By the time Hunky Dory was released in 1971, David Bowie had already made a name for himself. His self-titled debuts and The Man Who Sold The World had done pretty well in his native England and fairly well in the US, among a few other countries. Still, according to Bowie himself, everything changed when he released Hunky Dory.
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“‘Hunky Dory’ gave me a fabulous groundswell,” Bowie once said. “I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience. I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, ‘Good album, good songs.’ That hadn’t happened to me before. It was like, ‘Ah, I’m getting it, I’m finding my feet. I’m starting to communicate what I want to do.’”
What an incredible feeling to get from your art. And we’re inclined to agree with him, too. Hunky Dory features career-defining hits like “Changes”, “Life On Mars?”, and “Oh! You Pretty Things”. While his follow-up album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is what turned a whole wealth of fans into diehard David Bowie followers, it was Hunky Dory that paved the way for even more creative endeavors from Bowie.
The Legacy of David Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’
When compared to The Man Who Sold The World, Bowie opted to go in a more art pop direction with Hunky Dory over the hard rock sound he had previously found himself exploring. In 1971, that’s really what listeners were looking for: Something new, something weird, and something unapologetically indulgent.
David Bowie explores so many themes in Hunky Dory, from reinvention of the self to the occult to literature. After previously touring the United States, Bowie was also inspired to pen songs as dedications to a few different American icons, namely Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Andy Warhol. That American inspiration also influenced the cover of the record, which features Bowie in a pose not unlike that of golden age Hollywood actresses.
Shockingly, Hunky Dory didn’t initially do very well on a commercial level. Bowie’s label, RCA, was afraid to invest too much in its promotion due to Bowie’s habit of reinvention. The record pulled in wildly positive reviews from critics but initially sold pretty poorly and didn’t chart very well.
It wasn’t until Ziggy Stardust was released the following year that listeners revisited Hunky Dory. Finally, the album started selling and charting; and Bowie’s career catapulted to the top shortly after.
Photo by Dick Barnatt/Redferns
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