Can we just do another music thread?

[Raistlin1040]

I like Neil Young but I would give this to Bowie any day, for the following list of reasons.

Musicianship: Although it's hard to compare their personal musical talents (they both play a crazy amount of instruments, although I think Bowie plays a few more), the musicianship of Bowie's albums (especially his 70s work) is incredibly high quality. I'm not saying Neil Young doesn't have a talented backup band, but I can't think of anything in his discography that matches the piano work in "Aladdin Sane", the guitar on "Teenage Wildlife", or most of the things on the Berlin trilogy.

Vocal Ability: Again, Neil Young is good, but Bowie is one of the best vocalists ever from a technical standpoint. He uses his voice like no other singer I can think of. He can do a rollicking rock number like "Suffragette City" or funk song with a fair bit of falsetto like "Stay" or "Fascination". He can do singer-songwriter vulnerability on songs like "Letter to Hermione" or dramatic, almost operatic singing on something like his cover of "Wild is the Wind". He has such a great range and such a variety of styles and does them all expertly.

Diversity: Young has some cool proto-rock stuff and experimental songs, but he's generally either acoustic Americana (from Canada) or hard rock. Bowie has done proto-metal, folk, glam rock, soul/funk, pop, and experimental, and that's just in the 70s. Go through his other work and you find weird ambient/industrial, drum n' bass, modern rock, etc. The Berlin Trilogy alone would make Bowie one of the most interesting and diverse artists around, given how experimental it was. Adding them to the crazy genius of Scary Monsters, Ziggy Stardust, and Station to Station and you get a bunch of amazing, landmark masterpieces that all go in way different directions.

Songwriting: This is more of a personal taste thing rather than anything technical, but I think Bowie has a mastery of language and so much wit about him that it gives his lyrics a lot of depth and intrigue. The same note about diversity goes in as well. He writes quiet little love songs, bombastic, world-shattering anthems, and everything in between. He uses his songs to tell a story in a way that most songwriters (although Young is an exception) can't.

It's not a matter of Neil Young not being good, it's just that Bowie is basically peerless. Dylan, Young, and Tom Waits are the only people I'd say come close to him in terms of living artists, and in terms of the crazy sum of everything he's ever done.