I agree it is everyone's personal opinion but I don't agree with the idea that Bowie is just a lot of looks and window dressing. Yes he was very enigmatic but that does not take away from the body of work itself. There were several periods where he specifically went for a very commercial approach (ie Ziggy Stardust then later Let's Dance and its disappointing follow ups) however the Ziggy album especially stands up to scrutiny and holds its own against even the greatest of albums. Packed with great songs. My favourite Bowie album is "Hunky Dory" which was not particularly driven by a look etc. Just a great set of songs, wonderfully arranged etc which stands up to anything Dylan, the Stones or Beatles produced. In fact it is possibly my favourite album full stop! Likewise there are times where he specifically turned his back on the prevailing trend and went totally uncommercial. The Low and Heroes albums had basically no character or fashion etc attached to them. Just great innovative albums. He could produce experimental albums then come up with massive commercial pop albums like Scary Monsters which still sounds fresh and thrilling today.

He often worked with great people but also was multi talented himself. A writer of great songs. Various musicians have written about how impressed they were with his vocals in the studio and how quickly he got his vocals down often just on one take. On for instance the Diamond Dogs album he plays many of the instruments. All guitars (apart from one track) are played by him as are all the keyboards and saxophone. In fact everything apart from the rhythm section and string arrangements.

And yes many would argue that the Beatles were better but let's face it the Beatles had three great songwriters. Post Beatles the various individuals had their high points but none of their solo canons come anywhere close to Bowie's string of great albums.

I too love the Stones and Dylan. And yes Dylan went from acoustic to rock but Bowie's canon is again far more diverse than either the Stones or Dylan. Simply no comparison. I know just because it is diverse it doesn't mean it is great - but he managed to be diverse, be popular, and still be great most of the time. No mean achievement. In only a few years he went from acoustic hippydome, to heavy rock, through singer songwriter type material, to glam rock popdom; to blue-eyed soul, the crooning ballads on Station To Station, to electronic experimental music, world music inspired songs, to New Romantic pop, and then to disco rock hybrid. Arguably he has more variety on Aladdin Sane than many artists have in their entire career.