Sep 04 2008 2:17 pm, Niall Doherty
I was looking earlier on at David Bowie’s selection of songs for his iSelect release next month. Rather than follow the archaic format of Best Ofs containing, like durrrr, your best songs, ‘iSELECT: Bowie’ sees the legend pick what he sees as the highlights of his career, 12 songs that he states he “never tires of”. Of course, this means missing out what the rest of the world perceives as the good ones – ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Sound And Vision’, ‘Warszawa’ and ‘Changes’ amongst the numerous omissions. These are the ones
‘Life On Mars?'
'Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing'
'The Bewlay Brothers'
'Lady Grinning Soul'
'Win'
'Some Are'
'Teenage Wildlife'
'Repetition'
'Fantastic Voyage'
'Loving The Alien'
'Time Will Crawl'
'Hang On To Yourself'
‘Life On Mars?’ is the surprise choice, in that it’s actually known to the rest of the world, with the theme amongst the rest of the songs being that, with a couple of exceptions, they’re from his 70s heyday and never saw the light of day as singles. Actually, scrub that, a few never even saw the light of day at all – ‘Some Are’ only being in the possession of a few Bowie diehards living in a spaceship caravan on the outskirts of Kettering. The curious thing about his selection is that it's all pre-teeth-straightening-jobby, the precise point at which his creative mojo started to waiver a bit. At least it’s honest, though – he hasn’t tried to crowbar ‘Dancing In The Street’ or 'Hello Spaceboy' in there and, in a way, he’s sort of admitting his last 25 years of musical output has been a bit cack. Although I did like one song on 'Heathen'. Maybe, hopefully, he could have a word with his old mate Billy Corgan next time Smashing Pumpkins are putting their tour setlist together, eh?
