From small things, baby, Bowie took three albums to get his bearings but once he did, with album # 4. it was a great ride of pop music changing sound for a decade where Bowie was the greatest rock and roll star of all time. Then two things happened, punk and a pop star superstar lull from which he never got back his bearings. In 2003 Bowie retired and early last week he released a new song. Buckle down Bowie fans, it's gonna be a bumpy ride
David Bowie – 1967 – The vocals were already over warmed and the lyrics were a sorta psychedelic folk childishness. If you have to choose one, maybe "Love Me Till Tuesday" or "The Laughing Gnome" but it is pretty terrible stuff – Grade: C-
Space Oddity – 1968 – The title track had him pegged as a one hit wonder and in the post landing on the moon world, it seemed like both a scary vision and a slice of life. But the rest of this finds a band willing to rock perceptibly harder and "Unwashed And Slightly Dazed", as clear a slice of 60s Merseybeat via London with a great harp, is worth searching out. Try and get "London, Bye, Ta-Ta" on the extended CD – Grade: B-
The Man Who Sold The World – 1970- The title track and "The Width Of A Circle" are first tier Bowie, both would fit with a squeeze on the top albums that would follow it, and the band? Is the Spiders Of Mars redux, but he is still a ponderous bore way too often – Grade: B-
Hunky Dory – 1971 – And that's the ball game, pop pickers. A dazzling achievement, that wiped the 1960s off the map and recast pop and art in David Bowies image. A mad collage of pop folk, soul folk with nods to gods Warhol, Dylan and Lennon (and Lenin). I didn't come late to this, I flipped the day I heard it on vacation in the UK in 1971 and still consider it to be the calling card and signal post for pop art – Grade: A+
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars – 1972 – A self-fulfilling prophecy that not only changed musical theater, not only lead directly to the mainstreaming of homosexuality in Western Civilization but sounded pretty damn awesome – Grade: A+
Aladin Sane – 1973 – Ziggy tours the US and gets laid a whole lot, meanwhile the Spiders From Mars never sounded better – Grade: A+
Pin-Ups – 1973 – Mid-1960s London pop rock covers, overdone of course – Grade: A-
Diamond Dogs – 1974 – Post-apocalyptic disaster not saved by three classic songs, the album jacket was awesome – Grade: B-
David Live – 1974 – Complete disaster of a live album though I might be the only person who liked the "Knock On Wood" – Grade: D
Young Americans – 1975 – Plastic soul or the night of the living Nixons starring John Lennon and with Luther Vandross in a supporting role – Grade: A
Station To Station -1976 – Coke addicted nightmare vision of soul love in a Berlin disco – Grade: A+
Low – 1977 – Brian Eno and David Bowie in self-imposed rehab: "Blue blue electric blue that's the color of my room…" Grade: A+
Heroes – 1977 – The drugs wore off but Bowie is not sure why he is still down. His most overated album – Grade: B-
Stage – 1978 – From Ziggy to West Berlin live, pinpoints the Berlin Trilogy highlights… My my someone call a priest – Grade: B
Lodger – 1978 – Terrible though he looked cool on TOTP – Grade: C
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) – 1980 – Back to the begining with a jaundinced eye and a quick wit – Grade: A
Let's Dance – 1983 – OK, it's a sell out but it's a sell out with NILES RODGERS. Plus, it has "Modern Love". Also, it was a succesful sell out – Grade: B+
Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture – 1983 – Eat the document – Grade: C
Tonight – 1984 – A holding action and maybe his least important album ever (not including the live ones) – Grade: C-
Labyrinth – 1986 – A handful of ho hum tracks from a crap kids movie soundtrack – Grade: C-
Never Let Me Down – 1986 – Here you go pop pickers, Bowie reforms the Spiders from Mars and releases his worst album ever. The concert was terrible – Grade: D
Tin Machine – 1989 – and Tim Machine II – 1989 – Yeah but they aint official Bowie's album so we can ignore it, right? – Grade: D-
Black Tie White Noise – 1993 – A minority view but I think this is his great album of the last 20 years, beautiful dance musical in honor of his wedding – Grade: A
The Buddha Of Suburbia – 1994 – Ambient soundtrack for an excellent UK TV show – Grade: B+
Outside – 1996 – AT the height of Brit Pop, he releases this disappointing concept album with Brian Eno. His song writing skills completely failing him – Grade: C-
Earthling – 1997 – Hey, at least it had "Little Wonder" his best song in years and "Battle For Britain", not his worst song in years – Grade: B
Hours – 1999 – And so Bowie ends the year with another draggy tuneless horror – Grade: C-
Heathen – 2002 – Man this is bad. I guess at least he's trying to move units. "Everyone Says 'Hi'" is alright – Grade: C
Reality – 2003 – The Jonathan Richman and George Harrison covers are both good – Grade: C+
The Next Day – 2013 – Well, the first song could be worse – Grade: B