David Bowie “ChangesOneBowie” released on this date, May 20th, 1976. RCA. If one was to choose just one Bowie album to own, I think this is it, a  compilation album featuring tracks from 1969-76. It is totally impossible to overestimate the influence Bowie has had over the years on popular culture and other artists, from Duran Duran (covering “Fame” in the most spectacular way) to Darby Crash of the Germs (in Lexicon Devil: the Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs, friends of Crash’s stated he had a Bowie shrine in his room and would spend hours dissecting Bowie’s lyrics and finding ways to emulate his style, eventually putting glam through a punk rock blender and spitting out blood, chains and Germs burns).

Given my teenage obsession with both Duran Duran and the Germs, it is not surprising that I spent A LOT of time listening to this album (also two of my favorite people in the world, Joe and Carrie, are massive Bowie fans – I’m pretty sure my first listen was in Carrie’s room when I was 14). “Ziggy Stardust” is as close to musical perfection as it gets. “Changes” provided a timeless message for youth searching for explanation of angst:

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re goin’ through.

“Suffragette City” even furnished a means of high school subversiveness when I scrawled “Wham, bam thank you ma’am” onto the cafeteria windows while decorating for homecoming. RebelRebel.