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My Albums: Hunky Dory

My Albums: Hunky Dory

When I was starting out as a literature professor, one of my mentors gave me a very sound piece of advice: never teach a novel (or film, poem, TV show) that you love. The reason was that you’ll be heartbroken that nobody sees it in the same way.

So, of course, I’m going to violate that rule.

If people were to ask me what my top 100 albums are, the order of #2 through #100 would change. It would depend on my mood. Or how long it had been since I had listened to a particular album. Or some other reason.

But not #1.

It always has been, and always will be, David Bowie’s Hunky Dory.

That is my desert-island disk.

The album I bought 5 times:

1. I wore it out on the shit record player I had before I bought my good record player.

2. I had it nicked at a party.

3. I had it warp on my window ledge the only time in my entire childhood that the sun shone all day.

4. The regular one I still have.

5. The picture disk version that I would only break out for girls I managed to hoodwink into going up to my bedroom.

And, later, I also bought the CD:

But I never liked CDs. They’re a soulless, shit version of records. Antiseptic, without the benefit of sounding much better. Something that baldy accountants came up with as a way to make more money.

They had all the charm of the new Freddo:

If I were being objective, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) would be Bowie’s best album. But we’re never objective about art. One object speaks to us in a way that others don’t.

For me, buying this album marked the moment of transition from childhood to adulthood, in my tastes, my attitudes, and my understanding of life.

I’m not going to give a behind the scenes of the making of Hunky Dory, as it’s done quite well in this video:

The album is perfect, with 11 incredible tracks. So here are two of the outstanding tracks that have videos for them.

Life On Mars is probably my favourite song on the album:

And, of course, Oh! You Pretty Things:

Unfortunately, there’s no video for this one, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Kooks.

So this is my favourite album. No apologies. If you want to argue that Ziggy Stardust is better or that ABBA’s Waterloo rules, knock yourself out in the comments below.

GLOSSARY

Desert Island Disk – Is a BBC Radio 4 program that has been running since 1942. It invites prominent people on to select what songs they would choose to be stranded on a desert island with (and why).

Freddo – a popular British chocolate bar, one who’s price is often used as an informal guage of inflation.

To nick – to steal.