Classic Tracks: David Bowie: All the Songs, All the Stories 1970 - 1980

Well, not every David Bowie song, despite what the title says. No, this covers Bowie's RCA period, from Space Oddity up to Scary Monsters. Each section is done per album, and before the song-by-song analysis and description, there is a detailed history of Bowie's life at that point. Bowie's better-known collaborators are given decent print, especially Mick Jagger, Marc Bolan, John Lennon, and Tony Visconti, as are influences such as Kraftwerk for his three Berlin albums, Stanley Kubrick's 2001 for Space Oddity, and George Orwell's 1984 for the Diamond Dogs album. Bowie's inter-album projects, such as his movies and plays are also included in the history. And there's a good deal given about his early life before Space Oddity.There are certain insights into Bowie concerning his art. He even said, "I don't like a lot of my albums... I like bits and pieces. A bit of it works exceedingly well and a lot of it only works." This mirrors somewhat my feeling on his lesser albums, such as Diamond Dogs and Young Americans, but not on his spectacular ones such as Hunky Dory, The Man Who Sold The World, or Low.Many of the stories behind the song are revelatory for those not in the know. I wasn't totally aware of the 1984-theme that pervaded Diamond Dogs apart from the "1984" song, but "We Are The Dead" (in 1984, Winston Smith's words to Julia before they are caught by the Thought Police) and "Big Brother/Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family" are two other songs that contribute to that.To take an example from my favourite 1970's Bowie album, Hunky Dory, I learn that Bob Dylan wasn't exactly happy with the playful tribute "Song For Bob Dylan" because Bowie referred to him by his real name and described his voice akin to "sand and glue." Ouch! However, as I learned, the song was actually calling for Dylan to go back "to writing songs for the 'revolution' and to scour his scrapbook for inspiration if the muse is not upon him."And it's peppered with colour and black-and-white photos. At the end of the book, a chronology from 1947 to 1980, and a singles and album discography are included, with song listing and album issues and reissues included, as was done under Ryko for the albums being explored in this book.In the end, Bowie is revealed as a great songwriter, wordsmith, and artist whose creativity knows no bounds, even if he did alienate many of his fans with his shifting musical directions.

Now this is a great book, similar to the equally great Beatles book "A Hard Day's Write." However, while "Write" covered all of the Beatles' albums, "We Could Be Heroes" only covers his albums from 1970-1980 (The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters... And Super Creeps) with in great detail (the only exception is the cover album Pin Ups). Now I know that very few Bowie fans may care about his debut album, Space Oddity and especially his other '80s albums (especially since they apparently had no background besides a search for money/mass popularity), but it also cuts out his '90s albums (Black Tie White Noise, Earthling, etc). I personally, consider myself to be a Bowie purist (in other words, I'm one of the people who is mad that they cut out Too Dizzy), and I would've liked to see ALL of Bowie's albums, no matter how unpopular or how little there is on them. So, the choice of subject matter gets a 3/5. However, the book itself gets a 5/5, because I've always wanted to see a book like this gets published, and along with A Complete Guide To The Music Of David Bowie, it is something every Bowie fans should have. BUY IT!