Hunky Dory (2015

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Bowie and the future Spiders officially started work on the new album at Trident Studios in London on 8 June 1971. Mick Ronson's guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman's cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album. Bowie’s first album for RCA, and originally released in 1971, ‘ Hunky Dory’ is widely regarded as one of his best works. The cover photograph was taken by Brian Ward, who was introduced to Bowie by Bob Grace at Ward's studio in Heddon Street.I have a high quality turntable, which is properly aligned, other records play fine, but this one has a LOT of noise. The same year, Consequence of Sound ranked the album number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest albums of all time. It was his last album until Low to be presented purely as a sonic artefact rather than a vehicle for the dramatic visual element with which he was soon to make his name as a performer". It also bore the credit "Produced by Ken Scott (assisted by the actor)" – the "actor" being Bowie himself, whose "pet conceit", in the words of NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, was "to think of himself as an actor".

The album's cover artwork, photographed in monochrome and subsequently recoloured, features Bowie in a pose inspired by actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age. following the 1972 release of Bowie’s breakthrough album THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. The album received little promotion from RCA due to its unusual cover image and a warning that Bowie would be changing his image for his next album. Two takes of " The Bewlay Brothers" were recorded on 30 July, the second appearing on the final album; it was recorded on a tape that contained scrapped versions of "Song for Bob Dylan" and "Fill Your Heart".The whole Hunky Dory album reflected my newfound enthusiasm for this new continent that had been opened up to me.