Maps of Music

Hunky Dory (1971)

Where the lyrics of Hunky Dory take you, and where it was really made.

The album failed to chart on release and sold poorly at first, and only after the breakthrough of Ziggy Stardust did it reach number three in the UK.

Key places

Trident Studios, where recording began (1971)

Recording site Trident Studios — Bowie and the future Spiders began official work on the album at Trident Studios in London on 8 June 1971. Ken Scott co-produced the record with Bowie. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Hunky Dory: fourth studio album by David Bowie
• Released 17 December 1971 in the UK through RCA Records
• Piano-based art pop and melodic pop rock, a shift from the hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World
• Songs cover artistic reinvention, occultism, Nietzschean philosophy, and tributes to Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed
• Cover photograph shot in monochrome and later recoloured

Background

• Bowie became less active in the studio and on stage after The Man Who Sold the World was completed in May 1970
• Bowie composed on piano rather than acoustic guitar for this album
• The first song written for the album was Oh! You Pretty Things, in January 1971
• The February 1971 promotional radio tour of the US inspired the tribute songs
• Bowie's newborn son Duncan inspired the song Kooks

Recording

• Recorded in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London
• Official work on the album began at Trident Studios on 8 June 1971
• Ken Scott co-produced the album with Bowie; Scott had engineered his two previous records
• Backing musicians were Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey
• Rick Wakeman played piano shortly before joining Yes
• Recording was considered finished on 6 August 1971, after Life on Mars? and Song for Bob Dylan were recorded

Cover

• Cover photograph taken by Brian Ward
• Bowie's pose was influenced by actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Melody Maker called it the most inventive piece of song-writing to have appeared on record in a considerable time
• NME's Danny Holloway described Bowie as being at his brilliant best
• John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone called it Bowie's most engaging album musically up to that point
• Billboard praised it as a heavy debut for RCA
• Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times described Bowie as a major talent

Reappraisal

• Later regarded as one of Bowie's best works, with continued critical acclaim
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it a touchstone for reinterpreting pop's traditions into fresh, postmodern pop music
• Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork gave the 2015 remaster a 10 out of 10 rating
• Ryan Schrieber of Pitchfork wrote that it is by no means his most cohesive release but remains one of his most charming, and unquestionably, one of his best

Records

• Peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart and stayed on the chart for 69 weeks
• Sold barely 5,000 copies in the first quarter after release, according to Sandford
• Peaked at number 39 on the Kent Music Report in Australia
• A 1981 reissue returned it to the UK chart, where it stayed for 51 weeks
• Voted Bowie's second greatest album in a 2013 Rolling Stone readers' poll

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The song Kooks was dedicated to Bowie's newborn son Duncan
• The title Hunky Dory was announced at the John Peel session on 3 June 1971
• The song Life on Mars? is a parody of Frank Sinatra's My Way
• RCA released Life on Mars? as a single on 22 June 1973, and it also reached number three in Britain
• Rick Wakeman declined an invitation to join the Spiders from Mars and joined Yes instead

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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