Track Listing

1. Rosalyn
2. Here Comes the Night
3. I Wish You Would
4. See Emily Play
5. Everything's Alright
6. I Can't Explain
7. Friday on My Mind
8. Sorrow
9. Don't Bring Me Down
10. Shapes of Things
11. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
12. Where Have All the Good Times Gone!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4775 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Chronique amazon.fr
Certains prétendent que c'est le dernier grand disque de Bowie, et certainement son seul grand album des années 80. Même s'il lui manquait le mordant de ses camarades punk du moment, il sut séduire certains fans du genre ainsi que des fans de rock plus classique. Le jeu énergique est doté d'une production sans fioritures, donnant un produit au style "arty" dans son ensemble. L'album débute sur "It's No Game (Part I)", chanté en japonais. Et se termine sur "It's No Game (Part II)", en anglais. Une des chansons ("Kingdom Come") est écrite par le New- Yorkais Tom Verlaine. "Scream Like A Baby" est une histoire sombre et violente, hurlée. Sur "Ashes To Ashes", Major Tom confesse son penchant pour les drogues, tout en étant brillant et séduisant, alors que "Fashion" fut un hit de dancefloor. Le joyau de cet album reste le titre éponyme, avec la guitare implacable de Robert Fripp. Bowie n'a plus été aussi inspiré depuis belle lurette... --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews

An interesting little experiment
Pin-Ups (1973.) David Bowie's seventh album.

David Bowie is one hell of a classic rocker. One of the reasons his music is so excellent is due to the fact that he is always willing to try new things. One of his most interesting experiments came about in 1973, and I'm NOT talking about Aladdin Sane (although that was an interesting experiment in its own right.) Pin-Ups, the forgotten David Bowie album, was released mere months after that considerably more popular title. This was an album consisting mostly of sixties pop-rock covers - NO Bowie originals were featured. How does it measure up? Read on and find out.

David Bowie has always been a man to try new things in the musical world, and it serves him well most of the time. This album is no exception. Many fans, casual and die-hard alike, pass this off as a blatant, rush-recorded attempt to cash in following the release of Aladdin Sane. I do NOT agree with this. I think that this is an excellent album, through and through, despite the lack of Bowie originals. Interestingly, Bowie doesn't cover any Beatles or Dave Clark Five tunes on this album, but what he does cover is excellent. For instance, we get a cover of the Who classic I Can't Explain, which is a bit slower and more melodic than the original. Bowie's new take on the song is great, even if the style differs drastically of that from the original. See Emily Play is a composition by Syd Barrett (of Pink Floyd fame), and Bowie does this song well, too. But, of course, my personal favorite song featued here would have to be the Easy Beats cover, Friday On My Mind. Bowie takes an old favorite and breathes new life into it! Through and through this is a very good album, even if it's very different from what you're used to hearing from Mr. Bowie. No Bowie die-hard should overlook this one.

There are two major versions of this album readily available in America (as of June 16, 2004), and those are the standard American version, and the Rykodisc import version. The import features bonus tracks not on the American release, but it's not likely you'll find it in an American store. Shell out the extra cash and get the import ONLY if you're an extreme Bowie fan.

In the end, this stands as a damn fine album, even if many of Bowie's fans tend to overlook it. This album was NOT a cash cow, despite what many say - it was just Bowie doing what he does best - trying new things. This isn't really a good place to start if you're new to his music, but if you're a fan of his, it's worth buying.

Classic songs, loving tribute
Pin-Ups was dismissed as a toss-off when it was released and soon forgotten, but I loved it then and it's still one of my Bowie favorites. First, not surprisingly, Bowie displayed superb taste in his selection of 60s Brit rock--every one of these songs is an enduring classic in its own right. Then he and Mick Ronson buffed them up with that high-gloss yet stripped-down sound that made "Ziggy" such a revelation at a time when rock was getting awfully heavy and sludgy. The result is an LP that sounds fresh and timeless long after I never needed to hear great swatches of "Alladin Sane," "Diamond Dogs" and so on ever again. (What is it about art rock and prog-rock that makes them age so poorly? Is it because so much of it is overripe to begin with? I was adoring early Genesis at around the same time Pin-Ups came out, and I can't bear to listen to it now. The older I get, the more I just wanna hear three chords and a good hook in 2:30.) Harking back to the 60s in a way that prefigured (just barely) the punk 70s, Pin-Ups is a neglected early Bowie LP that really deserves rediscovery.

Don't Miss the Point...
The reviews I read here call this an album of covers, which it is. But to call it that, merely that, misses the point.
Bowie has always been one to do something different, even if it is exactly the opposite of what was expected of him - something U2 has borrowed from. This album is indeed a tribute to the music that influenced Bowie during the British Invasion during the 60's, as the original LP liner notes explained. You hear The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Them... But no Beatles or Dave Clark 5. Bowie makes a very personal statement hear, not only by defying expectations of his audience as perhaps the most original songwriter of his generation, but by taking his favorite songs by the bands that influenced him and putting his stamp on them with the then-Bowie style that those bands had influenced.
When I was 16 in 1983 I would travel to Crow's Nest Records in Crest Hill, IL (long before "Crow's Nest Digital") to search their massive supply of records and other fandom paraphernalia, particularly the many U2 imports. You could get anything there - from Boomtown Rats to Soft Cell to Hüsker Dü. A staff member there noticed my selections and asked if I like Punk. "Yes." "Do you own 'Pinups'?" "What's that?" (Fearing that he was talking about some kind of bad magazine.)
He explained that Bowie's Pinups was the first Punk record, because it bridged the gap between the 60's bands like The Who and The Kinks and the Punk bands that they influenced, from Iggy to Bowie to Talking Heads to the Pistols. I don't know if I agree that it was definitely the first Punk album, anymore than I agree that Elvis' "That's Alright" was the first Rock 'n' Roll Record, but like "That's Alright", Pinups was a monumental record in my musicology. It turned me on to Bowie and then to each of the bands that Bowie saluted with Pinups, and a whole new world opened up to me beyond the Beatles and a connection was made that before bands like the Ramones and before Bowie was singing "Let's Dance" there was a music with an intense authenticity, fertile with sound that would inevitably plant itself in the hearts of musicians for generations.
Most point to Ziggy or Aladdin Sane. But this and The Man Who Sold The World have always been my favorite Bowie records. Ziggy, Sane and Diamond Dogs are right there as well, and now, with Outside and Heathen, Bowie rocks again.
Another note: This concept certainly influenced the Annie Lennox album, Medusa.