{"id":40878,"date":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hunky-dory-2\/"},"modified":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","slug":"hunky-dory-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hunky-dory-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunky Dory"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the harder-edged The Man Who Sold The World<\/i>, David Bowie\u2019s Hunky Dory<\/i> is downright close to easy listening territory. It also can be heard as David Bowie\u2019s valentine to the counterculture rock of the late \u201860s. And with bassist Trevor Bolder replacing Tony Visconti, Hunky Dory<\/i> would serve as the launching pad to Ziggy Stardust<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Stylistically, Hunky Dory<\/i> is a gorgeous foray into orchestral pop, highlighted by the seemingly silly-titled \u201cLife On Mars.\u201d Much of Hunky Dory<\/i> sounds like Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s homage to his peers. \u201cOh! You Pretty Things\u201d borrows heavily from the melody of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHappiness Is A Warm Gun.\u201d \u201cQueen Bitch\u201d is heavily seeped in the Velvet Underground\u2019s menace and \u201cSong For Bob Dylan\u201d speaks for itself. <\/p>\n

Like all great artists, Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s nod to his peers doesn\u2019t sound at all like an artist mercilessly ripping off the sound of other artists. Instead, Hunky Dory<\/i> is the sound of an artist who has just begun to make a major name for himself as a shape shifter. \u201cChanges,\u201d the most popular song from Hunky Dory<\/i>, is a cheeky, catchy number that highlights Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s growing power as a songwriter. \u201cKooks\u201d is Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> doing vaudeville and \u201cFill Your Heart\u201d makes use of a shuffling playoff between piano and percussion. <\/p>\n

Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s two major obsessions in the \u201870s, space and androgyny are at the center of Hunky Dory<\/i>. The spacy arrangements open \u201cAndy Warhol,\u201d which give a decent taste of what was going to come with Ziggy Stardust. As for the androgyny element, in addition to \u201cChanges,\u201d Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> proudly states \u201cYou gotta make way for the Homo Superior\u201d in \u201cOh! You Pretty Things.\u201d <\/p>\n

While much of Hunky Dory<\/i> sounds like easy listening material, \u00a0Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s sophisticated songwriting and musicianship reveal a much more complex work. \u201cQueen Bitch\u201d is one of the earliest attempts at glam rock and it effortlessly fits in with folksy pieces like \u201cKooks\u201d and \u201cSong For Bob Dylan.\u201d But the crown jewel of Hunky Dory<\/i> would have to be \u201cLife On Mars.\u201d The song is a beautiful, cynical, swaggering accomplishment of songwriting and musicianship. <\/p>\n

Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s next few albums would define space rock. Hunky Dory<\/i> served as an ending of Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s early career and ushered him into the world of pop superstardom. For fans and non-fans alike, Hunky Dory<\/i> is an essential purchase. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5671],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40878","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40878"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40878"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}