GrailVinyl

David Bowie's 25 Favourites

The 25 records David Bowie pulled from his own collection as lifelong favourites — a restless sweep through the Velvet Underground, free jazz, dub, the avant-garde, and Steve Reich's minimalism. Source: David Bowie, Vanity Fair (2003).

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1. 
   The Last Poets

   The Last Poets

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2. 
   Robert Wyatt

   Shipbuilding

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3. 
   Little Richard

   The Fabulous Little Richard

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4. 
   Steve Reich

   Music for 18 Musicians

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5. 
   The Velvet Underground

   The Velvet Underground & Nico

   The Velvet Underground's 1967 debut — a seminal art rock and proto-punk record, famously produced by Andy Warhol and featuring John Cale, Lou Reed, and Nico.

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6. 
   John Lee Hooker

   Tupelo Blues

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7. 
   Koerner, Ray & Glover

   Blues, Rags and Hollers

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8. 
   James Brown

   Live at the Apollo

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9. 
   Linton Kwesi Johnson

   Forces of Victory

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10. 
    Various Artists

    The Red Flower of Tachai Blossoms Everywhere

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11. 
    Daevid Allen

    Banana Moon

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12. 
    Original Cast

    Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

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13. T
    Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan

    The Electrosoniks: Electronic Music

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14. 
    The Incredible String Band

    The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

    The Incredible String Band's 1967 psychedelic folk masterpiece — a visionary fusion of Eastern instrumentation, avant-garde structure, and pastoral mysticism that helped define the era's experimental edge.

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15. 
    Tucker Zimmerman

    Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman

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16. 
    Gundula Janowitz

    Strauss: Four Last Songs

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17. 
    Glenn Branca

    The Ascension

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18. 
    Syd Barrett

    The Madcap Laughs

    Syd Barrett's 1970 solo debut — a haunting, fragmented masterpiece born from his post-Pink Floyd mental health struggles, it remains a landmark of psychedelic folk and avant-garde pop.

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19. 
    George Crumb

    Black Angels

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20. 
    Toots & The Maytals

    Funky Kingston

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21. 
    Harry Partch

    Delusion of the Fury

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22. 
    Charles Mingus

    Oh Yeah

    Oh Yeah is Charles Mingus's 1962 post bop jazz album released on Atlantic Records in the US.

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23. 
    Igor Stravinsky

    The Rite of Spring

    Stravinsky's 1913 revolutionary ballet — a seismic force in 20th-century music, reimagined here by Pierre Monteux in a landmark 1957 recording.

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24. 
    The Fugs

    The Fugs

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25. 
    Florence Foster Jenkins

    The Glory (????) of the Human Voice

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