Changes (David Bowie song)
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| “Changes” | |||||
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| Single by David Bowie from the album Hunky Dory |
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| B-side | "Andy Warhol" | ||||
| Released | 7 January 1972 | ||||
| Format | 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | Trident Studios, London April 1971 |
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| Genre | Pop rock, glam rock | ||||
| Length | 3:33 | ||||
| Label | RCA Records 2160 |
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| Producer | Ken Scott, David Bowie | ||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | |||||
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| Hunky Dory track listing | |||||
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"Changes" is a song by David Bowie, originally released on the album Hunky Dory in December 1971 and as a single in January 1972. Despite missing the Top 40, "Changes" became one of Bowie's best-known songs. The lyrics are often seen as a manifesto for his chameleonic personality throughout the 1970s, and frequent reinventions of his musical style.[1]
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[edit] Music and lyrics
Bowie has said that the track "started out as a parody of a nightclub song, a kind of throwaway".[2][3] The musical arrangement featured the composer's saxophone, Rick Wakeman's keyboards and Mick Ronson's strings, while the stuttering chorus has been compared to The Who.[4][5]
The lyrics focused on the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention ("Strange fascination, fascinating me / Changes are taking the pace I'm going through") and distancing oneself from the rock mainstream ("Look out, you rock 'n' rollers").[1] The song has also been interpreted as touting "Modern Kids as a New Race",[4] a theme echoed on the following album track, "Oh! You Pretty Things". Rolling Stone's contemporary review of Hunky Dory considered that "Changes" could be "construed as a young man's attempt to reckon how he'll react when it's his time to be on the maligned side of the generation schism".[6]
[edit] Release and aftermath
The composer having agreed to Peter Noone covering "Oh! You Pretty Things", which later commentators have argued was the obvious single from Hunky Dory,[4] "Changes" was chosen for a 45 release in January 1972. Like the album, it generated good reviews but negligible chart action, peaking just outside the US Top 40 and failing in Britain.[4]
The song was a regular feature of Bowie's live performances as Ziggy Stardust in 1972–73, appearing again on the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974 and the Station to Station tour in 1976. According to Bowie, "it turned into this monster that nobody would stop asking for at concerts: 'Dye-vid, Dye-vid – do Changes!' I had no idea it would become such a popular thing."[3]
[edit] Track listing
- "Changes" (Bowie) – 3:33
- "Andy Warhol" (Bowie) – 3:58
[edit] Alternate covers
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[edit] Production credits
- Musicians:
- David Bowie: vocals, guitar, Mellotron, saxophone
- Mick Ronson: guitar, string arrangement
- Trevor Bolder: bass
- Mick Woodmansey: drums
- Rick Wakeman: piano
[edit] Live versions
- Bowie played the song for the BBC's Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show on May 22, 1972. This was broadcast in early June 1972 and eventually released on Bowie at the Beeb in 2000.
- A version recorded at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 20 October 1972 was released on Santa Monica '72. This version also appeared on the Japanese release of RarestOneBowie.
- A previously unreleased live version from Boston Music Hall on October 1, 1972 was released on the Sound and Vision box set. This version was also released on the bonus disc of the Aladdin Sane - 30th Anniversary Edition in 2003.
- A live version recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on July 3, 1973 was released on Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture in 1983.
- A live version from Bowie's 1974 tour was released on David Live; it was notable for Bowie singing the words "children that you shit on" as opposed to "spit on". This version was also released on the album Rock Concert (Netherlands 1979) and as a B-side of the Spanish version of the single "Knock on Wood". Another live recording from the 1974 tour was released on A Portrait in Flesh (Australia 1996).
[edit] Other releases
Bowie hit compilations rarely omit "Changes" despite its lack of chart success – indeed, the retrospectives ChangesOneBowie (1976), ChangesTwoBowie (1981) and ChangesBowie (1990) have taken their titles from the song.
- It has appeared on the following compilations:
- The Best of David Bowie (Japan 1974)
- ChangesOneBowie (1976)
- Fame and Fashion (1984)
- Sound and Vision (1989)
- ChangesBowie (1990)
- The Singles Collection (1993)
- The Best of 1969/1974 (1997)
- Best of Bowie (UK, US, Australia 2002)
- It was released as the B-side of the UK rerelease of "Space Oddity" in 1975.
- It appeared on two picture disc sets, Fashion and the RCA Life Time Disc Set.
[edit] Cover versions
- Los Chicros - on the Bowie tribute compilation BowieMania: Mania, une collection obsessionelle de Beatrice Ardisson (2007)
- Butterfly Boucher - recorded in 2004 for the Shrek 2 soundtrack, featuring Bowie on alternating vocals.
- Seu Jorge - a Portuguese version for the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in 2004.
- Shawn Mullins - released on the albums The Faculty Soundtrack and The First Ten Years, and on single, in 1998.
- Joe K's Kid on the tribute album Spiders from Venus: Indie Women Artists and Female-Fronted Bands Cover David Bowie in 2003.
[edit] Appearances in popular culture
- Lines from the song's second verse were used in the opening of the 1985 film The Breakfast Club:
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- And these children that you spit on
- As they try to change their worlds
- Are immune to your consultations
- They're quite aware of what they're going through...
- The phrase "Strange fascination" was used as the title of David Buckley's Bowie biography, first published in 1999.
- In the Simpsons episode "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" in 2000, Homer sings his own lyrics to the song while working underneath his car: "Ch-ch-ch-changes! Time to change the oil! Changes! Don't want to be an oily man..."
- In the Flight of the Conchords episode "Bowie", the duo did a video of a song called "Bowie's in Space" in which a lyric went "Hey Bowie - Do you have one really funky sequin spacesuit? Or do you have several Ch-changes?"
- "Ch-Ch-Changes" is the name of two television episodes dealing with sex change operations, one in Popular, the other in CSI. It is also the name of an episode of the Canadian show Instant Star, which named each episode after a hit song.
- It appeared in Shrek 2, sung by Bowie and Butterfly Boucher.
- Lindsay Lohan sang it in the film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.116
- ^ All Music Guide review
- ^ a b Kurt Loder & David Bowie (1989). Sound and Vision: CD liner notes
- ^ a b c d Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.40-44
- ^ Mark Blake (ed.) (2007). "Future Legend", MOJO 60 Years of Bowie: pp.74-75
- ^ John Mendelsohn (January 6, 1972). "Hunky Dory". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone.
[edit] References
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
