David Bowie

Who is the most important artist of the 1960's?  I think most of us would agree that it is The Beatles.  What about the 1970's?  While there are a lot of new wave bands from the late 70's that I love, including Blondie, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and The Cars, I would say that the defining artist of that decade has to be David Bowie.  While he started releasing music in the 60's, and I first came to know of him through his 1983 hits Let's Dance, China Girl and Modern Love, now that I've had a chance to catch up with the music I missed when I was too young to find it, my real love for his work starts with his 1971 album Hunky Dory and continues through all of his albums through Scary Monsters from 1980 (I really like Let's Dance album from 1983 too, but to me it feels like his first album where he had entered a new stage where his music could still be good but not quite as great and essential as it had been in his prime.  Sooner or later, this happens to everyone.)

I have collected all of these albums (Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Low, Heroes, Lodger, and Scary Monsters) on the early 90's Rykodisc cd versions for two main reasons:  1.  These versions are mastered with far more dynamic range than either the 1999 remasters or the more recent 2012-2017 remasters of these albums.  2.  These cds are far cheaper to find used than the sonically superior 80's RCA cds of these albums, which usually range from $30 to $150 - and that is for used cd's.  For example, the 1984 German cd of Low, which is the most desirable mastering of this album is currently listed on discogs.com for $50 for a fairly scratched copy that claims you can rip it without errors, $90 for a copy in very good condition, and $166 for a "near mint" copy.  You can easily see why I decided to go with the Ryko's, which I was able to obtain in great condition for only $10 -$20 each.

I am very happy with the sound of the first three of those albums on the Ryko cd's (which are the ones recorded with The Spiders From Mars band that included Mick Ronson).  However, I noticed that for his albums after that, for some reason, I am really bothered by the way the equalization of these masters (meaning the way various frequencies throughout the audio range are emphasized/attenuated) has been applied, and I am not able to fix this using the bass and tremble tone controls on my amplifier.  Turns out that a whole lot of people are not able to deal with the eq on the Ryko cds, and this, along with the fact that all remasters since then have tended to be overly compressed,  is the reason the 80's RCA cds are so highly sought after and thus expensive.  (For example, I bought a complete set of Eurythmics 80's RCA cds I'd guess for an average of less than $5.00 each, so it is not like an RCA cd from the 1980's is usually so expensive.)  So, it is good for me that I enjoy the sound of Hunky Dory, Ziggy, and Aladdin Sane on the cheaper Ryko cd's.

When I was at Amoeba Music record store in Hollywood recently, I was lucky enough to find a used copy of a now out of print 3 cd box set from 2010 of the album Station To Station for $30.  This set includes a 2cd set of a live show from 1976, but is special because the main album cd in this set was a new 2010 digital transfer from the original master tape that was for some reason left as a "flat" transfer with no extra compression applied (unlike the 2016 remaster that is currently available to buy new on cd and vinyl or to stream, which is overly compressed.)  When I listened to this version of the album, I was amazed at how much more I enjoyed it than the 1991 Ryko cd, which was great!  Except, now that I had first hand knowledge of how much better these albums could sound, I of course have felt compelled to find better sounding versions of Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Low, Heroes, Lodger and Scary Monsters.

I found a blind listening test online for tracks from the album Heroes that allowed me to compare 30-60 second samples of several songs in full cd quality from the album across six different cd masterings that had all been volume matched, without knowing which set of samples corresponded to which version.  Particularly for this album, this test was very interesting and confusing, in that I discovered that I had real difficulty picking a clear favorite, and that there were at least 3 or 4 of them that I thought were about as good as each other, and the cd that was my favorite for one track might would then not necessarily be my favorite one for another track.   When I looked at the answer key and found that one of the ones I had thought was good was the latest 2017 remaster, I was surprised.  Yes, it was more compressed, but on the other hand, it tended to have my favorite sounding eq.   This caused me to reconsider purchasing the 11 cd 2017 box set A New Career In A New Town [1977-1982], which includes the albums Low, Heroes, Lodger and Scary Monsters, plus a cd ep with German and French language versions of the song "Heroes", a new 2017 remix of Lodger, 2 different 2 cd versions of the 1978 live album Stage (yes that does seem excessive), and a cd with a collection of single versions from the time period that differ from the album versions, tracks that were not on albums and tracks from the Baal ep (which are from a 1918 German play, though they are sung in English).  I was not particularly excited about most of the extra material in this box, so I also considered just buying the cd's of the 4 actual albums which are available separately.  These are the versions that are available to stream on Apple Music, so I was able to listen to them and found that I really liked the eq on all four of these albums, and that overall, in spite of the compression, I enjoyed the sound more than the sound of my Ryko cd's.  I found a copy of the 2017 Heroes album and bought it to try it out, knowing that even if I decided to get the box I would need to buy this cd anyway because unfortunately the box version contain a serious audio error in the title track which they corrected before the individual cd release in 2018.  For a while, Parlophone  was providing free replacement cd's to anyone who had already purchased the box set, but that offer ended in May of last year.  It's ok though, because the price of the box now seems discounted to account for this.

I found that I was able to enjoy listening to the 2017 remaster cd of Heroes quite a bit.  It is overbearing and harsh if you turn the volume up very loud, but if you keep it at a reasonably low level, the overall sound is good and the instrumental synth tracks particularly sound very powerful.  After Kristi and I saw the movie Jojo Rabit (which is a great movie), I discovered a new found love of the German language version of the song "Heroes" (which plays over the closing credits).  Because the box is the easiest way to to get this version on cd, this pushed me over the edge and I decided to just buy it.

I am enjoying listening to this music.  I prefer the replica lp paper cases for each album in the box over the standard jewel cases you get if you purchase the albums separately.  I swapped out my Heroes cd in the box with the other one so that my box contains the one I want to play (it's silver instead of gold like the other cds in the box, but not especially noticeable).  The hardcover book has a lot of interesting essays, reviews from the original release, and great photos.  I really like the cd that collects the non-album tracks - it is an interesting collection that includes "Under Pressure" (with Queen) and "Little Drummer Boy" (with Bing Crosby).  Yes, I'd still love eventually to track down copies of the RCA cds for these albums, but I am feeling more patient about it now that I have cd versions I enjoy.

The 2016 remaster of Diamond Dogs is actually pretty good - for some reason it does not have much extra compression applied.  I did a blind listening test for this album and the RCA US cd was my favorite, but the 2016 remaster came in a close second.  I think the main reason that the 80's cd is a little better is some sections of the album is that the master tape was is a little bit better shape when it was transferred to digital in 1984 vs 2016.  I currently have the 2016 cd checked out from the library and am deciding whether to buy a copy of it, or to buy a used copy of the RCA US cd that I like a little better but costs about twice as much (it seems to be one of the cheaper RCA cd's to buy).

For Young Americans, I also did a similar blind listening test, and found that I really don't like the 2016 remaster.  The RCA US cd of this album just sounded amazing to me, and was by far my favorite from the test.  Luckily this also seems to be a fairly affordable cd (around $30), perhaps because this version is missing the first two drum beats of the title track, making the German RCA the most desirable cd version of this album.  But, since I preferred the sound of the RCA US in the blind test, I feel like I can live with the missing drum beats at the start of the album since I already have that track in full on both the 2014 2cd Nothing Has Changed collection and a RCA US ChangesOneBowie cd that I recently found for only $7.00 at a used cd store.  So, this will probably be the next Bowie RCA cd that I get.

Obviously, if I am willing to spend so much effort finding the best sounding versions of these album, I feel that they are well worth checking out if you've never listened to them before.  I would say that The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is overall my very favorite album by David Bowie, but I really love every one of his albums from '71-'80 and highly recommend them!