15 David Bowie Songs That Showcase His True Genius

13. Life On Mars? (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ Bowie followed hot on the heels of his second album's success with The Man Who Sold The World in 1970, an album that further solidified his reputation as a promising, if inconsistent, talent. Just a year later, though, Bowie took his talents to a whole new level with his fourth album Hunky Dory, which spawned a #3 hit in the UK charts: second single, Life On Mars? The song is an odd kind of sing-a-long, full of surreal imagery and impenetrable lyrics that somehow manage to be resonant with personal meaning - and it's a different meaning for everyone who hears it. Hunky Dory was a mix of the rock that permeated The Man Who Sold The World and the folk-pop that made up Bowie's second album. A rarity among the man's back catalogue, this was not necessarily a stylistic leap forward but a consolodation of everything that had come before. But on Hunky Dory his rock songs rock harder, his pop songs have catchier hooks, and his folk songs have better lyrics than what had come before. Life On Mars? helped to make Bowie a genuine superstar. But Bowie wasn't done, he was about to go - almost literally - out of this world...