A trip through the golden years of Mr. David Bowie...

So, time to wrap up my "What I did during my summer holidays", here meaning summer holidays 2023, which was mainly spent fidgeting around with bits and pieces of David Bowie, almost literally. I did the first three David Bowie mixtapes, which worked for some, and didn't for others, and I pieced together lots of bits and pieces to make the alternate album/imagined sequel 2. Downtown. So, this is the fourth and last of the mixtapes, entitled Golden Years because I specifically wanted to make a mixtape that covers his commercial heydays of the early to mid-80s. 

Bowie's pop star work from 1982 to 1987 is often considered a huge misstep, with Bowie selling out to sell records again and going for the lowest common denominator. Which, to be fair, is true. Let's Dance, from hiring Nile Rodgers as producer and musical director to the song material and arrangements chosen was specifically designed to bring Bowie in the charts again, and it did so, and then some. Tonight was a lazy follow-up with minimal songwriting from Bowie, and Never Let Me Down, which I will still stan for and did an alternate album of, was let down my awful production and some weak songs, though it's better than general opinion has it. But, yeah, it's a difficult period to love unconditionally, only bested by the folowing Tin Machine-era for least loved Bowie. 

But not all was bad, and maybe Golden Years will remind you of that. Or not, but it'll valiantly try. As usual, the idea was to not use the original hit versions, but use lesser known versions of the songs, so you'll get, among other things, live versions of "Heroes", "Fame" and "China Girl", the TOKiMONSTA remix of "Golden Years", the dub mix of "Absolute Beginners", the vocal dance mix of "Tonight" and another snatch of the Moonage Daydream version of "Modern Love", all of course in longer or shorter snippets, as per usual. And there are a couple of other little surprises, which I will let you discover for yourself, if you feel so inclined. 

Golden Years lets the blond-dyed David Bowie of the 80's (and a bit of the 70s and 90s) back in your life, if only for a short while (literally, as this is the shortest of the four mixes). So, let him in, and see if you can't swing a little bit with the thin white duke platin-blonde popster...