My Month of Bowie, day 4: 'Hunky Dory' (1971)

Don't hate David Bowie because he's beautiful.

The album: Hunky Dory (RCA, 1971)

Bowie changes his tune.

My thoughts: Another album, another Bowie. This young man simply was not content to stay still for long. Hunky Dory marks a dramatic departure from The Man Who Sold the World, which (let's not forget) had only been released a year previously. I wonder what newly-converted Bowie fans who'd gotten hooked on Sold the World thought when they first put Hunky Dory on the turntable and heard "Changes" emanating from their speakers. ("What the hell is this? A debauched French cabaret singer? That's not what I signed on for!") 

I hope those fans got over their disorientation quickly, because they were about to hear a truly remarkable collection of songs, not just brilliantly written and performed but exquisitely arranged and produced as well. This is a great-sounding record. Of the Bowie albums I've reviewed for this series so far, Hunky Dory is the first I've been tempted to purchase in physical form. It'd be great to listen to on a rainy day when I don't feel like going out or doing anything. Bowie had already proven he could rock, but with this LP, he proved he could write earwormy pop songs with deadly efficiency. And he could do so without sounding like a mercenary or a sellout.

It amazes me to learn that this LP didn't sell well at first (reportedly due to minimal publicity from the record company) and took a while to catch on, because it sounds like an instant hit to me. Not just a hit but the next evolutionary step in pop music. This is an album that could bring different factions of the 1970s rock audience together. Maybe you dig The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Maybe Pink Floyd is more your thing. Or Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground. Or perhaps you like cast albums of rock musicals, like Hair or Godspell. Whatever. Hunky Dory has something you'll like.

I know that British rockers of the 1960s and '70s were very competitive and kept tabs on each other. It'd be interesting to know what Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and John Lennon thought when they originally listened to Hunky Dory. Hopefully, they took it as a challenge rather than a threat. God only knows what Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan must've thought of the songs directed their way on this LP when they heard Hunky Dory for the first time. I think, if I'd been them, I'd have had to listen to those songs a few times through to figure out whether I was being complimented or insulted.

It's a funny thing about David Bowie's nontraditional singing voice, complete with its impeccable English pronunciation. You'd think he'd be an acquired taste, like olives or dark chocolate, but millions of people have acquired that taste. I'm sure many people have covered "Life on Mars?" in the ensuing half-century, but what could they possibly bring to the song that Bowie didn't bring in 1971?

Next: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)