Beau

Hey, so in regards to my poll questioning what is the best Bowie album of the 70's, I couldn't just put it up without commenting myself.  Especially since I felt hella guilty having to choose the options, which meant leaving 6 albums unavailable as choices (2 of those being utter classics in Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs).  I don't think there is another artist who so prolifically dominated 1 decade, in terms of producing a string of brilliant albums that would become classics and rock & roll touchstones, as David Bowie did during the 1970's.  People speak of Elton John's thorough domination of the 1970's album charts and his uncanny  conquering of American radio, but when one is looking beyond popularity with the masses and into actual artistic triumph (which includes garnering a legacy as one of the most influential rock artists of the 20th century), then David Bowie far surpassed Elton John in achievement.  Just as Velvet Underground are the Great-Grandfathers of what is now Alternative Rock - known by few during their time, Brian Eno once said that everyone who actually bought their album went out and started a band -- David Bowie is the direct descendant  of them, in terms of accumulating a body of work that would go on to inspire a legion of artists to take risks and not compromise the pushing of boudries and free artistic expression for the sake of commerciality.  Throughout the decade, Bowie's transmogrification from persona to persona would be, in a way, a giving birth to what would become new sub-genres of rock music years later.  How many artists can say they essentially begat more than one whole movement within their art?  Bowie can, as music critics and "genre allocators" credit him with  basically fathering new wave, goth rock, the new romantics and electronica (see Bowie's entry at allmusic.com).  So, back to my question, what is the best Bowie album of the 1970's?  Unfortunately, I refuse to choose between my 2 favorites as it is simply impossible and I have a 3rd one in mind that will have to serve as the wild card.  From the early 70's, Bowie's Hunky Dory is unrivalled in it's beauteous  command of songwriting, lyrical content, and the perfection of the art of festooning catchy melodies over darkly forbidden subject matter.  In the mid to late 70's, despite the fact that Bowie himself can hardly recall recording it due to his profoundly extreme cocaine use, "Station to Station" is his crowing achievement with it's epic boundlessly bewitching title track which ushers the listener into a sultry, spiritual, futuristic, decadent, alien land that each song on the album creates and leaves the listener in a state of utter fascination.  My wild card choice is not as respected by the music critics (which is disheartening in a way similar to their rejection of my favorite Cure album, The Top), but I trul am in love with the eccentric prodigious ness lurking throughout Diamond Dogs.  Listening to that album from beginning to end takes me so many different places all the while losing myself in the towering genius of David Bowie.  Thanks you Mr. Bowie for what you gave back to the world =- at times you went to hellish extremes of sadness and depletion during your artistic zenith, but what came of it all, in terms of creative output has inspired a whole generation of Indie songwriters.