Bowie vs Bolan round 3: 1969

So far B-boy and, er B-boy are neck and neck with a round each.
DB took an early lead in 1967 but that other bloke stole it back in 1968.
They both had albums out in 1969, they were both established artists by then (of a sort anyway). So who will score big in ’69? Let’s have a look shall we:



Bowie: As you can see from my previous post I really liked Dave’oh’s 2nd album. Mind you, it didn’t chart.
But he did have a hit with the Space Oddity single. It was released to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing, used by the BBC in their moon coverage and reached no’ 5 in the UK hit parade. Pretty good huh.
Unfortunately his album sales put him firmly in the ‘one hit wonder’ catagorey. Oops. Hey, on a side note he got an Ivan Novello award for Space Oddity, but he had to share it with Peter Sarstedt who wrote the flippin’ dire ‘Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)’ in which he claimed to be able to see inside Sophia Loren's head. How Bowie managed to drum up enough enthusiasm to keep going after that revolting predicament I’ll never know. Imagine a room full of be-suited men telling a long haired youth
“We love your song!
It’s at least as good as one of the worst songs of this, or any other decade.
You should be proud! Here, have half an award.”



"But what was Marcy-boy Bolan up to this year?" I hear you mutter with begrudging indifference.



Bolan: ‘Unicorn’ the 3rd Tyrannosaurus Rex album was released and reached no’ 12 in the UK. His highest chart position yet (for an album anyway). Not to shabby, huh?

That is, until you hear the album.

To call it a ‘mixed bag’ would be a tad generous.
The first 4 tracks sound exactly the same as his previous 2 albums, and by now I’d had as much of this self indulgent ‘pixie folk’ tripe as I could stand. Then on track 5, joy of joys, there’s a piano and a drum kit. I don’t think my mental well being could have managed another track of fuzzy acoustic strumming and bongo sillyness.
There are some good songs on unicorn: I particularly liked ‘She Was Born to Be My Unicorn’.



But the self-indulgent whimsy is in full effect on closing track ‘Romany Soup’, which features John Peels voice phasing between from one speaker to another and back again as he reads the same section of a short story TWICE! The track makes a strong argument against LSD, they should think about using it in schools.
(Kids, if you experiment with hallucinogenics you’ll end up thinking stuff like this is cool. BE AFFRAID!)



The result: I’m torn.
Bolan had his most successful year thus far and released some crackin’ tunes. But he also released some horrible dross.
Where as Bowie released a really god album which failed to chart and he became a one hit wonder.

I’m gonna cop out and make this round a tie.