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Neil Diamond
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Toby Keith
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David Bowie
With Hunky Dory, David Bowie reached artistic heights that were barely suggested by his previous work. In one album, Bowie manages to combine virtually every aspect of his multi-faceted musical personas, presenting himself as a Dylan-influenced folkie (“Eight Line Poem”, “Quicksand”), an Anthony Newley-influenced showman (“Fill Your Heart”), an androgynous rocker (“Queen Bitch”, “Oh! You Pretty Things”), a self-analytical singer/songwriter (“Changes”) and a space case (the incredible “Life On Mars?”). By drawing from each of his musical wells, Bowie had assembled his first musical masterpiece, one that was as unique as it was stunning. This is especially true having come on the heels of his hard-rock effort, The Man Who Sold the World, which was much more limited in its artistic scope.
All over Hunky Dory the mood and style shifts relentlessly, with hardly two tracks sounding as though they were written by the same person. Bowie name-drops Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol (in the song titles, no less!), but placates neither of them. On Hunky Dory, Bowie emulates no one so much as himself, and he does this brilliantly. “Changes” is most commercially successful composition since “Space Oddity”, and yet, with lyrics like “I watch the ripples change their size, but never leave the stream of warm impermanence…”, it hardly sounds anything at all like a pop song. Speaking of “Space Oddity”, “Life On Mars” redresses the simplicity of his earlier hit with dense, oblique lyrics that go light years beyond the facile vision of his earliest hit record. Add the accompaniment of full orchestration to this marvelous melody, and you have a composition that will stand as an all-time classic example of mid-seventies rock-and-roll pretension, made all the more credible by the lustrous piano work of none other than Rick Wakeman (of Yes fame). “Kooks” presents yet another side of Bowie that is rarely visible, that of the autobiographical, sensitive and romantic father figure. “Queen Bitch” is the only song on this collection that even suggests Bowie’s metamorphosis into Ziggy Stardust and by then, the glam-rock fans would find much of Hunky Dory to be anachronistic. It was their loss. Few artists have the diversity to assemble anything that even resembles the artistry of Hunky Dory, which is only made more apparent with the passing of time.
Grade: 
 
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