On the 10th January 2016 I lost my hero, David Bowie. Throughout my teenage years, while all my friends were listening to Justin Bieber and JLS, I was obsessed with Bowie. My love for him and his music was sparked when I bought my now all-time favourite record, ‘Hunky Dory’, for £5 at a local record shop. I was never really into vinyl until I bought that record but it led me to collect every single one of his albums on 33″. ‘Hunky Dory’ as a record, really spoke to me, not only because it is a complex, piece of art but everything from the cover, to the lyrics made me fascinated by the strange man behind it all. I had to know more.
I would go as far as to say that Bowie has been a huge part of making me the person I am today, influencing me hugely as a young teen and helping me explore my own sexuality.
Throughout his 54-year career, Bowie spanned genres with his controversial performances, ever-morphing personas and killer songs. Summating that career into just 25 songs isn’t the easiest job so I have gone for the songs that mean a lot to me, personally. From my parents playing me ‘The Laughing Gnome’ for the first time and me not quite understanding what was going on, to my friends blasting out ‘Heroes’ late at night in my car trying to re-enact that scene from Perks of Being A Wallflower, but without the tunnel. These tracks have made me laugh and made me cry, but they’ll speak to each of you differently.
As we mark five years since his loss, I hope these songs will help you celebrate the man who meant so much to me.
My Top Bowie Tunes:
- Heroes
- Rebel Rebel
- Starman
- Space Oddity
- Life on Mars?
- Let’s Dance
- Modern Love
- Moonage Daydream
- Changes
- Suffragette City
- Five Years
- Queen Bitch
- Oh! You Pretty Things
- Young American
- Golden Years
- Sound and Vision
- Ashes to Ashes
- Fashion
- China Girl
- Shake It
- Blue Jean
- The Laughing Gnome
- Where Are We Now?
- Blackstar
- Lazarus
