Changes (David Bowie song)

"Changes"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Hunky Dory
B-side "Andy Warhol"
Released 7 January 1972
Format 7" single
Recorded Trident Studios, London, summer 1971
Genre Art pop[1]
Length 3:33
Label RCA Records
2160
Writer(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) Ken Scott, David Bowie
David Bowie singles chronology
"Moonage Daydream"
(Arnold Corns)
(1971)		 "Changes"
(1972)		 "Starman"
(1972)
Hunky Dory track listing
"Changes"
(1)		 "Oh! You Pretty Things"
(2)
Alternative cover
Music video
"Changes" (Live) on YouTube

"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 Billboard top 40, "Changes" became one of Bowie's best-known songs. The lyrics are often seen as a manifesto for his chameleonic personality, the frequent change of the world today, and frequent reinventions of his musical style throughout the 1970s.[2] This single is cited as David Bowie's official North American debut, despite the fact that the song "The Man Who Sold the World" was released in North America two years prior.[3] This was the last song Bowie performed live on stage before his retirement from live performances at the end of 2006.[4]

The song ranked number 128 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[5]

It charted for the first time on the UK Singles Chart on 15 January 2016 at number 49 following Bowie's death.

Music and lyrics

Bowie has said that the track "started out as a parody of a nightclub song, a kind of throwaway".[6][7] 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.[8][9]
David Bowie "Changes" (1971)
21 second sample from David Bowie's "Changes".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

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").[2] The song has also been interpreted as touting "Modern Kids as a New Race",[8] 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".[10]

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,[8] "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.[8]

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."[7] The song is ranked at number 127 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 2016, the song was ranked at number 74 by internet radio station WDDF Radio in their first top 76 of the 1970s countdown.[11]

Track listing

  1. "Changes" (Bowie) – 3:33
  2. "Andy Warhol" (Bowie) – 3:58

Production credits

Charts

Chart (1972) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 66
US Cash Box Top 100 59
Chart (1975) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 41
US Cash Box Top 100 38
Canadian Singles Chart 32[12]
Chart (2016) Peak
position
France (SNEP)[13] 84
UK Singles Chart 49
US Billboard Rock Songs 10

Live versions

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.

Cover versions

Notes

  1. ↑ Butler, Jim (14 June 2016). "Turn and Face the Change". Produce Business UK.
  2. 1 2 Buckley, David (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. p. 116.
  3. ↑ "Watch that Man" by Tina Clarke, Music Express magazine, March 1990, page 9
  4. ↑ Gilmore, Mikal (2 February 2012), "How Ziggy Stardust Fell to Earth", Rolling Stone magazine (1149): 36–43, 68
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 March 2010. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
  6. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "Review of Changes". Allmusic.
  7. 1 2 Loder, Kurt Loder; Bowie, David (1989). Sound + Vision: CD liner notes
  8. 1 2 3 4 Carr, Roy; Murray, Charles Shaar (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record. pp. 40–44.
  9. ↑ Blake, Mark (ed.) (2007). "Future Legend", MOJO 60 Years of Bowie: pp.74-75
  10. ↑ Mendelsohn, John (6 January 1972). "Hunky Dory". Rolling Stone.
  11. ↑ "Best of the 70's & 80's". WDDF Radio. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  12. ↑ Library and Archives Canada: Top Singles, 15 February 1975, retrieved 10 April 2016
  13. ↑ "Lescharts.com – David Bowie – Changes" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

References

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