Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

Running on Empty is a concept album themed around the loneliness and frustrations of the tiring life on the road offset by the joys of playing to an audience and making them happy. It is a sort of live album in that the songs were recorded live on stage, or at a variety of locations associated with touring such as rehersal rooms, hotel rooms, the tour bus etc. All songs were previously unreleased by Jackson Browne.

I'm not sure why I bought this album. I had never previously heard any of Jackson Browne's music although I knew he co-wrote "Take It Easy" with Glen Frey, and was aware of "The Pretender" being a big hit in the US, although I wasn't aware of actually having heard it. When Running on Empty was released it received a critical review in the music paper I was reading at the time ( can't remember which one ) although that may have been because the music wasn't new wave/punk rock ! It was also criticised for being Browne's blandest album to date, but maybe co-incidently it was also his most commercially successful.

I may have heard the title track on Nicky Horne's late night radio show on Capital Radio, and around this time I had acquired The Eagles' "Greatest Hits" and "Hotel California" albums so was maybe looking for something similar. I probably saw it in the record shop and took a chance.

I must admit I remember playing this album a lot in the late 1970s but it then fell out of vogue and I haven't heard any of this for a very long time. Before playing again, there are only 4 songs I could confidently say how they go..............


Side one starts with a live performance of "Running On Empty", a song in a similar tempo to "Take It Easy" although piano driven and there is a nice slide guitar break. It was Browne's second biggest hit in the US although it didn't make top 100 in the UK. It is one of the better songs on the album and the obvious choice to be a single.

The beginning of the "The Road" was recorded in a hotel room, with the end section recorded live on stage. It is a slow melancholic lament reminiscent of The Eagles "Despardo" and the fiddle playing gives the song a slight Irish feel.

"Rosie" is another slow lament recorded in a rehersal room, being mostly just voice and piano.

"You Love The Thunder" was recorded live on stage and was a single in the US although not in the UK. It's an inferior version of "Running on Empty".

"Cocaine" was recorded in a hotel room and was previously my least favourite song on the LP. It's not to be confused with the JJ Cale song of the same name made famous by Eric Clapton. This version is is another slow song on the album but here in a country and western style with a Blues feel and dominated by the fiddle. The acoustic guitar solo sounds like it was played by a 7 year old, and the there is some unnecessary chat at the end of the song which is probably intended to be deep and meaningful, but instead is just trite. That said, the song sounded better than I remembered !

Side two opens with a live recording of the slow/mid tempo "Shaky Town", one of nicest tunes on the LP and with more nice piano and slide guitar.

"Love Needs A Heart" is another song recorded live. It's a slow, tender piano ballard co written with Lowell George of Little Feet and Valerie Carter ( the inspriation for the Stevie Winwood song Valerie, which is not the song of the same name by The Zutons and made famous by Amy Winehouse ! )

"Nothing But Time" was recorded on the tour bus and the change of gear and accleration can be heard in the instrumental bridge in the middle of the song. It's not a great song though, something that Ry Cooder might have discarded, and for me its the low point of the album.

The last two songs were recorded live with one leading into the other. "The Load Out" is another nice slow piano song in the "Despardo" style with another slide guitar solo

"Stay"was originally famous for being the shortest ever chart single when released by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs in the US in the 1960s, and was covered by The Hollies in the UK. Here it has been changed from being a song about a guy trying to persuade his date to stay out later than the time she promised her father she would be home by to a song about playing an encore, "the promoter don't mind and the Unions don't mind...........the roadies don't mind, .". The song is played much slower than the earlier versions and reaches a respectable three minutes by having an extra verse and padded out by an extended instrumental outro. It is notable for the three verses being sung in ascending ranges, culminating with the falsetto of fiddle player David Lindley. It remains Browne's only UK Top 50 success, the irony being that such a renowed song writer's on UK hit was a cover of someone else's song.

I really enjoyed listening to this album for the first time in over 30 years, a collection of fine songs with only a couple of ordinary moments.

Track Listing :

1. Running On Empty
2. The Road
3. Rosie
4. You Love The Thunder
5. Cocaine
6. Shaky Town
7. Love Needs A Heart
8. Nothing But Time
9. The Load Out
10.Stay


Released 1977
UK Chart Position :-

Singles :

Running On Empty Rebel ( No - 1978 )
Stay ( No 12 - 1978 )

Bronco - Smoking Mixture

I can't remember who it was but there was one DJ in the mid 1970s who would occasionally play "Steal That Gold" on his radio show. I really liked the song, but knew nothing about Bronco, nor heard anything else by them, nor ever saw anything in my local record shops. Several years later whilst browsing through the bargin bins I happened to come across this, and I paid something like 50 pence for the LP.

Unfortunately, at the time I thought "Steal That Gold" was the only memorable track so the album only got played a few times, and usually just to play the one song. I was still none the wiser on the band though, although I could see that Clifford T. Ward, who had a couple of minor hits, co-wrote three of the songs on the LP.

"Steal That Gold" is an uptempo Country Rock song with an urgent finger picked acoustic guitar riff, and a great guitar solo. There's also a little bit of harmonica to give a vision of a stream train and a sing-a-long chorus. It's over eight minutes long and would be ideal as part of the sound track for a 70s Western adventure movie caper. It's also the one example on Smoking Mixture where the length of the song seems appropriate. At the time of playing it had just 853 hits on YouTube, and that is easily the most of any of the tracks on the LP !

A look at the song titles let's you know that Bronco desparetly want to sound like Americans. "Tennessee Saturday Night" and "BlueBerry Pie" might be described as unlistenable Southern Boogie."Southbound State Express" sounds like early period The Eagles though lyrically the inspiration is "Midnight Train To Georgia". It is one of the better moments on Smoking Mixture.
 
"Tell Me Why" sounds a bit like Carole King's "You Make Me Feel" crossed with Neil Young at his most over indulgent and goes on for nearly seven minutes. With some serious editing it may have been a reasonable three minute song. It's not to be confused with the Neil Young song of the same name.

"Attraction" is one of songs co-written by Clifford T. Ward and is a tender acoustic love song but spoilt by the backing strings. It's over five minutes in length and another example of where discipline and editing may have made a better piece of music.


"Turkey In The Straw" is derivative country music, even down to the banjo playing and "Zonker" has some honky-tonk piano and a nice guitar solo but it's an average song, although there is a hint of Guns N' Roses "Paradise City" to the melody.

"Strange Awakening" has some nice brass which might have come from Curtis Mayfield but the lengthy guitar solo comes from one of the many unforgetable bands that Bob Harris would have drooled over during The Old Grey Whistle Test in the early 70s. Again, its over 7 minutes long when three would have been more than sufficient.

In summary this is not a very good album. It has one tremendous song, a couple of ordinary moments but I found most of it to be unlistenable or instantly forgettable. Over 35 years after its release it sounds as if Bronco were playing for themselves not for the audience, unless that is what people wanted to hear in the early 1970s. Judging by the lack of sales and public acclaim, they probably didn't !

Track Listing :

1. Steal That Gold
2. Tennessee Saturday Night
3. Tell Me Why
4. Attraction

5. Southband State Express
6. Turkey In The Straw
7. Zonker
8. Blueberry Pie
9.Strange Awakening


Released 1973
UK Chart Position : -

Billy Bragg - Back To Basics

I had completely forgotten I owned this ! Consisting of a collection of Bragg's first three releases, the Life's A Riot EP, the Brewing Up With Billy Bragg LP and the Between The Wars EP. As I already owned Life's A Riot I guess paying £5.99 for the compliation was cheaper than buying the two other records separately........

Back To Basics is presented a double LP and the track order of Life's A Riot was changed, presumably for a better spread of songs over the four sides of the album.

Life's A Riot has separately received a favourable review. However, the rest of Back To Basics leaves a lot to be desired. Brewing Up With Billy Bragg moves away from the one man and his guitar approach on three songs, and they are by some distance the best moments of the album. "A Lover Sings" features some delightful organ with add to the beauty of the song and is the highlight of Brewing Up. The sad trumpet on "The Saturday Boy", a tale of heartbreaker is also a stand out moment, and there are even some backing vocals on "Love Gets Dangerous".

Unfortunately though, the high spots are few and far between. Whilst the 16 minutes of Life's A Riot captured all that was good about Billy Bragg, Brewing Up is a continuation with little innovation and the wit has been replaced with sourness and bitterness. Billy's earnest politics get the better of his songwriting craft and the love songs here are so much better. The social observations of the first release are distincly missing or hidden. It probably doesn't help that the guitar is higher in the mix so it is harder to make out the lyrics, so perhaps any cleverness gets lost. Instead it becomes tedious and tiresome.

"From A Vauxhall Velox" has the best guitar riff but it drifts into Chuck Berry in the solo, and a couple of bum notes ought to have been edited out. However, there are just too many songs eg "Strange Things Happens, "This Guitar Says Sorry" and "The Myth Of Trust" which are mostly tuneless noise and "St Swithin's Day" is essentially just a rehash of "Man In The Iron Mask"

The Between The Wars EP is a collection of protest songs and political rants about the Thatcher Government and the Miners Strike. It is back to just Billy and his guitar. The title track is a sad lament in the fine tradition of protest folk songs and is worthy of being on Life's A Riot. "It Says Here" was included on both Brewing Up and Between The Wars and is a biting critique on the tabloid press. Its not a good song though.

It is clear why I had forgotten about this album as if I wanted to listen to Billy Bragg I would have simply just played Life's A Riot.

Track Listing :

1. The Milkman Of Human Kindness
2. To Have And To Have Not
3. Richard
4. Lovers Town Revisited
5. A New England
6. The Man In The Iron Mask
7. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty

8. It Says Here
9. Love Gets Dangerous
10. The Myth Of Trust
11. From A Vauxhall Velox
12. The Saturday Boy
13. Island Of No Return
14. St Swithin's Day
15. Like Soldiers Do
16. This Guitar Says Sorry
17. Strange Things Happen
18. A Lover Sings

19. Between The Wars
20. World Turned Upside Down
21. Whose Side Are You On ?


Released 1987
UK Chart Positions : 

Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy LP ( No 30 - 1983 )
Brewing up With Billy Bragg LP (  No 16 - 1984 )
Between The Wars EP ( No 15 - 1985 ) 

Billy Bragg - Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy

Life's A Riot is a 12 inch EP with seven songs lasting around 16 minutes in total. Confusingly it was to be played at 45rpm rather than 33, and somehow it qualified for the album charts rather than the singles chart. As it says on the cover, pay no more than £2.99 !

I never agreed with Bragg's politics but I liked his songs, with clever, obsevations on ordinary lives and great tunes. The EP consists of just Bragg's foghorn voice and electric guitar, and possibly all recorded in once take. There is nothing added so the producer must have had an easy job !

The first track "The Milkman Of Human Kindness" is a bitter sweet love song. "If you are lonely, I will call. If you're poorly, I will send poetry. I love you, I am the milkman of human kindness, I will leave an extra pint"

"To Have And To have Not" covers youth unemployment. "Just because you're better than me doesn't mean I'm lazy. Just because you're going forwards, doesn't mean I'm going backwards".....""the factories are closing and the Army's full, I don't know what I am going to do. But I've come to see in the land of the free, the future is only for the chosen few".

"Richard" is about the uncertainties of growing up "there will be parties, there will be fun, and hey, hey, hey here come's Richard".

"New England" was huge hit for Kirsty McColl who added another verse and sang the personal love song from the girl's point of view, but it is packed with great lines. "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, 'Im 22 now but i won't be for long. People ask me when will I grow up to be man when all the girls I loved at school are already pushing prams" and "I loved the words you wrote to me but that was bloody yesterday, I can't survive on what you send every time I need a friend. I saw two shooting stars last night so I wished on them but they were only satellites. Is it wrong to wish on space hardware, I wish I really wish you'd care". I was 23 when I first heard this !

"The Man In The Iron Mask" is the only slow song but the tempo picks up again with "The Busy Girl Buys Beauty", a satirical take on fashion and the pressures on teenage girls to conform. "the busy girl buys beauty, the pretty girl buys style, and the simple girl buys what she's told to buy", "what was Anna Ford wearing, what did Angela Rippon say".

The final song, "Lovers Town Revisited" is just over a minute long but social commentary this time is on youth violence. "Fighting in the dance hall happens anyway, sometimes it makes me stop and think, sometimes it makes me turn away.....but most times it makes me run away"

Ignoring that the "Bard of Barking" now lives in a Dorset village, many of the points made by Bragg in the early 1980s are still relevant today. And the songs are still good and still worth listening too.

Track Listing :

1. The Milkman Of Human Kindness
2. To Have And To Have Not
3. Richard
4. A New England
5. The Man In The Iron Mask
6. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty
7. Lovers Town Revisited


Released 1983
UK Chart Position : 30

David Bowie - Lodger

I bought Lodger after buying the "Boys Keep Swinging" single and also liking the B-Side "Fantastic Voyage", which was the same tune but with a different musical accompaniment and lyrics. I have subsequently learned this is called a contrafactum, another example of which is "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "Oh What A Circus" from the musical Evita

Lodger is now considered to be the third and final part of the Berlin Trilogy, and like its predecessor Heroes, I didn't play it much after buying the LP. Looking now at the track list I could not say how the other eight tracks on the album go, only that unlike Heroes there were no instrumentals...........

I still like "Fantastic Voyage" which has some nice piano, good crooning vocals and a strong melody, perhaps apart from Heroes his best for for several years.

"Boys Keep Swinging" is famous for the musicians playing different instruments ie the guitarist plays the drums, the drummer plays the bass etc, and for its cross dressing video, which was considered groundbreaking at the time. The synthizer part hints at Heroes but overall the music is grunge rock. The guitar sound is great, the bass lines are actually quite good and although it is messy, it's good !

Elsewhere, "DJ" sounds like Talking Heads and Bowie even sounds like David Byrne when singing the verses. I quite like it. "Move On" with a deep vocal, piano and african style drums is also quite good.

However, I will be happy to never hear the rest of the songs again.

"African Night Flight" sounds like music for frantic part of a bad movie set in Africa where the good guy is being chased by some baddies, or a part of a film where there is a rush to meet an office deadline. It's an attempt at World Music but it's awful.

"Yassassin" is reggae with Turkish flavour, and it is OK. It's great though and it is nowhere near as good as say, Jonathan Richman's "Egyptian Reggae" !


"Red Sails" has a Chinese feel not too dissimilar to the later "China Girl" but with a psychedelic guitar break, but again not as good

"Look Back In Anger" is not the Oasis song, and again not as good. I think there is a pattern emerging here.... Also, at times it feels as if the band playing a different song to the one David is singing.

"Repetition" sounds like a Talking Heads out-take and "Red Money" just noise.

Overall, an album best forgetten, I should have been content with the Single and its B-side

Track Listing :

1. Fantastic Voyage
2. African Night Flight
3. Move On
4. Yassassin
5. Red Sails
6. DJ
7. Look Back In Anger
8. Boys Keep Swinging
9. Repetition
10.Red Money


Released 1979
UK Chart Position : 4

Singles :

Boys Keep Swinging ( No 7 - 1979 )
DJ  ( No 29 - 1979 )

David Bowie - Heroes

I guess like a lot of people I bought the Heroes LP on the strength of the stunning single of the same name. Despite the album winning several album of the year awards I remember being underwhelmed with the rest of the material on the LP. Looking at the track listing, I thought the first three songs were strong, and the only other one I can recall is the Kraftwerk tribute "V-2 Schneider".

We now know Heroes to be the second part of the the so called Berlin trilogy although when it was released it was simply referred to as the follow-up to the experimental Low album, and there was plenty of reference to the involvement of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp in the making of the LP. With the release of the title track as a single, which despite its subsequent global recognition as a masterpiece only reached number 24 in the UK charts, there was much comment about the record being recorded within sight of the Berlin Wall and being able to see the East German soliders on the other side from the studio, leading to the inspiration for the song.


"Beauty And The Beast" is the opening song. There is a jerky piano intro, a pounding bass, and the start of the vocal sounds like the start of the chorus from "Wild Is The Wind" on Station To Station. Bowie's vocal is deep, the synthezied strings disjointed and the funk could be from the Young Americans LP. However, I like the line "my my, someone fetch a priest. You can't say no to the beauty and the beast".

"Joe The Lion" has a distinct guitar intro, but the vocal is strained, the verse is a bit of a mess and the beat is similar to that on "Boys Keep Swinging" from the subsequent Lodger LP. The mess briefly disappears with the introduction of a TVC15 like piano refrain before the mess starts again. Strangely, its all quiet likeable !

"Heroes" is still the stand out track by some distance. With a memorable synthizer over a plodding beat, the power and grace of the music does indeed conjour up heroic imagery. The song gradually builds to a crescendo over a tale of intense  romance and perhaps the futility of cold war. 

"Sons Of The Silent Age" sounds like something from the pre Man Who Sold The World era but with Saxophone. This isn't a great recommendation ! "Blackout" also hints of "Boys Keep Swinging" but the vocal is virtually unlistenable which is a shame as the music is promising, especially the guitar part.

Side two is patchy, mostly instrumental and difficult to get into. The title "V-2 Schneider" is the most obvious acknowledgement of the impact of "Krautrock" on Heroes with the tribute to Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider. It starts with a synthized imitation a WWII V bomb and is mostly great saxophone. It is an instrumental apart from the distorted signing of the title near the end. Ironically though there isn't any sax on the Kraftwerk album I have nor does it sound like Kraftwerk. However, I quite like this.

In contrast "Sense of Doubt" could actually be a Kraftwerk instrumental. It has an icy horror movie piano motif mixed with science fiction B-movie style synths. It's interesting.

"Moss Garden" features Bowie played a Koto, which is a Japanese instrument. The track could be from Jon Anderson's "Olias of Sunhillow", which also isn't necessarily a great recommendation.....

"Neukoln" is this album's "Warszawa". Despite the very occasional possible Turkish influence the sad, wailing saxophone doesn't conjure any images I know of the Neukoln suburb of Berlin. To me it sounds like Tangerine Dream. I hate it.

The album closes with the filler "The Secret Life Of Arabia" which could be a song from "Station To Station". It's poor.

Overall, Heroes is not at good as I thought it was. This was a case of job done, and I don't think I will be playing this again.

Track Listing :

1. Beauty And The Beast
2. Joe The Lion
3. Heroes
4. Sons Of The Silent Age
5. Blackout
6. V-2 Scheider
7. Sense Of Doubt
8. Moss Garden
9. Neukoln
10.The Secret Life Of Arabia


Released 1977
UK Chart Position : 3

Singles :

Heroes ( No 24 - 1977 )
Beauty And The Beast  ( No 39 - 1978 )

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs

I heard the two singles from the album before hearing any of the other songs, and both "Rebel Rebel" and "Diamond Dogs" sounded different to anything I had heard before. The raw electic guitar playing on these songs, was for me, something unique at the time . These though are the standout tracks on the LP, although I also liked "Sweet Thing" and "Rock N Roll With Me". At the time I thought it was a good album, more consistent than "Aladdin Sane" but not nearly as good as Hunky Dory or Ziggy Stardust.


"Future Legend", ending with the line "Anyday now, the year of the Diamond Dogs" is really just the spoken intro for "Diamond Dogs" which launches with the cry "This ain't rock and roll, this is genocide". There is a great guitar riff, funky sax and the build up to the chorus is sensational. I particular like "I keep a friend serene ( will they come ? ) being repeated before exploding with "Come into the garden baby, you'll catch your death in the fog, young girls they call them the diamond dogs". Predictably given the title there are howls and bow-wows but the song is great.

Next comes an uneven medley of three tracks. "Sweet Thing" starts with Bowie singing with a deep voice before converting to normal and then hitting soaring high notes. There is a tinkling piano, a catchy chorus with "Boys, Boys" backing vocals although it is a world away from Sinita, There is quite a nice guitar solo and I like the lines "I'm glad that you are older than me it makes me feel important and free. Does that make you smile, isn't that me". The song segues into "Candidate" with another deeply sung vocal. The song tries to be menacing but is actually rather dull, before a reprise of another verse of "Sweet Thing" but with a more desparate vocal, and a trying to be dramatic synthizer.

Fortunately Rebel Rebel", a song about The New York Dolls "not sure if you're a boy or a girl", comes next. I had never heard of them, and it was only much later that I realised that this was indeed just how the New York Dolls sounded. There is just one verse that is repeated but the guitar sound is stunning. However, listenening now the song is about one minute too long. Also, i realise now it is a song that perhaps the Rolling Stones could have recorded circa 1970/71.

Side 2 is, frankly, fairly disappointing. "Rock N Roll With Me" is a power ballard with nice piano and a great chorus and "Big Brother" features a trumpet intro like something out of a western where the Mexicans appear, has an attractive synthizer break and the chours "someone to claim us, someone to follow, someone to shame us some brave Apollo" can be sung along to.

However, whilst "We Are The Dead" has pleasant mellotron over a mellow verse, the chorus attempts to be frightening but spoils the song. The intro to "1984" could be the "Theme from Shaft" and hints at the direction of Young Americans LP. Its not to be confused with the Eurythmics song....

Finally, I thought "Chart of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" was infantile and I think I only ever played it once as I hated it so much.

In summary, Diamond Dogs has a couple of great songs, but the attempt at a concept album loosely based around themes from George Orwell's 1984 doesn't produce a great album.

Track Listing :

1. Future Legend
2. Diamond Dogs
3. Sweet Thing
4. Candidate
5. Sweet Thing ( Reprise )
6. Rebel Rebel
7. Rock N Roll With Me
8. We Are The Dead
9. 1984
10.Big Brother
11. Chant of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family

Released 1974
UK Chart Position : 1

Singles :

Rebel Rebel ( No 5 - 1974 )
Diamond Dogs  ( No 21 - 1974 )

David Bowie - The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust

As mentioned in the review of Hunky Dory, I obtained my copy of Ziggy Stardust as part of buying a German double LP collection several years after the album was released, having previously been able to play/listen to my brother's LP.

Ziggy Stardust is very different to Hunk Dory, being much more rock orientated, even glam rock at times, with only small doses of the music hall style piano.

The album opens with "Five Years" which is my personal favourtie song on the LP and musically is unlike nearly everything else that follows. Starting with a slow quick-quick drum beat, followed by voice and piano like on Hunk Dory, on hearing the news that the world is dying the song builds from a calm beginning to screaming at the end as strings are gradually added, before finishing with a repeat of the slow quick-quick drum beat. There are some great lyrics "news guy wept and told us earth was really dying, cried so much his face was wet then I knew he was not lying", " I think I saw you in an ice cream parlour drinking milkshakes cold and long, smiling and waving and looking so fine, I don't think you knew you were in this song", and for some reason I have always remembered "my brain hurt like a warehouse it had no room to spare". Just brilliant.

After such a tremendous start it is almost inevitable that the level drops a little. "Soul Love" is quite an interesting song though,  bongos, hand claps, a tender sax break and a mellow toe tapping beat. "Inspirations have I none just to touch the flaming dove. All I have is my love of loving, and love is not loving". The song ends with an electric guitar playing the same refrain as sax for the fade.

I've never really liked "Moonage Daydream. Starting with "I'm an alligator, I'm a mama papa coming for you" it sounds a bit dated now. It has a nice hook though, a funky mellotron and sax break, plenty of glam rock guitar and the pace of song gives it some space to breathe. However, the psychedelic guitar to finish goes on too long.

"Starman" was apparently only written after the record label executives complained there was no hit single on the album. I like like the bass on this.

The final song on side one is "It Ain't Easy". I don't know why they felt need to cover this, it's terrible. For years I thought it was written by The Kinks rather than an American with a similiar name to Ray Davies !

Side two opens with "Lady Stardust", a mid tempo song with elegant piano and its my favourite song on the album after "Five Years". There is a flavour of Hunky Dory on this and and I love the backing vocals. "He was alright the band was all together" and "I smiled sadly for a love I could not obey" are good lines to sing along to.....

"Star" has a rock n roll piano and do-wop la la style backing vocals and ends with the spoken "just watch me now". It reminds me a little of Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" or something Mott The Hoople could have recorded

"Hang On To Yourself" is a fast paced rocker with punk like energy and hand claps in the chorus. The words don't always seem to fit so have to be sung very quickly. The song it reminds me the most of is actually Bowie's own "John, I'm Only Dancing" !

"Ziggy Stardust" has a great guitar riff which I refer to in my mind as either reverse or left handed music as the notes go in the opposite way to what I would normally expect. And Ziggy "played it left hand". I can't say I originally understood the song, for years thinking he was singing "making love with his eagle".....

"Suffragette City" has more rock n roll piano, 60's "Hey Man" backing vocals and a menacing guitar riff. There is also a false ending, wth the restart being "Wham Bang Thank You Ma'am".

The album closes in a similar fashion to the way it started. "Rock N Roll Suicide" begins with a slow stummed acoustic guitar, builds with drums, trumpet and lyrical bass, then strings, then screaming vocals. The opening line "Time takes a cigarette" probably wouldn't be written today though........

A great album, but I still think Hunk Dory is better !


Track Listing :

1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy
6. Lady Stardust
7. Star
8. Hang On To Youself
9. Ziggy Stardust
10.Suffragette City
11. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide

Released 1972
UK Chart Position : 5

Singles :

Starman ( No 10 - 1972 )
Rock 'N@ Roll Suicide ( No 24 - 1974 )

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

My brother had all the David Bowie albums up to Station To Station in 1976 so I was indoctrinated at an early age. I would also sometimes play them when he wasn't in ! When he moved out though, I never bothered to replace them with copies of my own. Many years later I saw a 2 LP collection of Hunky Dory and The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust under the title Rock Galaxy. As these were my two favourite Bowie LPs I bought it ( for £4.99 apparently ) and looking at the cover again I can see it must have been an import from Germany, and the inside sleeve is half in German and half in English. It seems to have been released in 1981.

Anyway, despite it being presented as one double album, I have always viewed this as the two separate LPs as the mix and track orders are exactly the same as the originals.


Unlike other Bowie albums, the dominate instrument on Hunky Dory is the piano, which was played by Rick Wakeman, who was at that time a member of Straws and not yet famous in his own right. However, there is also the occasional hint of the rock direction that would become the Spiders From Mars on the Ziggy Stardust album.

Another odd feature of Hunky Dory is that whilst it regarded by many critics as his best piece of work, and includes several widely familiar songs, none of the tracks were a UK chart success for David Bowie. "Oh ! You Pretty Things" was a big hit for Peter Noone, "Life On Mars" and the line "Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy "was the inspiration for BBC retro speculative fiction police drama of the same name, the "calling a cab" section of The Killers "Mr Brightside" is clearly taken from "Queen Bitch", and the stuttering of "Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes" has become synonymous with David Bowie. In "Stella Street", the BBC comedy mockumentary of the late 1990s based on the fantastical premise that various celebraties have come to live in a street in Surbiton, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger run the corner shop but when they decide to go on holiday and have David Bowie run the shop in their absence, the first comment from the Bowie character on seeing the shop is "there's going to be some ch-ch-ch changes..........."

For anyone not familiar with most of the tracks on Hunky Dory it is probably David Bowie at his most melodic, easily accessible, unashamedly commercial, but still with complex song structures with as many ideas in one song than some song writers come up with on a whole album, and there is a plethora of memorable lyrics.

Side One contains perhaps the three strongest songs. The aforementioned "Changes" starts with slow piano and strings before a piano riff with more than a hint of music hall leading into a  mournful, lyrically wistful verse building into the dramatic "Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes, turn and face the strain" refrain. The song has many memorable lines : "I watch the ripples change their size but never leave the stream of warm impermanence", And these children that you spit on as they try and change their worlds are immune to your consultations","look out you rock and rollers, pretty soon now your gonna be older" and "strange fascinations, fascating me". The song finishes with some slow, woozy saxophone. Strange how it was never a hit !

"Oh ! You Pretty Things" follows a not too dissimiliar pattern, just voice and piano to begin with, a big piano riff leading into a rising, whimsical chorus where the other instruments join in. The dark lyrics are offset by the bouncy nature of the tune, "homosapiens have outgrown their use, all the strangers came today and it looks as though they're here to stay", "written in pain, written in awe, by a puzzled man who questioned what we were here for", "look out my window and what do I see, a crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me".

"Eight Line Poem" is a fairly forgettable, mostly a piano piece with a gentle electronic guitar spoilt by the eight lines.

"Life On Mars" again starts with just piano and voice, building to a soaring vocal and more great lyrics "It's a god awful small affair to the girl with the mousy hair","Take a look at the sailors fighting in the dance hall, oh man, look at those cavemen go", "see the mice in their million hordes, from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads". There's a big dramatic finish followed by a fading solo piano reprise.

"Kooks" is a bouncy, whimsical song to a young child from a hippy parent's point of view. "Don't pick fights with the bullies or the cads, cos I'm not much cop at punching other people's dads". It has some nice strings, trumpet and another georgeous hook.


"Quicksand" also starts with voice and lone instrumentation but this time it is a slow acoustic guitar with the piano joining in for the second verse. The strings enter as the song builds to its climax. I never really liked this song but it sounds pretty good now. There's another great line of "I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man, just a mortal with the potential of a superman"

As the title suggests the side two opener "Fill Your Heart" is an upbeat, happy song with a jaunty piano, strings and a saxophone break. "Happiness is happening, dragons have been bled" sum up the mood, and there are what appear to be duck noises to finish.

Then come the three tribute songs. The studio count in and chat on how to pronouce Andy Warhol and the clapping at the end on "Andy Warhol" were probably very trendy in 1971 but to me now sound a bit boring. However, its a decent song, with pacy acoustic guitar and chanted chorus.

"A Song For Bob Dylan" slows the pace a little. "Now hear this Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you, about a strange you man named Dylan, with a voice like sand and glue". There's more tinkling of the ivories but Mick Ronson is finally given the chance to play some screeching guitar as well as achingly melodic solo.

"Queen Bitch" is a tribute to Lou Reed/Velvet Underground and is perhaps the only song that could have appeared on the follow-up Ziggy Stardust album, with driving acoustic guitar, bass and feedback electric guitar. Indeed, there is an Old Grey Whistle Test clip often shown on the BBC with Bowie playing this and "Starman" in his Ziggy persona. The guitar riff is reminiscent of early Velvet Underground but there is also a hint of "Three Steps To Heaven". It could even also be call glam-rock !

"The Bewlay Brothers" is an unusual ending to the LP with the song not really fitting in with the sound and mood of the rest of the album. It is mainly slow, gently strummed acoustic guitar and voice, with the other instruments only on the rising chorus. There is no piano on this track just a small mellotron part.I always thought this was probably the least interesting song on the album but listening now it sounds OK. I still don't like the way it ends with the mock cockney vocal though, it's more like an out-take from "The Laughing Gnome" !


Track Listing :

1. Changes
2. Oh ! You Pretty Things
3. Eight Line Poem
4. Life On Mars
5. Kooks
6. Quicksand
7. Fill Your Heart
8. Andy Warhol
9. Song For Bob Dylan
10.Queen Bitch
11. The Bewlay Brothers

Released 1971
UK Chart Position : 8

Singles :

Changes ( 1972 - )