If you are here we know you love Prince, but I'm suprised to see how many members love David Bowie as well.

I feel Bowie is just as deep, thought provoking, and as talented as Prince, but in a slightly different way.

What is great about Bowie as well as Prince, is that they both have era's where their style has changed, where the music is different, and the texture's have changed. With Bowie you can be into say the style of Earthling with its techno sound, and still fall back to what made fall in love with his music originally, like Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, or Heroes. Same with Prince my favorite era is the Emancipation, The Gold Experience era but I still long to hear Mountians or Pop Life on certain days.

Bowie has distinctive feel to his albums Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane have a early glam rock feel to them, with a definite Mick Ronson pressence but Diamonds Dogs which Bowie stepped out and did it all himself has a very different sound. Young Americans has an R&B feel with not so much of a Motown nod, but a nos to the "Philly Sound".

Station To Station another of my favorites is amazing but shows signs of things to come getting more experimental, after which Low and Heroes follow IMO some of his best work.

In the 90's and in the 2000's bowie has tried many things, Black Tie White Noise offers a more R&B feel once again with Nile Rodgers producing, yet its followed by Outside ( yes I know Budha Of Suburbia is in between ) which offers some indictation of a change coming. Outside however is a distinct turn around, from BTWN Outside's imagery is dark and musically address's the style of the time 94/95 with and industrial goth pressence, and a concept album about a serial killer, making art of his victims. Definately dark imagery but an extremely ambitious venture, I'm still fascinated with this record, its also one Bowie's pooriest selling records. However sales never concern me when the masses would rather watch some teen girl lip sync to a track she didn't even write.

So if your an admirer of both Prince and Bowie tell your favorite era's and what you like about them.
[Edited 12/15/04 11:35am]

I love Bowie! Bowie was so ahead of his time: Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans (Bowie's soul album, Prince fans should get this album its funky: FAME), The film The Man Who Feel To Earth (1976) directed by Nicholas Roeg, Low (1977) (with Brian Eno) ambient music, Station To Station, Scary Monsters (ASHES TO ASHES), The film The Hunger (With Bauhaus). These albums and films with Bowies look and sound influenced so many people in the 70s and the 80s Glam Rock, Punk (like Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols), New Wave, Goth (like Bauhaus), Industrial (like Skinny Puppy) So many, also Prince.

rudeboynpg said:

The great thing about Prince and Bowie is that they can change styles, do so very well and still sound like Prince and Bowie, you know what I mean. It's just a signature in their voices, in their style. When othe artists try no styles, it's either forced or just akward most of the time but these guys are such great musicains and artists that they can try something new and sound like they've been doing it for years.

My 2 all-time faves. I have essays I could write doing a compare/contrast, but I don't want to bore you.

And the story about Bowie and Mick Jagger having gay sex is a lie!

GangstaFam said:

i wrote a prince/bowie compare and contrast essay for Uptown magazine a few years back...i think it got posted on a bowie fan site somewhere down the line, and i've seen it reproduced elsewhere on the web. i think it's an awful piece of writing, but apparently someone got something out of it.

Anxiety said:

For Real? Thats so cool! What issues of Uptown was it?

rudeboynpg said:

it came out in mid-2001. i can't remember what was on the cover...

rudeboynpg said:

Sort of, but not quite. It can't be verified, but it can't be outright denied either. Only David and Mick know for sure.

meow85 said:

David Bowies ex-wife Angela "Bowie" said that they were asleep in the bed, and that was that. In her book Backstage Passes (1993) she was always trying to make it seem like Bowie was having gay sex with every guy he meet, so she will sell more books. She was playing off bowies 70s androgyny image. Its funny because she always has to say "I never found out, I cant say conclusively, I dont have much hard information and Im sure it was all desire, no action." In real life Bowie was very cold she calls him the Ice Man, Bowie was on cocaine, unapproachable and was involved with other women like Ava Cherry, Ava Clark and Candy Clark.

rudeboynpg said:

I already knew that, but thanks for the refresher.

I still stand by what I said; no one but David and Mick know for sure. And the same can be said for anybody, really. Unless you are that person or are a regular witness to their behaviour, you can't say for sure what they have or have not done.

According to Dave's own words "1. Outside" was his best-selling album of the 90s, though. Along with "Earthling". I was actually quite surprised by that.

Novabreaker said:

Thats funny because when I saw him in concert last Feburary he said "seven people bought the album" making a joke reffering to Outside.

It was called "a substantial hit" even in the Loving The Alien -biography. I think it's chart performance wasn't that bad, might have been in the US of course. But not necessarily elsewhere. This was the mid-90s, and music like that wasn't as terribly off-the-mainstream as it would seem in today's context. The Prodigy explosion, forinstance, was just a few months ahead. Same thing with Marilyn Manzoid and the whole "industrial rock" -movement gaining public exposure.

Anxiety said:

Was it the Ziggy/Purple Rain article?

GangstaFam said:

Anxiety said:

Wow! I read that and liked it. I didn't know that was you. I was actually writing something about the 2 of them at that time. Never finished it though. Maybe I should.

GangstaFam said:

yeah, i wasn't crazy about how that piece came out - no fault of uptown's. it started out as a rant on the org, though for the finished product, i wrote that article literally the week i was moving from NYC to chicago. although in some strange way my heart was completely into the article, i don't think my mind was all there because i was so frenzied with moving. i wish i could have had more time to spruce it up and have more fun with it.

Anxiety said:

Now's as good a time as any, especially with the Purple Rain dvd release, 20 yr. anniversary, etc.

I'm gonna read that article again now that I know the source.

Story time!

I've been into David Bowie for about 6 years now. One of my older friends gave me a Diamond Dogs tape. I listened to that tape over and over again through out the summer of 99. I went on to Ziggy Stardust and indeed through every album that I could get my hands on.

David Bowie is also the reason that I've gotten into the # of other bands that I've grown to love over the years - Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Talking Heads, Pixes, Phish and Beck. All of them were related to David Bowie in someway.

I was never led to Prince. The only exposure that I'd gotten to him was the little snippetes that VH1 would play on some odd countdown show. One day however, I stumbled across an article on some fan site that compared Purple Rain to Ziggy Stardust. It intrigued me. I drove to the record store and purchased Purple Rain and 1999. From the intro of Let's Go Crazy to the very end solo I couldn't stop moving and getting into the music. It was the beginning of another love that nearly rivals that of David Bowie.

I saw Prince two nights this past summer. The 2nd night of Auburn Hills and the 3rd night for the second time he came trough Michigan. That 3rd night was the most intense concert that I've ever seen. It outshined the David Bowie concert I'd seen earlier that year in the same arena.

Thanks Anxiety! Because you wrote that article I've had experiances I would've otherwised missed out on.

CherubRocker said:

Very cool story indeed!

CherubRocker said:

awww, thanks. i'm glad to be of service.

Outside is my favourite Bowie album ... It's sooooo freaky! ... YEAH!

Xplanet said:

that's truly an awesome album. "i have not been to oxford town", "voyeur of utter destruction (as beauty)", "i'm deranged", "we prick you"....all tops in my book.

and of course, one of my all time favorite songs by bowie is on that album, "hallo spaceboy".

Anxiety said:

Shit, add on "Strangers When We Meet", "A Small Plot of Land", "The Motel" and "No Control" while you're at it.

I've always really loved that album, but I have a hard time sitting through all the "story" tracks or segues. It's like The Rainbow Children that way. A bit too specific for everyday listening. But I made a disc taking those out and I like it much better that way.

GangstaFam said:

i agree. i think the segues are wanky and don't really contribute much at all to the album or the concept; but i like the story in the liner notes and the illustrations - that stuff is cool.