Postby George P. Smackers » 14 Nov 2017, 18:18
I love David Bowie, I voted for him in this poll, I love his songs.
But there are plenty of little wincing moments when I listen to him. Not just "Put on your red shoes and dance the blues" and other things I can't imagine an actual human saying for any reason. Or totally overblown nonsense like "Cygnet Committee."
"Changes" is an example. It starts out bang bang bang, cliché cliché cliché-- "a million dead-end streets," "running wild," "I thought I'd got it made," etc. It's a very "Broadway" use of cliché, sort of knowing and ironic, but it propels the song forward. I hear that, I see the function, but it distances me.
And the moments of clumsiness--"look out you rock and rollers, pretty soon now you're gonna get older" etc.--don't feel as genuine as Neil Young's clumsiness. Don't get me wrong, there are bad lines and bad verses galore in Neil Young songs, even the good ones.
Melodically the fair thing to say, I think, is that they work in different idioms. Bowie is often very "show-biz" and musical theater-sounding. I love that about him, but sometimes I feel like limits and distances him lyrically. Neil Young is of course an electric folkie. You don't expect him to belt out a tune for the upper balconies.