David Bowie Picks His Faves For New Compilation

If you’ve been following your David Bowie news, you know that lately he’s been doing a lot of Bowie on Bowie. Back in June, the Thin White Duke/Goblin King mused on his all-time favourite songs from his catalog (which you can read here) and then compiled them on a compilation titled iSELECT: BOWIE. The album was given away with the Mail On Sunday and quickly sold out in a day. Well, now the folks over at Virgin/EMI are giving the collection a proper release on October 14.

As Bowie says, the disc features "12 songs that I particularly like. Few of them are well known, but many of them still get sung at my concerts... usually by me!” It also features a nice cross-section of Bowie’s career and the songs he says he "never seems to tire of.” Also included are two tracks exclusive to the CD and Bowie’s notes about each song.

Speaking of Hunky Dory’s "The Bewlay Brothers,” Bowie said: "The only pipe I have ever smoked was a cheap Bewlay. It was a common item in the late ’60s and for this song I used Bewlay as a cognomen — in place of my own. This wasn't just a song about brotherhood so I didn't want to misrepresent it by using my true name. Having said that, I wouldn't know how to interpret the lyric of this song other than suggesting that there are layers of ghosts within it. It's a palimpsest, then.”

Here is the tracklisting for iSELECT: BOWIE:

1. "Life On Mars?”
2. "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing”
3. "The Bewlay Brothers”
4. "Lady Grinning Soul”
5. "Win”
6. "Some Are”
7. "Teenage Wildlife”
8. "Repetition”
9. "Fantastic Voyage”
10. "Loving the Alien”
11. "Time Will Crawl”
12. "Hang on to Yourself”