Hunky Dory by David Bowie (1971), № 43 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Bowie's folk record. Rick Wakeman on piano, Mick Ronson on guitar, and Bowie writing 'Life on Mars?' and 'Changes' inside ten days. The album everything else of his stands on.
David Bowie's fourth album, the precursor to Ziggy Stardust. Recorded at Trident Studios summer 1971. The album where Bowie became Bowie.
Bowie's fourth solo album. The transition between The Man Who Sold the World and Ziggy Stardust. Recorded at Trident Studios in summer 1971 with Rick Wakeman on piano.
By 1971, Bowie had released three albums to modest commercial success. He had signed a new contract with RCA and was working with Ken Scott as engineer-promoted-to-co-producer. Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey were the band; Rick Wakeman (then of Strawbs, soon to join Yes) played piano on several tracks.
The album represents Bowie's transition from psychedelic-folk to a more polished pop-rock vocabulary. The Ziggy Stardust persona had not yet emerged; the album operates on Bowie-as-Bowie rather than Bowie-as-character.
The album's eleven songs include 'Changes,' 'Oh! You Pretty Things,' 'Eight Line Poem,' 'Life on Mars?,' 'Kooks' (written for Bowie's then-baby son Zowie/Duncan Jones), 'Quicksand,' 'Fill Your Heart,' 'Andy Warhol,' 'Song for Bob Dylan,' 'Queen Bitch,' 'The Bewlay Brothers.'
Hunky Dory belongs at number forty-three because it is the album where Bowie's mature songwriting emerged. The album was a modest commercial seller on release but rose to canonical status after Ziggy Stardust's success six months later.
The 1971 UK first pressing is on the orange RCA Victor label, catalog SF 8244, in a single sleeve (not gatefold) with George Underwood's hand-tinted treatment of Brian Ward's portrait. The defining first-press marker is the laminated, glossy front cover and spine over a matte back; later represses dropped the lamination. It was issued with a sepia lyric insert and a rice-paper inner printed 'Made In England'. Runouts are stamped APRS 5947 / APRS 5948 with varying letter suffixes.
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