David Bowie’s surreal opus ★ (pronounced Blackstar) is an absolute masterpiece. “[Es ist] “One of the most aggressively experimental albums the singer has ever made,” wrote David Fricke of ROLLING STONE. The album is by no means lacking in predecessors, however, as Bowie has broken new musical ground since he became a star in the late ’60s with “Space Oddity.” Here, 10 pivotal Bowie tracks that paved the way for this moment.
“Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed” (1969)
This second track from the album “Space Oddity” is pretty unremarkable – with one exception: it’s the first Tony Visconti-produced David Bowie song the world ever heard. The LP opens with “Space Oddity,” but Visconti thought it was too lightweight and handed it over to Gus Dudgeon. However, he oversaw the rest of the album, starting an astonishingly fruitful collaboration that lasted until ★. If they hadn’t teamed up in the ’60s, Bowie would have had a very different career.
“Moonage Daydream” (1972)
★’s second single, “Lazarus,” is told from the perspective of the alien Thomas Jerome Newton. It was written for the off-Broadway musical Lazarus, which is a sequel to Bowie’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. But Bowie’s fascination with space creatures goes back even further.
Already in 1972 he sang in “Moonage Daydream” with the voice of a strange creature from another planet. Ziggy Stardust had a very different agenda than Newton, but one thing led to another.
“Young Americans” (1975)
Saxophonist Donny McCaslin is a key contributor on ★, but it’s not the first time Bowie has worked with a great jazz saxophonist. David Sanborn played on his 1975 classic “Young Americans” and helped make the song a huge hit. Bowie plays the saxophone himself, but he is usually smart enough to call in real masters when it comes to recording parts in the studio.
“Station to Station” (1976)
The new Bowie album opens with an eerie, wildly innovative ten-minute title track that lays the foundation for everything that follows. Bowie first used this trick on 1976’s cocaine-fueled “Station to Station.” The song is one of his great surreal masterpieces, and it took him four decades to create another one to rival it.
“Warszawa” (1977)
The bold experimentation of “Station to Station” continued in 1977 when Bowie went to Berlin to record “Low” with Tony Visconti. The second side is mostly instrumental and begins with “Warszawa”.
Bowie’s record company was hoping for another radio-friendly single like “Young Americans”, but ended up with heavily uncommercial tracks like this one. Bowie has drifted in and out of this mode over the years – but on ★ he’s returned to it in a big way.
“Hello Spaceboy” (1995)
In 1995, Bowie teamed up with Brian Eno again for “Outside.” It was an attempt to revive the experimental nature of the Berlin phase, but fell well short of expectations.
One of the bright spots was “Hello Spaceboy,” another return to space where he explains that “moondust will cover you.” The industrial sound is clearly influenced by Nine Inch Nails. After that, Bowie returned to more traditional songs – at least for now.
“Slip Away” (2002)
After difficulties in the second half of the eighties and the entire nineties, Bowie finally released a truly outstanding album with “Heathen” in 2002. A big reason for the comeback was his decision to team up again with Tony Visconti, who hadn’t worked on a Bowie album since 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).
“Slip Away” is one of the many great songs on the album and kicked off a strong period that continued the following year with “Reality”. At the time, no one knew that these would be Bowie’s last statements for a decade.
“Where Are We Now?” (2013)
At the start of 2013, it seemed as if David Bowie would never release new music again. He hasn’t given a concert since a heart attack that ended his “Reality” tour in 2004 and hasn’t played a single song in public since 2006. He avoided the press entirely and seemed like some kind of rock & roll ghost.
Then, on his 66th birthday in January 2013, he released the song “Where Are We Now?” and announced his new album “The Next Day”. The song is a touching ode to days gone by and a sign that Bowie still had some good days ahead of him. Once again Tony Visconti was the producer and the album was fantastic, if a bit safe in places.
“Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” (2014)
The first sign that The Next Day wasn’t a one-off came in the fall of 2014, when Bowie released the career-spanning compilation Nothing Has Changed, which included the brand new track “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).” The jazzy song was recorded with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and featured a saxophone solo from Donny McCaslin.
Bowie was so impressed that he enlisted McCaslin and his group as the backing band for ★, which includes a new version of “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).”
“Lazarus” (Michael C. Hall version) (2015)
When Bowie recorded ★ last year, he also put together the musical “Lazarus.” He wrote four new songs for the project, and the title track ended up on the new album. The public first heard it in November 2015 when “Lazarus” went into previews. The opening song of the show is “Lazarus,” sung by Michael C. Hall.
It updates the story of the lovesick alien Thomas Newton, who now has “scars you can’t see.” Bowie doesn’t make public appearances to promote ★, so Michael C. Hall and others from “Lazarus” performed the song on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Unfortunately, this is probably the closest we’ll get to a live performance from Bowie these days.
