Review Summary: The second great work of Bowie. It confirms him a great artist.
“Hunky Dory” is the fourth studio album of David Bowie that was released in 1971. The line up on the album is David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey.
David Bowie was a very well known British artist that started making music in the late of the 50’s and that eventually played in a number of blues/rock bands. Bowie is often referred to as a chameleon artist. In his multifaceted work, he used many varied styles. He started with chansons and folk that were followed by albums with hard rock, glam rock and rock’n’roll. In the mid of the 70’s he turned to soul and funk before moving on to electronic, avant and pop albums with Brian Eno, Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp. Bowie released his eponymous debut studio album in 1967, his second one “Space Oddity” in 1969, their third one “The Man Who Sold The World” in 1970 and this third one “Hunky Dory” in 1971.
“Hunky Dory” received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of Bowie’s best works. It has been described as an album having a kaleidoscope of different genres of music, tied together by Bowie’s very personal sense of vision about the world and society, such as his ambiguous sexuality, kitsch and class. The album’s cover can be clearly seen as influenced by a photo of Marlene Dietrich. So, we can say that in here we have the most versatile Bowie, Bowie the hippie and Bowie the bitch, in short, Bowie the provocateur with an imaginative nonsense and his shocking androgyny.
On “Hunky Dory”, the music is just as varied as his appearance. It’s an album with consistently good songs with great lyrics that even have clear messages to their namesakes, Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan on the tracks “Andy Warhol” and “Song For Bob Dylan”. We also have happy songs like “Fill Your Heart”, which is expressed both in its instrumentation and in its mood, which Bowie is able to transport it very well. The album ends with the quiet “The Bewlay Brothers”, in which completely distorted voices are allowed to sing along at the end. Almost all the tracks on “Hunky Dory” are all kept relatively calm, except for “Queen Bitch”, which makes you teeter. But, there’s never a dull moment, because the tracks come in far too different guises. Nothing is repeated and it’s always exciting. David Bowie on “Hunky Dory” has nothing to do with the Bowie on “Heroes” or “Scary Monsters” because the change is Bowie’s trademark, as we know.
“Hunky Dory” has eleven tracks. “Changes” is one of Bowie’s best known songs. It’s one of them where the lyrics show better his chameleonic personality with the reinventions of his musical style. “Oh! You Pretty Things” is based on Wakeman’s piano and Bowie’s voice. It’s a simple song with a catchy refrain, showing that a simple song can be great. “Eight Line Poem” is based on a sparse piano, a sparse guitar and Bowie’s voice. It’s another simple song written around its lyrics. It isn’t bad but is less interesting than the two previous. “Life On Mars?” is also one of his best known songs. It has a beautiful piano work by Wakeman. It’s great and sounds like the precursor of his next album “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”. “Kooks” is also simple, beautiful, funny and humorous. I like it. It sounds to me like a nice and warm song. “Quicksand” is a dark and depressing track. It’s a beautiful song with multi-tracked acoustic guitar and string arrangements. “Fill Your Heart” is a happy song with uplifting lyrics and a nice use of strings and saxophone. It’s in the same vein of “Kooks”, probably even better. “Andy Warhol” is about Andy Warhol, one of the great inspirations of Bowie. This is a great acoustic folk rock song in the vein of songs from “Space Oddity”. “Song For Bob Dylan” is another homage song about another of his great inspirations, Bob Dylan. It’s a good song in Dylan’s style with nice electric guitar work. “Queen Bitch” is another homage, this time to Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. It’s a typical rock song with a strong electric guitar riff. It represents Bowie’s glam rock. “The Bewlay Brothers” is written as a ballad. It’s probably one of Bowie’s most dense and impenetrable songs. It’s emotional with strange lyrics. It has great Mellotron and acoustic guitar works. For me, it’s one of the greatest Bowie’s songs ever.
Conclusion: “Hunky Dory” is another great album by Bowie. Despite being released one year after his previous studio album “The Man Who Sold The World”, it’s completely different. It’s more intimate and a much less rocking album. It seems to me a paradox, an album put out of the place, because it appears between the two rockiest, hardest and heavy rock albums of Bowie, “The Man Who Sold The World” and “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”. But, we are talking about Bowie, the chameleon artist. So, this isn’t really surprising. Despite the fact that I like “Hunky Dory” and consider it one of Bowie’s best and most fine albums, it isn’t one of my favourite albums from him. My favourite studio albums are “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”, “Low” and “The Man Who Sold The World”. “Hunky Dory” comes in the next place with albums like “Station To Station” and “Heroes”.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
