David Bowie Releases 36 Music Videos of His Classic Songs from the 1970s and 1980s

Last month, David Bowie released The Next Dayhis first new album in a decade. That’s a long time to go with­out an album — long enough that fans could per­haps use a refresh­er, a reminder of why they should splurge for the new mate­r­i­al. So, in con­junc­tion with the release of The Next Day, Bowie has opened the vaults and put online a won­der­ful set of videos record­ed dur­ing his gold­en years. It’s a visu­al and aur­al treat. Today, I’ve pulled togeth­er my per­son­al favorites, all from the 1970s. That’s how I roll. But, if you’re an 80s Bowie fan, there’s some­thing there for you too. Fash­ion, Ash­es to Ash­esChi­na Girl, a duet with Mick Jag­ger record­ed for Live Aid in 85 — they’re all includ­ed in the col­lec­tion of 36 videos.

Now watch a few of these clips — we’re start­ing you off above with “Life on Mars?” — and then ask your­self: Are you ready to down­load The Next Day?

Space Odd­i­ty (1972)

Star­man (1972)

The Jean Genie (1972)

Heroes (1977)

Relat­ed Con­tent:

How “Space Odd­i­ty” Launched David Bowie to Star­dom: Watch the Orig­i­nal Music Video From 1969

The Sto­ry of Zig­gy Star­dust: How David Bowie Cre­at­ed the Char­ac­ter that Made Him Famous

Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury and David Bowie on the Iso­lat­ed Vocal Track for the Queen Hit ‘Under Pres­sure,’ 1981

David Bowie & Bing Cros­by Sing “The Lit­tle Drum­mer Boy” (1977)


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Comments (15)
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  • REIROM says:

    Ok, david bowie is cool, but worth writ­ing na arti­cle about him every week?

    • Lily Whyte says:

      yes, yes it is :)

    • _OM_ says:

      …Yeah, it actu­al­ly is. Most of us with musi­cal taste — or, at least under­stand what *is* music — would rather read about Bowie fry­ing him­self on 57 dif­fer­ent fla­vors of coke/speed in the 70s than read what Kanye or some oth­er drug thug ©rap­per has to whine about against The Man out of igno­rance. And that goes triple about Miley or any of those oth­er for­mer Mouseke­teers who were so pro­tect­ed from grow­ing up under con­tract that when genet­ics final­ly ren­dered the con­tracts null and void they proved inca­pable of mod­er­at­ing their (d)evolution into adult­hood that they can’t stay out of a court­room any longer than they can stay away from ring­ing up a bar tab.nnYou keep right on writ­ing about Bowie. We’ll keep on read­ing. Even at his worst, he had more class than the cur­rent degen­er­a­tion of pop “stars” :P

  • Amanda says:

    Nev­er get enough Bowie, espe­cial­ly after such a long break.

  • Sheila says:

    Yes, I can nev­er get enough either! It has been a long time and with the state of the music indus­try these days, I’ll take arti­cles about David every day. And pho­tos from this peri­od, love­ly! :)

  • Brett says:

    nev­er get enough of DB, peri­od!!!

  • Naima says:

    I day­dream about see­ing Zig­gy Star­dust live. Bowie is so smart, thought­ful and brave –a great escape for an odd 15-year-old liv­ing in a small town.

  • Phil O'Malley says:

    What a Sur­prise! Not only is this The Return of David Bowie, but the album is more than any­thing I might have dreamed of! Fan­tas­tic! I have all of his music, and this is in my top five for Bowie. Wel­come back and Thanky­ou from a long-time fan who has seen you in con­cert many times. With each lis­ten “The Next Day” just keeps get­ting bet­ter. Thanky­ou David Bowie. Thank You.

  • Phil O'Malley says:

    …and the stars ARE out tonight…

  • Leslie Carey says:

    I know all the words to your songs…my son is a singer and song writer. He has a bit of your sound…

  • _OM_ says:

    …THis isn’t new. Bowie released all this on VHS back in the late 90s. Also, the “Young Amer­i­cans” clip has bet­ter audio, on boot­leg copies taped off air. So who­ev­er “remas­tered” this owes ol’ Zig part of his pay­check back.

  • holly says:

    I’d love to get to meet DAVID BOWIE.
    Hes a freak­ing GOD! Yes! Every week.. every day.… for­ev­er!

  • Phil Mastellone says:

    YES !

  • Bowieaddict1 says:

    “Videos do no exist”.
    Well that’s one less crap­py qual­i­ty of the Bowie cacon.

  • Bowieaddict1 says:

    **Can­non.

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