The Man Who Polled the World, aka DAVID BOWIE POLL RESULTS

Who is the other supercool individual with the excellent taste in favorite David Bowie songs?

'Win' is full of more #win than a thousand Charlie Sheen's eating "winner winner Sheen dinner".

'Win' is great, I had completely forgotten it.

52. "Cracked Actor" (from Aladdin Sane) - 239 points/10 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/zkEvAvIGK-w

I tried to remind y'all about the glory of Win, but did you listen to me? Of course not. So here it is, languishing at 53.

I hadn't heard "Win" at all before listening to stuff for this poll -- Young Americans was one of the 70s records I didn't know aside from the singles -- but it made my ballot. This song makes me so freakin' horny! (/tmi)

'Cracked Actor', for me, is one of those songs that is a decent and listenable slice of rock music, but ultimately doesn't blow me away.

Kornrulez, I listened! I had forgotten about it but said a big fuck yeah and put it on my ballot after being reminded. Would have placed lower otherwise.

Cracked Actor was my no.2. I love my Bowie poppy-and-paranoid, clearly.

Excellent, grandavis, excellent. If only more had heard the call....

I love the title too, I find it extremely satisfying to say.

I think a lot of ballots that did not have Win on it were trying not to loose, and failing #winrelatedhumor

"Win" is one of the reasons I counted down from 60 instead of 50, tbh.

Counting down from 60 was a great idea, and I think the number of ballots definitely warranted it!

now speed it up
more songs
more more more more

more more more

― Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 7:00 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How d'ya like it? How d'ya like it?

no, the tempo is just right if a little fast--stretch it out!

51. "Joe the Lion" (from "Heroes") - 251 points/9 votes/1 first-place vote

http://youtu.be/VcXb2FXcWg4

Love Joe the Lion! Not on my ballot though....

Like 'Blackout', this is another "Heroes" track that is just filled with great moments, especially the 'It's Monday...' section which is an excellent little change. Fantastic guitar work throughout, too.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwvhfu0Oqh1qggdq1.jpg

Joe The Lion, Made Of Iron (In Zion)

50. "A New Career in a New Town" (from Low) - 251 points/12 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/JhZqsYkl1zI

For those of you who don't know, that's the artist Chris Burden, who inspired the song. Here he is nailed to a Volkswagen...he also had himself shot in the arm, etc...great artist.

did not know joe the lion was about chris burden! thx for the tip iago.

In making my ballot I made the snap decision to skip all instrumentals. Did anyone else decide to do that? As much as I like almost all of them (though "A New Career in a New Town" would not have made my list, like most of the others over it) it seemed to take space away from the meat of Bowie's career, if that makes sense? My original list that had 45 songs or whatever had 4 or 5 instrumentals, and it just made things so much easier to consider them as a separate entity.

I'll never forget hearing 'A New Career In A New Town' for the first time, and getting that great 'tingle' that the best music gives. I feel that giving this piece of music lyrics would only taint it, since it's just so perfectly realised and everything that you need to know is there in the music. It seems to capture this joyful feeling of moving on, but simultaneously there's something about that harmonica that sounds like a goodbye tinged with regret. Quite apt really, all things considered. It's a beautiful tune. Another one of those I wish I'd had room for on the ballot.

The harmonica is really great in that tune

49. "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" (from Scary Monsters) - 258 points/11 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/NHywdqH3F6Y

Oh hello there, my #15!

did not know joe the lion was about chris burden! thx for the tip iago.
― Spectrist, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:25 PM (13 minutes ago)

You're welcome, Spectrist!

Bowie is often an abstruse lyricist so the instrumentals were his best chances of finding musical correlatives for his concepts, you know? What song speaks to Bowie's interests in motorik and C&W than "A New Career..."?

Listening to 'Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)' right now. The track, not the album. Every time that outro comes on, it makes me sad that it seems unlikely that he'll ever play live again. That outro was designed to be a prime live moment, I feel.

the title track allowed for one of the Gabrels era's best live performances.

My snap decision now seems to be just that, an opportunity to make picking 20 songs a little easier. I think I would trade a couple of my eventual choices out for an instrumental or two now, but there you have it. Good point btw Alfred, and those songs work really well on the albums, they are much more than interludes or diversions, they belong in the narrative of the records.

I had 3 instrumentals on my ballot. I ended up making the snap decision to exclude nearly all the hits instead.

there is a killer live version of SM&SC on the Serious Moonlight bootleg

man I'd never listened to Live in Santa Monica 72, this thing SMOKES

48. "Diamond Dogs" (from Diamond Dogs) - 268 points/13 votes/0 first-place votes

http://youtu.be/36lWAcY9IXE

totally, wild eyed boy--i put width of a circle from that show on my list, but i guess it will get folded into the studio version which is fine by me.

I've been trying to coin "Call them the Diamond Hogs!" as the unofficial slogan for the Arkansas Razorback baseball team, but no go.

Bowie is often an abstruse lyricist so the instrumentals were his best chances of finding musical correlatives for his concepts, you know?

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 7:43 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree with this completely. The moments that tend to affect me in some way on Bowie releases are very rarely the lyrics in and of themselves. Rather, they tend to be musical elements for the most part. When it comes to his vocals, most of the time I get more of a buzz out of the way he sings things rather than what he's actually singing, if that makes sense.

THIS AIN'T ROCK'N'ROLL! THIS IS GENOCIDE!

I've been trying to coin "Call them the Diamond Hogs!" as the unofficial slogan for the Arkansas Razorback baseball team, but no go.

I love that -- too bad the idea isn't sticking.

THIS AIN'T ROCK'N'ROLL! THIS IS GENOCIDE!

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 1:58 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

best line in rock n' roll history

"Scary Monsters" is a song he simply never could've done before his collabs w Eno. The insane Fripp lead, the filter on the bgd vox during the chorus, the careening tempo -- I've always been a very big fan.

Can't believe 'Win' charted so lowly...my no 1...one of my heartbeat songs...

So I think most of my ballot will be in the top 20 but I will pretend I wasn't a part of this poll if letter to hermione doesn't feat.

It's interesting, because I'm listening to this song ('Diamond Dogs') straight after listening to 'Scary Monsters', and I've noticed both songs have same kind of dalek effect on the vocals.

47. "What in the World" (from Low) - 275 points/12 votes/1 first-place vote

http://youtu.be/7SAIVyGTNRM