Remembering David Bowie (1947-2016): His Best Ten Records....according to Rolling Stone readers....

David Bowie (1947-2016) died of liver cancer just two days after his 69th birthday on Jan. 10, 2016, which happened to be the 71st birthday of Rod Stewart, another '70s and '80s rock music icon as well as the 63rd birthday of Pat Benatar, an '80s new wave pop sensation. His contemporaries were as diverse as the late Lou Reed and Billy Idol.

Bowie was also a remarkable actor who starred in "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976) and "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (1983), and "The Hunger" (1983) with Susan Sarandon and he was one of the world's premiere art collectors.

Here are the ten best albums according to readers of "Rolling Stone" (dated Jan. 16, 2013):

1) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972, pict. top)

2) "Hunky Dory" (1971)

3) "Station to Station" (1976)

4) "Low" (1977)
 
5) "Diamond Dogs" (1974)

6) "Aladdin Sane" (1973; pict. center)

7) "Scary Monsters....." (1980)

8) "Heroes" (1977; pict. bottom)

9) "Young Americans" (1975)

10) "The Man Who Sold the World" (1970)

http://www.davidbowie.com

http://www.bowiewonderworld.com

10 for 10 (9th entry): A Quote from Jazz Great Herbie Hancock

Greetings to our blog readers in Austria, Dubai, and Singapore....

Tonight, we continue marking our tenth anniversary of blogging with an inspiring quote from noteworthy person.

The Quote of the Week and a series of quotes from people in a given, such as playwrights (Arthur Miller and Neil Simon) or punk rockers (Lou Reed of Iggy Pop) used to be standards on our two blogs, so hence we are quoting jazz great Herbie Hancock ("Watermelon Man," "Rockit") with one of his vintage quotes:

"It's a part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles that's the key to happiness."

SIDEBAR: We want to welcome Pope Francis to the United States, and we hope he enjoyed his time in Washington, DC, today. Somehow, we can't imagine that he will go to the 9:30 Club while he is in the nation's capital.

Quote of the Week- Lou Reed

Today we continue to quote famous singers with a quip from New York artsy rocker legend Lou Reed, who is also well-known for his work in the '60s as the lead singer of Velvet Underground.

Since we are way behind in our High Schools of the Week, we will dedicate this entry to students at Provo High School in Provo, Utah, where Reed's landmark album "Transformer" with the suggestive hit song "Walk on the Wild Side" is probably banned (this is just a joke!).

But, we do know that Provo High School returns to class on Aug. 24 (yay! well, maybe not??!). The school's nickname is The Bulldogs. Sam Ray is the principal at Bulldog High, which is also where famed chemist Paul Boyer went to school.

Here is our quote from Reed:

"How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality."

SIDEBAR_ Fellow fans of the Russian-emigre rock band The Red Elvises who happen to live near Bethlehem, Pa., will be happy to know they are performing there tonight. The band will also be at The Gogol Club in Moscow, Russia (not Moscow, Idaho!) on Sept. 10. While many bands, like Los Lobos, are boycotting Arizona because of their highly-controversial immigration bill, which we here highly oppose (but I'm not a fan of boycotts unless there is a very valid reason for them), The Red Elvises are performing in Phoenix at The Rhythm Room, which we understand to be quite a jazzy place, on Sept. 23. The Red Elvises, which became popular in the late 1990s, are based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Special Quote of the Day- Lou Reed

Since it has been 40 years since the Berlin Wall came down, I thought I would quip a legendary musician who was part of the Berlin music scene in the '70s. We have quoted Lou Reed, former lead singer of the Velvet Underground, before and even though he is not German he seems like the perfect person to quote.

I especially like this commentary given how a film critic, who I refuse to name, esentially wrote a character assasination of filmmaking legend Robert Altman a few weeks back:

"I don't know anyone who actually cares what a critic says."