Changesbowie (David Bowie, 1990)

Back when this was the only David Bowie disc I owned, Changesbowie served its purpose. Nowadays, except when I'm jonesing (no pun intended) for some post-Ziggy Stardust material, it is usually left as an afterthought, save for the inclusion of the non-album track "John, I'm Only Dancing". To this day I still haven't acquired a regular David Bowie album dated later than 1972. Back in college, however, this was all I had, so it served as a good introduction. Being a total novice, I didn't realize it was a replacement of two older compilations (Changesonebowie from 1976 and Changestwobowie from 1981) though a number of tracks were added or deleted and it is not strictly a direct lift of its predecessors. I think it was just enough to warrant not having to re-issue the old compilations directly during the Rykodisc catalog adoption.

Changesbowie on its own is a fairly standard-issue "greatest hits" package, including all the highlights from 1969's Space Oddity though Tonight (1984). Although it was a strong seller, particularly in the UK, coming out on the heels of the immensely successful Sound + Vision box set, it is pocked with a few glaring flaws. First off, like many of these compilations, the compilers felt the need to add a little "bait" to the tracklist to entice those already enriched with a lot of David Bowie albums. Unfortunately, the track is a remix of "Fame" (or, in its own right, "Fame '90"), a universally panned marring of a track that didn't need any modernization. In fact, by 1996 it was sheepishly removed and replaced with the original version. Secondly, it misses opportunities for "better" bait tracks. Certainly some of the pre-Space Oddity stuff might have found a seat at the table, or perhaps one of the numerous "non-album" songs. Thankfully, Bowie at the Beeb has helped in those areas immensely, even if they are not the originals. Finally, in an attempt to valiantly put everything on a single disc, some songs were shortened or removed. Therefore, "Heroes", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", and "Modern Love" are all the single versions, and the songs "Starman", "Life on Mars?", and "Sound and Vision" were omitted for the CD, but were part of the cassette and vinyl versions. Nice way to reward obsolete media, huh? Well, if anything positive can be said about removing the songs, it's that the first two messed up the otherwise chronological sequence.

Speaking of chronologies, I've been very slowly working my way through the studio albums in roughly chronological order, so the the so-called Ziggy Stardust barrier of 1972 is still in effect, but I've heard enough from YouTube and the radio of the later albums to know they are worthwhile, at least until we get to around Tonight, the beginning of a number of questionable career moves for Bowie. Of course, as the old saying goes, if you don't like the current Bowie album you're listening to, you will probably love the next one, and it seems that his most recent album has done a lot to repair some of that damage from the 1980's.