When David Bowie died in January of 2016, I vowed to spend some time digging in to his catalog. I was familiar with his most popular songs but had listened to only a couple of his albums in full.
A few months later, I made good on that promise and immersed myself in the 14 albums of original material that kicked off his remarkable career, plus his final release, Blackstar.
These were pre-streaming times, so I didn’t invest in the poorly received albums released from the mid-80s on. Now that it will cost me only time, I might add those to the mix one of these days.
This Deep Dive gave me a real appreciation for one of the last century’s most creative and ground-breaking musicians. Whether through the personas of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, or the Thin White Duke, or simply as his brilliant self, Bowie had a gift for transforming experimental art into groovy but resonant pop songs.
Here are the albums I explored:
David Bowie (1967)
David Bowie (1969)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
My write-up of Blackstar, Bowie’s swan song, also contains my ranking of these 14 albums from best to worst.
Meet Me In Montauk 