"From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jan 16 - 01:17 PM

There are 'bootlegs' of Bowie's early pre-fame acoustic demos available - many on youtube..

which positioned his aspirations on the fringes of commercial 'Simon & Garfunkel' harmony soft folk rock.

crackly distorted tapes & acetates.. shame some were never released properly.
I have a soft spot for his 1960s recordings.

All us teen fans probably got suckered by that Decca "World of David Bowie" LP with the ziggy cover photo.
But I genuinely enjoyed it and sought out the expensive expanded double LP..."

That was me - forgot to type my name again...

I even think "Ching a Ling" is a great track - sorry.. but i do..

My 'Bowie' is the David Jones 1960s through to David Bowie "Diamond Dogs" era.
I have an OCD completist collection of near all legit releases and most of the significant bootlegs.
Used to love doing Camden market stalls in the early 90s for newly pressed bootleg CDs haggling on ridiculously high cash prices..

The BBC recordings are absolutely essential listening.

Post Diamond Dogs.. well i guess I have eventually acquired most CDs,
and even some of that 80s output is still brilliant, but very patchy.

In the late 80s to mid 90s I became more indifferent as Prince eclipsed Bowie in my estimation.

Prince however burned bright, then burnt out, before completely disappearing up his own arse hole.

Bowie for all the gaps and lapses, is the only artist I suppose i was truly besotted with.

"Lazarus" is a brilliant return to form.

My order of favourites - obviously Ziggy Stardust
followed by Man Who sold the World and Pinups in joint second place,
then Aladin Sane 3rd place,
Still can't decide if I prefer Diamond Dogs, Space Oddity or Hunky Dory for 4th..
haven't listened to them for at least 10 years.

People tend to overlook Pin Ups in the canon of work,
But I think it's the best produced, most powerful sounding Ziggy era LP
and despite being a covers album, was heavily influential on me and my contemporaries - 14 / 15 year old guitarists - for that very reason.

Bowie sparked an interest and curiosity to delve deeper into the best of 1960s power pop & short sharp rock..
which catalysed a lifelong love for me;
Why I believe Pin Ups is the single most important proto punk culture LP..

really that significant an influence on young teen guitar bashers, fed up with prog and charts soft rock,
looking for their own adolescent angry energy sound...

Pete townshend filtered through Bowie and Mick Ronson... -> the Jam, The pistols etc.....