HUNKY DORY

'Hunky Dory' is the fourth studio album of David Bowie and was released in 1971. The album received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of Bowie's best works. It has been described as an album having a kaleidoscope of different genres of music, tied together by the very personal Bowie's sense of vision about the world and society, such as his ambiguous sexuality, kitsch and class. The album's cover was clearly influenced by a photo of Marlene Dietrich.

The line up on the album is David Bowie (vocals, guitar, alto and tenor saxophone and piano), Mick Ronson (vocals, guitar and mellotron), Trevor Bolder (bass guitar and trumpet) and Mick Woodmansey (drums). It's also remarkable the participation of Rick Wakeman on the album, playing piano as a guest musician in some tracks on the album.

'Hunky Dory' has eleven tracks. All songs were written by Bowie except 'Fill Your Heart' written by Biff Rose and Paul Williams. The first track 'Changes' is clearly a song chosen to be released as a single. It became in one of Bowie's best known songs and it's also one of them where its lyrics show better his chameleonic personality with the frequent reinventions of his musical style throughout his musical career. The second track 'Oh! You Pretty Things' is a song based on Wakeman's piano and Bowie's voice. This is a very simple song with a very catchy refrain which shows that a simple song can be a great song. The third track 'Eight Line Poem' is a song based on a sparse piano, a sparse guitar and Bowie's voice. This is another very simple song basically written around its lyrics. It isn't a bad song, but sincerely, I think it has less interest and quality than the other two previous songs. The fourth track 'Life On Mars?' is also clearly a song chosen to be released as a single, as happened with 'Changes'. It became also as one of Bowie's best known songs and it features a very beautiful piano work by Wakeman. This is, without any doubt, one of the greatest songs written by Bowie and that sounds like the precursor of his next studio album 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars', released in the following year. The fifth track 'Kooks' is a song that Bowie wrote to his newborn son Duncan Jones. This is also a very simple song, very beautiful, funny and humorous. Despite be a very light song, I always loved it because it sounds to me, as a very nice and warm song. The sixth track 'Quicksand' is a dark and depressing track where Bowie uses the concept of 'Superman' of Friedrich Nietzsche on its lyrics. Musically, it's a very beautiful song with multi tracked acoustic guitar and string arrangements by Ronson. The seventh track 'Fill Your Heart' is the only song on the album which wasn't written by Bowie. This is one of Bowie's happiest tracks, with very uplifting lyrics and with a nice use of strings and saxophone. It's a song in the same vein of 'Kooks', but probably is even better than that song is. The eighth track 'Andy Warhol' is, as its name indicates, a song about one of Bowie's greatest inspirations, the pop artist Andy Warhol. It's an acoustic song with a very distinctive flamenco riff on the acoustic guitar that continues throughout the song. This is an excellent folk rock song in the same vein of songs of their second studio album 'Space Oddity'. The ninth track 'Song For Bob Dylan' is also another homage song to one his greatest inspirations, but this time is Bob Dylan. It's interesting to note that the song is very similar to Dylan's songs and Bowie sings in the same style of Dylan. This is a very good song with some nice electric guitar work. The tenth track 'Queen Bitch' is another homage song on the album. Bowie was a great fan of Velvet Underground and he wrote this song as a tribute to the band and Lou Reed. This is a typical rock song with a strong electric guitar riff. It represents perfectly the very well known Bowie's glam rock style. The eleventh track 'The Bewlay Brothers' is a song written as a ballad and it's also, probably, one of Bowie's most dense and impenetrable songs. This is a very emotional song with some strange lyrics and is astoundingly performed. It has wonderful mellotron and nice acoustic guitar works. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best songs of the album and one of the greatest Bowie's songs ever.

Conclusion: 'Hunky Dory' is another excellent album of Bowie. However and despite be released one year after his previous studio album 'The Man Who Sold The World', it's a completely different musical work. This is a more intimate album and a much less rocking album than its predecessor is. It seems to me a complete paradox and an album put out of the place, because it appears between the two rockiest, hardest and heavy rock albums made by Bowie, 'The Man Who Sold The World' and 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars'. But we are talking about Bowie, the chameleon artist. So, this isn't really a huge surprise. But, and despite I like very much of 'Hunky Dory' and considerer it one of the best and most fine albums of Bowie, it isn't one of my favourite albums from him. My favourite Bowie's studio albums are 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars', 'Low' and 'The Man Who Sold The World'. 'Hunky Dory' come in a second choice with albums like 'Station To Station' and 'Heroes'.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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