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

Was it though? The late nineties/early noughties marked the beginning of the Low ascendancy I'd have thought. Bowie was performing it live in its entirety, Radiohead had taken a Low-like turn towards electronica, Pitchfork placed Low no. 1 in its list of top 100 albums in the 70s...

The Bowie entry (by Rob Sheffield) calls STS his best ("the one where Major Tom learned how to dance").

His Bowie entry might be the best thing Sheffield did in that book.

Alfred otm; the only album that made the list at the back of the record guide was ChangesOneBowie, but Station to Station was the only "regular album" that got a 10 was Station. iirc Low got a 9...

Someone sheepishly mentioned upthread that they first heard Bowie in a Wes Anderson movie.

I think that was me...but what I actually said (sheepishly, yes) was that it was Life Acquatic that got me to love "Queen Bitch." I'd owned Hunky Dory for a few years at that point--came to the album very late--but for whatever reason didn't take much notice of the song the one or two times I played it.

"Queen Bitch" was #2 on my ballot and it was the same for me. Thank you Wess Andersson

I've been listening to a lot of Paul Simon the last few days for the new poll, but keep going back to Bowie on Spotify like I'm sneaking out back to have a smoke.

First time I ever heard "The Man Who Sold the World" was Nirvana's cover. Btw, if you want to g00gle the chords, the top two results say it's by Nirvana. Makes me nostalgic for the Napster days. ("Foxy Lady" by the Beatles, etc)

I first heard Low during the summer of 1989 when I was a summer boarder in the city and one of the fellows living in the house had a copy. I only knew his radio hits at the time, and a few videos from Lodger that MuchMusic would occasionally play. I didn't know anything about the album and Side 1 blew my mind. It still sounds incredibly fresh and exciting today. Side 2 took a lot longer to get into - in fact, it's only recently that I have more than a slight tolerance for mostly instrumental music (thanks Harmonia). Anyway, people can have a genuine preference for this album without trying to be trendy.

I'd shortlisted "Hallo Spaceboy," "We Prick You," and a couple of other post-SM tracks, but in the end there was too much good stuff from the 70s for them to have any hope on my ballot.

Listening to "Heroes" for the first time in 21 years. It's not that I disliked it when I first heard it, but it got pushed aside once I had my first experiences with John Coltrane and Albert Ayler. Anyway, I wish I'd listened to this during voting, because "Sense of Doubt" would've been in my top 5, easy.

Following up on the experiment some dude did with the Stones poll numbers, here's a comparison of the actual album voting with the cumulative point totals for songs by album.

Album results:
1. LOW (1977) - 325 points
2. STATION TO STATION (1976) - 306 points
3. HUNKY DORY (1971) - 198 points
4. THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972) - 153 points
5. "HEROES" (1977) - 135 points
6. LODGER (1979) - 135 points
7. ALADDIN SANE (1973) - 112 points
8. DIAMOND DOGS (1974) - 87 points
9. SCARY MONSTERS (1980) - 60 points
10. YOUNG AMERICANS (1975) - 28 points
11. OUTSIDE (1995) - 14 points
12. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD - 13/3/0
14. (tie) DAVID LIVE - 7/1/0
14. (tie) STAGE - 7/1/0
16. (tie) LET'S DANCE - 6/2/0
16. (tie) SPACE ODDITY - 6/2/0
17. BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE - 3/1/0
21. (tie) Changesonebowie - 1/1/0
21. (tie) EARTHLING - 1/1/0
21. (tie) HEATHEN - 1/1/0
21. (tie) LABYRINTH (soundtrack) - 1/1/0

...and the albums ranked by how many points their tracks were given:

1. Hunky Dory - 4370
2. Low - 4137
3. Station to Station - 3731
3. Ziggy Stardust - 3731
5. Scary Monsters - 2712
6. "Heroes" - 2698
7. Aladdin Sane - 2280
8. Lodger - 2010
9. Young Americans - 1692
10. Diamond Dogs - 1666
11. Let's Dance - 1067
12. The Man Who Sold the World - 959
13. Space Oddity - 801
14. Outside - 346
15. Black Tie White Noise - 136
16. Heathen - 132
17. Earthling - 120

this was the best poll

sometimes when 'stay' starts up i think it's 'stranglehold' tho

This poll broke my brain

i don't really have anything to say about its order -- i've just been listening to a lot of bowie ever since and it's grebt

Nah the order was cool, I just got plunged back into a teenage level of obsessive thinking that is only reserved for three or four other things

1) alouettes football
2) louis spohr
3) ?

this poll was in fact better than many television shows I have watched.

Am hoping the Neil Young poll will be equally awesome, although it appears turnout will be significantly less

this poll was in fact better than many television shows I have watched.

This poll and the Led Zeppelin poll were incredibly fun, but this one rearranged my brain towards the artist much more. I loved following the comments because I knew so much less about Bowie coming in than I did by the end. I already knew more than anyone needs to know about Zeppelin.

The Beastie Boys poll was also awesome. They're the only two I've ever really got involved in - these big polls are usually too big and involved for me to keep up with.

ppl totally underrated 'man who sold the world'

also no votes for the santa monica (i think) record? the live spiders one?

Thomp if you mean they underrated the album TMWSTW then you are so right, but that abum wears "underrated" real well, there's lots to love if you're sympathetic to it

Xp lol mookie, in all honesty if there was a "rank every episode of MASH in order" you'd see a zealousness usually reserved for FF7 otherkin or Radiohead fans

it's my favourite spiders record. well, proto-spiders. don't understand how 'width of a circle' didn't place.

it's the best bowie tune apart from all the other bowie tunes

I think you're right

I forgot to vote in this one but yeah, the absence of "Width of a Circle" was pretty surprising.

Showrunning this poll and the LZ poll was (were?) huge fun. I'm glad everyone else seems to have had a good time as well.

this poll inspired me to order The Complete David Bowie, which happened to arrive in the mail today!

and already, it's making me seek out things. the entry for Ashes to Ashes (which is 6 columns of small text!) mentions that Bowie has cited the 1952 musical number called "Inchworm" as a melodic influence on the song.

surprised no one's revived this yet.

blackstar would be top 10, lazarus top 15

Would be worth repolling in a few years, but not now while people are still rending garments.

Also would be worth repolling because the body of work is complete (give or take five songs).

Yeah, I'd be interested to see what happens if we redid this in a little while. Right now I think Blackstar and Lazaras might even be in with a shout of winning.

the Jack Doherty interview mentioned many posts above is here. i'd never seen it but yeah it's quite something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yL4xxGE73E

christ this poll was *five years* ago.

it's a hell of a life when "lady grinning soul" isn't even one of your top 60 songs

she'llllll coooommme

I revise this thing every year. It's hard to dump a song.

fans might want to check out this 3-hour career survey / interview with Chris O'Leary from WFMU

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/84321