Loving the Alien.”
“Teenage Wildlife” from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), 1980
“So it’s late morning and I’m thinking, ‘new song and a fresh approach. I know. I’m going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes I am ersatz just for one day,’” said Bowie of this Scary Monsters deeper cut. “And I did and here it is.”
The longest track on Scary Monsters, clocking in at nearly seven minutes, “Teenage Wildlife” was Bowie’s lengthiest composition since “Station to Station” in 1976. It was later surpassed in length by “Bring Me the Disco King” in 2013 and one of his final songs, “Blackstar” in 2016.
Reflecting on “Teenage Wildlife” in 2008, Bowie said he’d gladly trade one of his biggest ’80s hits for it two times over.
“Bless,” he said. “I’m still very enamored of this song and would give you two ‘Modern Love’s for it anytime.”
