Line #6 Music/Changesonebowie


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/davidbowie_changesonebowie_8uqu.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Time may change me, but you can't trace time."'']]
3
4	''Changesonebowie'', released in 1976, is the first GreatestHitsAlbum by British rock musician Music/DavidBowie. Issued on Bowie's then-current label Creator/RCARecords, the album contains various hits spanning from Bowie's second SelfTitledAlbum from 1969 (better known today as ''Music/SpaceOddity'') all the way up to his then-most recent album, ''Music/StationToStation'' from earlier in 1976.[[note]]Although ''Space Oddity'' and ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'' from 1970 were both originally released on Creator/PhilipsRecords and Creator/MercuryRecords, manager Tony Defries purchased the masters for those two albums after leaving the labels and handed them over to RCA when Bowie signed onto them. RCA would legally own these albums until 1988, when their rights to them and the rest of Bowie's output up to ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' expired[[/note]] As Bowie had only just recently broken into the American mainstream with his 1975 album ''Music/YoungAmericans'', the compilation is an obstinately British-oriented one; later compilations would add in hits that managed to hit it big in the US as well as the UK.
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6	''Changesonebowie'' was a commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Albums chart, No. 10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and No. 8 on the New Zealand Albums chart, and being certified Platinum in the United States just 5 years after its release. ''Changesonebowie'' was enough of a success for RCA to release a follow-up compilation, ''Changestwobowie'', in 1981 that focused on songs left off of the first compilation plus newer hits from after 1976. A later compilation called ''Changesbowie'' was put out by Creator/{{Rykodisc}} in 1990 that acted as a distilled combination of both ''Changesonebowie'' and ''Changestwobowie'' with some newer hits from the Creator/EMIAmericaRecords years and a new remix of "Fame" thrown in (a 1996 reissue of ''Changesbowie'' would omit the remix in favor of the original 1975 version). ''Changesonebowie'' and ''Changestwobowie'' would be taken out of print while Ryko had the rights to the Bowie back-catalog, but would later be put back into circulation once that deal ended (with ''Changesbowie'' in turn going out of print).
7
8	!!Tracklist:
9	[[AC:Side One]]
10	# "Music/SpaceOddity" (5:14)
11	# "John, I'm Only Dancing (Sax Version)" (2:43)[[note]]1973 re-recording of a 1972 non-album single, the original version of which was released to bank on the success of ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars''; UK copies after the first 1000 replace the sax version with the original[[/note]]
12	# "[[Music/HunkyDory Changes]]" (3:33)
13	# "[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]]" (3:13)
14	# "[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Suffragette City]]" (3:25)
15	# "[[Music/AladdinSane The Jean Genie]]" (4:03)
16
17	[[AC:Side Two]]
18	# "Music/DiamondDogs" (5:56)
19	# "[[Music/DiamondDogs Rebel Rebel]]" (4:30)
20	# "Music/YoungAmericans" (5:10)
21	# "[[Music/YoungAmericans Fame]]" (4:12)
22	# "[[Music/StationToStation Golden Years]]" (3:59)
23	----
24	!!''I saw you troping from the stairs, you're everyone that ever cared'':
25	* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: The song "Ziggy Stardust" itself, which is sung from the point of view of his Spiders from Mars band-mates, claims Ziggy grew egotistical once he became famous. Two of Bowie's actual band-mates from this period, Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey, claim this actually happened to the real Bowie -- that he spent less and less time off-stage with them and other old acquaintances as his star rose -- and Bowie later admitted that he wrote the song partially as an apology to his loyal bandmates for his behaviour during the recording of ''Music/HunkyDory''.
26	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''D'''iamond '''D'''ogs", "'''R'''ebel '''R'''ebel"
27	* AmericanTitle: Of the ironic variety with "Young Americans", a rather cynical portrait of ennui and disappointment in America in TheSeventies.
28	* AntiLoveSong: "Golden Years", which contrasts seemingly encouraging lyrics with a downright clinical melody, instrumentation, and vocal delivery, tying in with the [[Music/StationToStation Thin White Duke]]'s nature as TheSociopath.
29	* AudienceParticipationSong: "Young Americans" to a mild extent; on the album, there's a slight pause after "ain't there one damn song that can make me--" and the following phrase, "--break down and cry?" In live performances, Bowie would take an even ''longer'' pause after the first phrase, before letting the audience finish the line in his place.
30	* BeastMan: The Diamond Dogs are man-dog hybrids.
31	* TheBigRottenApple: A post-apocalyptic UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity is described in "Diamond Dogs". Halloween Jack, according to the track, "lives on top of Manhattan Chase".
32	* {{Blues}}: "The Jean Genie" is done in this style.
33	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "The Jean Genie"
34	-->''He says he's a beautician and sells you nutrition and keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear''.
35	* CallBack: The border surrounding then-present day Bowie in the video for the 1990 remix of "Fame" (included on ''Changesbowie'') consists of a bunch of little screens. Several of them are showing looped montages of stills of Bowie over the years (both his music and acting careers) or clips from previous videos and TV appearances. In fact, one screen simply runs Bowie's 1975 performance of "Fame" on Music/{{Cher}}'s variety show!
36	* CelebrityIsOverrated: The point of "Fame".
37	-->''Fame, puts you there where things are hollow''
38	* ContinuityNod: "Space Oddity" is the first song where Bowie dwells into space imagery, a theme he would elaborate further on with "Life On Mars?" from ''Music/HunkyDory'' in 1971 and the entire ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' album from 1972. Bowie would later revisit the Major Tom character in the song "Ashes To Ashes" from ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' in 1980, providing an in-universe AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of the astronaut as a hopeless drug addict.
39	* DarkerAndEdgier: "Golden Years" takes the "plastic soul" of [[Music/YoungAmericans "Young Americans" & "Fame"]] and directs it in a more dour, brooding direction with heavier emphasis on experimentation and occultism. The Thin White Duke, who narrates the song, was also a much, ''much'' more unpleasant figure than any of Bowie's other personae; getting LostInCharacter and saying things he would later end up regretting was one of the reasons Bowie stopped creating such characters.
40	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The cover art is shot in black and white, with mostly black text atop.
41	* {{Doowop}}: "Golden Years" is sung in this genre.
42	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: One of the running themes behind "Golden Years" and its parent album is the Duke, who has no capacity for love or for ''any'' real emotion, struggling to grasp and convey romantic sentiment; there's a certain hollowness behind the surface emotions of the song which exposes the Duke as TheSociopath.
43	* FaceOnTheCover: A black and white glamour shot of Bowie by photographer Tom Kelley, best known for his 1949 nude calendar photographs of Creator/MarilynMonroe.
44	* FolkRock: "Space Oddity" is performed in this style.
45	* FunkRock: "Fame" and "Golden Years" are done in this style.
46	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: The title track features Ground Control instructing Major Tom to "take your protein pills."
47	* GenderBender: "Rebel Rebel".
48	-->''You got your mother in a whirl\
49	She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl''
50	* GlamRock: The majority of tracks on the album are taken from Bowie's period of spearheading this particular movement in British rock.
51	* GratuitousGerman: "Fame"
52	-->''Fame, "Nein! It's mine!" is just his line''
53	* GreatestHitsAlbum: The album focuses primarily on singles that were commercial successes in Bowie's native UK.
54	* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The album cover is designed as a pastiche of that for ''Music/StationToStation'', released earlier that year, featuring a monochrome photo of Bowie with the title and artist name written at the top as a single compound word (though ''Station to Station'' generally isn't referred to as ''Stationtostationdavidbowie'' in the way that this album is called ''Changesonebowie''). This style would be repeated with ''Changestwobowie'' (though with a color photo this time), ''Changesbowie'', ''Rarestonebowie'' (a semi-official rarities compilation released by Bowie's old management firm without his approval), and ''Changesnowbowie'' (an album consisting of an acoustic BBC Radio session from 1997).
55	* IntercourseWithYou: It's hard to imagine any other explanation for the "Aaaaawww ''wham bam thank you ma'am!''" in "Suffragette City.
56	* IsntItIronic: "Space Oddity". It's about an astronaut lost in the empty space forever - or rather until his eventual cremation by re-entry-- sung in a tone quite appropriate for describing such a fate, and the Ground Control guy sounds plainly hopeless by the end. Despite that:
57	** Creator/TheBBC used "Space Oddity", when it was originally released in 1969, as part of its coverage of the moon landing. A car commercial by Lincoln used a cover of "Space Oddity" by Music/CatPower. The ad proper pushes the technology of the car and how "futuristic" it looks. It cuts off after "you've really made the grade".
58	** Another in the same series of commercials uses the cover of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Shiny Toy Guns (originally recorded by Music/PeterSchilling), and it cuts off right after "Earth below us / Drifting, falling..." While it's a very cool commercial, you just have to say, "Uh, you know that song ''doesn't end well'', right? [[spoiler:''"Across the stratosphere / a final message / 'give my wife my love' / then nothing more..."'' it's only even sadder after that, and that "drifting, falling" part becomes an IronicEcho-- the same words meant something totally different on the way ''up'', didn't they?]]
59	** Astronaut Chris Hadfield released a video of himself performing "Space Oddity" in the International Space Station. As mentioned above, the song... does not have a happy ending. The DownerEnding verses were changed/removed[[note]]Major Tom gets his orders to land, and does so safely[[/note]], but still, it's sort of TemptingFate to sing that song when you're actually in space. Hadfield, for his part, acknowledged this; when he appeared on Series/{{Conan}} to talk about it, he said he expressed concern about singing the song up there in space due to how dark the lyrics are, and he only agreed to do it were they modified.
60	* LastNameBasis: The front cover just credits the album to "Bowie".
61	* LyricalDissonance: "Young Americans", an upbeat-sounding soul anthem about the degradation of American society, with such cheerful lines as "we live for just these twenty years, do we have to die for the fifty more?"
62	* NoEnding: "Space Oddity": last thing we know is Major Tom and his MissionControl lose communication, no clue is left as to what happens after that. "Ashes To Ashes" from ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' in 1980 later reveals that Tom may have survived.
63	* NostalgiaFilter: "Golden Years":
64	-->''Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years''
65	* OneWordTitle: "Changes", "Fame"; the album title may also count if you read ''Changesonebowie'' as a single compound word rather than as "Changes One Bowie".
66	* PepTalkSong: "Changes:"
67	-->''Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the strange''
68	* PorkyPigPronunciation: "Changes:"
69	-->''Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes''
70	* PostApocalypticDog: This is what you would call the Diamond Dogs.
71	* ProductPlacement: "Young Americans" makes mention of a Franchise/{{Barbie}} doll, a Caddie and a Chrysler, all of which ended up getting the song blacklisted from airplay on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio]] (thanks to the Beeb's strict policy against this trope as per the Ofcom Code).
72	* PunBasedTitle:
73	** "Space Oddity" is, of course, a pun on ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
74	** "Rebel Rebel" sounds as if the same word is repeated twice, but it's actually meant as an order addressed to a rebel. The first "rebel" is a noun in that regard and the second a verb.
75	* RearrangeTheSong:
76	** In 2003, "Rebel Rebel" was remixed with "Never Get Old" from ''Music/{{Reality}}'' and released as a single as "Rebel Never Gets Old"
77	** "Space Oddity" was remade as an acoustic number in 1979, as a prelude of sorts to ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps''[='s=] follow-up song "Ashes To Ashes", the single edit of which would find its way onto ''Changestwobowie'' in 1981.
78	* RockstarSong: "Ziggy Stardust" is about the rise and fall of the titular rock star.
79	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Ziggy becomes a hedonist as his star rises.
80	* ShoutOut:
81	** "Space Oddity" is a shout-out to ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
82	** Going the other way, Naked Snake's MissionControl, Zero, takes on the codename "Major Tom" during [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater the Virtuous Mission and Operation: Snake Eater]].
83	** ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' was a key visual inspiration for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and the term "droogie" is dropped in "Suffragette City".
84	** Ziggy Stardust himself was inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendary_Stardust_Cowboy The Legendary Stardust Cowboy,]] where Bowie took the name from.
85	** The punk band Music/{{Crass}} took its name from the line "the kids were just crass" in "Ziggy Stardust".
86	** Ziggy playing guitar left-handed is likely a reference to Music/JimiHendrix.
87	** Bowie wrote "The Jean Genie" about Music/IggyPop. He says on some level he was probably thinking about Jean Genet too.
88	** "Diamond Dogs" references Creator/TodBrowning's ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' and Creator/SalvadorDali:
89	--->''With your silicone hump and your ten inch stump\
90	Dressed like a priest you was\
91	Tod Browning's freak you was\
92	Her face is sans feature, but she wears a Dali brooch''
93	** "Young Americans" gives a nod to [[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand "A Day In The Life"]], with the line "I heard the news today, oh boy!". The song also references both Franchise/{{Barbie}} and "[[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon your President Nixon]]", who resigned while the album was being recorded.
94	* SequelSong: "Ashes To Ashes" from ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' is a sequel song to "Space Oddity". The Music/PetShopBoys' remix of "Hallo Spaceboy" from ''Music/{{Outside}}'' in 1995 too.
95	* TheSociopath: The Duke, who narrates "Golden Years", has no capacity for emotional arousal, and spends the song attempting to comprehend love and other stimulating emotions through cognitively (and sometimes physically) twisted means that are blatantly cold and calculated.
96	* SpecialGuest:
97	** Rick Wakeman from Music/{{Yes}} performs piano on "Changes".
98	** Music/JohnLennon on "Fame", which he also co-wrote.
99	* SplashOfColor: The word "one" is written in red on the front cover logotype, in contrast to the DeliberatelyMonochrome nature of everything else.
100	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Space Oddity" starts off with a countdown in the background of the first two verses.
101	* StandardSnippet: "Space Oddity" is often used as a soundtrack to imagery of rockets and astronauts floating in space.
102	* StylisticSuck: The vocal parts on "Diamond Dogs" is intentionally manipulated to sound discomforting warbly, replicating the effect of a very flutter-heavy tape machine.
103	* TitleTrack: "Diamond Dogs" is this for its parent album; played with for "Space Oddity" (which was the title retroactively given to its parent album on the 1972 RCA reissue; previously it was a SelfTitledAlbum) and "Ziggy Startdust" (which is just part of the much longer title of its parent album, though most truncate said longer title to ''Ziggy Stardust'' anyways).
104	* WhamLine: From "Space Oddity":
105	-->''"Ground Control to Major Tom\
106	Your circuit's dead; there's something wrong..."''
107	* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: An overarching theme of "Golden Years", courtesy of the downright sociopathic Duke.

Context Music / Changesonebowie