Track Listing

1. Changes
2. Oh! You Pretty Things
3. Eight Line Poem
4. Life on Mars?
5. Kooks
6. Quicksand
7. Fill Your Heart
8. Andy Warhol
9. Song for Bob Dylan
10. Queen Bitch
11. The Bewlay Brothers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1408 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Original recording reissued
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The precursor to Bowie's masterpiece, The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Hunky Dory points in many of the same musical directions as Ziggy, with Bowie camping it up outrageously through a mixture of cabaret piano, coquettish lyrics and soaring vocals. After the hard rock "The Man Who Sold The World", Mick Ronson's guitar is turned down in favour of plenty of piano and acoustic guitar, as Bowie proves his mettle as a masterful singer-songwriter. Not a dull note is struck on the whole album, which flits from opener "Changes" to the vampy "Oh! You Pretty Thing" to the heart-wrenching "Life On Mars" with a seemingly impeccable ear for a tune. Flirty, sexy and irresistibly seductive. --Amber Cowan

CD Description
It seems hard to believe, given the career full of revolutionary and hugely influential stylistic shifts that followed,that this superb record was only David Bowie's fourth. Yet HUNKY DORY ranks alongside ZIGGY STARDUST, LOW, and SCARY MONSTERS as one of Bowie's finest and most consistent albums. Ironically, it is one of the artist's least rock-oriented efforts, bearing little relation to what came before or after in his discography. Instead, HUNKY DORY covers a wide range of styles from operatic pop ("Life on Mars?") to low-key folk ("Quicksand") to English music hall ditties ("Kooks").
There are standout tracks, most notably the glam-rock anthem"Oh, You Pretty Things!" and the chugging, life-affirming "Changes", which went on to become one of Bowie's all-time signature songs. But HUNKY DORY is solid from beginning to end, thanks to the fine musicians, Bowie's excellent songwriting, and the artist's now-mature sense of performance. These qualities fold such wild cards as the tongue-in-cheek celebrity send-up "Andy Warhol", the psychedelic folk of "The Bewlay Brothers", and exuberant jam of "Queen Bitch", the album'sonly overt rocker, neatly into the deck, making for the first of Bowie's truly indisputable masterpieces.

Customer Reviews

The best album by anyone, anywhere, anytime
I bought Ziggy Stardust when it was released, took it round to my mate's to play and he'd already bought a copy, so I took mine back & swapped it for Hunky Dory. Did I get the better of that deal? This is the last of the great hippy albums, before everything went glam rock. It's thoughtful, introspective, brilliantly lyricised, truly romantic and beautiful in spades.
For me this is the best album ever, quite an accolade when you look at the contenders. It's populated by sensitively textured characters - spectral Bewlay brothers, scratchy\clawing Robert Zimmermans, cement fixed Andy Warhols and Clara puts her head between her paws (and more). Twice as good as Ziggy, Three times better than Diamond Dogs, Alladin Sane or Man Who Sold the World (or the oft overlooked Pin-ups)and ten times better than Heroes or Let's Dance or Young Americans. I know Bowie's chameleon, comedian, corinthian and caricature but this is an intimate facet rarely seen, before the fame kicked in, and is truly a flawless collection of fine vintage songs. Drink them in and enjoy

Still shines brightly...

This is a truly superb collection of tracks - delicate, heartfelt and almost personal. To me, this epitomises an artist stretching himself a little just before the big push into the big time.

Like many here, I came to this wonderful album some years after it was released (after the intial "Glam" thing had faded in fact). In some ways, I wish he'd continued with this style for another album but things were moving so very quickly during this period and "pop" music was fragmenting rapidly - the commercial "Glam acts" like Slade, Mud, The Sweet & T Rex on the one hand and harder edged "Prog Rock" on the other from Soft Machine and Van Der Graaf generator to Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP, Led Zep & Genesis etc. etc. on the other.

In the company of the above bands, Bowie could have been overshadowed, but it's thanks to the rockier "Ziggy Stardust" that he didn't and this album can still be enjoyed, getting on for forty years later, as the charming, beautiful, thoughtful classic that it is...

The 1990 remastering was done very well indeed and adds a few extra tracks. I'm not sure why it had to be released again in 1999 without these bonus tracks (when everyone else is raiding the vaults for undiscovered gems to put on a new re-mastering but there you go), but since the prices are so reasonable for either it doesn't matter quite so much in my opinion.

Whichever version you go for - a LOVELY album and one to treasure and savour for the next forty years.....

More than just a pretty face...
1971 was a very productive year for Bowie he had signed to RCA, and now he had an American lawyer Tony Defries as his manager who with his "Mainman" company was building Bowie to be the next big thing.
"Hunky Dory" was recorded at Trident Studios in London with the Bowie assisting Ken Scott with the production.
Wakeman's piano, Ronson and Bowie's acoustic guitar dominate the album, with the sound of Ronson's string arrangements on "Life on Mars?" and the easy listening "Changes" which give the tracks more depth.

The easy listening doesn't take away the from disturbing imagery on songs such as "Oh you pretty Things", Hunky Dory the title alone is misleading as it hides fact the album is a collection of attractive melodies, seductive arrangements and choruses with the juxtaposition of lyrics which for the most part where as complex as the previous album, which had attacked with a full frontal assault of the audio kind with the heavy power trio of Ronson, Woodmansey and Visconti, now with the release of this album the songs came gift-wrapped in prettiness you the listener are taken off guard, which leaves you wide open for the observations, and predictions of the material.

The opening track of the collection "Changes" starts with the elegant piano sound of Wakeman and Ronson's string arrangement, these set the scene for the verses and stuttering chorus, Ch-Ch-Changes would become an organising principle for Bowies music, he neatly states in the song "Look out all you Rock and Rollers", for him rock was done from the outside as an actor and never becoming a rocker in reality just passing comment and watching from afar.

"Changes" has never been a hit but is included in any "best of" or "greatest hits" that record companies put together such is the popularity of the track.

"Oh you Pretty Things" sounds "McCartneyesque" in construction but if you listen closely to the words with it's reference to "Cracks in the sky" indications of split personality reveal a man ready for the psychiatrist's couch. This song segues into "Eight line Poem", which is a hushed still life with Ronson's light country style guitar, this is framed by Bowies piano chords which is the perfect backdrop for Bowie's parody of an American singing style that most of his contemporaries where using at the time, the theory being if you sounded American you got closer to the blues master print and so you sounded more authentic.
" Life on Mars?" is a masterwork where the song is built around delicate piano playing which collides with the guitar sound of Ronson along with his huge string arrangement.
Bowie weaves a tale of a world where the heroine of the song attempts to escape her existence by going to the movies, only to discover that the film she is watching is her life, as she watches she sees herself going to the cinema, as a paradox the song returns to the scene of urban chaos with Bowie exclaiming, "Oh man! Look at those cavemen go, it's the freakiest show .... is there life on Mars?" Listen very carefully and you can hear the chords from "My way" the standard written for Sinatra.
Respite is provided by "Kooks" which is a warning to his son Zowie with the line "And if you ever have to go to school don't pick any fights with the bullies or the cads", " Cause I'm not much cop at punching other people's dads" he tells his son not to draw attention to himself.
The mood of "Kooks" is darkened with "Quicksand" which deals with the futility of the human condition and how the philosophies he follows of Zen, Homo Superior and the occult clash and the fact that fascism came from similar roots, this is over 12 string guitar, this song works because of one of the most moving melodies of any Bowie song, the line "playing in a silent film" he is setting himself up as a bit-part actor waiting for a starring role.

The song "Fill your Heart" this is a track written by the song writing team of Biff Rose and Paul Williams. The words read like some forgotten Hippy manifesto with its talk of "happiness is here today and lovers with minds free of thoughts unkind", in view of Bowies own lyric content is ironic as the other songs on the collection glorify individualism and self absorption, this doesn't take any from the fact that it's a damm fine pop song.

Bowie has never hid his influences so with "Andy Warhol" he paid homage to Warhol,
The track itself studio backchat at the start and some Ronson and Bowie Spanish-styled guitar work in the middle 8.

"Song for Bob Dylan" is the song on the album that just doesn't work; Bowie doesn't know whether to parody Dylan or just be himself, the redeeming fact of the song is that it has a catchy melody and a winning chorus.
"Queen Bitch" is probably the best song that Lou Reed didn't write, if you read the back cover of the album it says in brackets (some V.U. white light returned with thanks) it's a tale of cross-dressing and gay love set against the power chords of Ronsons guitar, with the line "She so swishy in her satin and tat in her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat, Oh God I could do better than that", is Bowie pleading or making a statement?
The finale is one of the important songs in Bowies back catalogue as it deals in fictional form with his relationship with his late half-brother Terry, "The Bewlay Brothers", the track evidently means a great deal to him as he named his music publishing company after the track, only recently has Bowie begun performing the song live.

An album that grows with time and has a lot more depth than would seem on the first listening, an essential part of any Bowie collection...