DAVID BOWIE: The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979 (EMI) AT THE END OF THE 1980S, DAME David Bowie stepped out from the becurtained shadows of his own press conference, spun a spindlesome claw round the centre-stage microphone and announced, grinningly, "Hellew, I'm David Bowie. And you're not."

....It is testament to the enduring 'cool' of the alleged Chameleon that he could get away with that one mere seconds after the Absolute Beginners folly and in the middle of the Tin Machine joke both of which would've seen lesser souls career down the dumper faster than the airborne paint-pots of Phil Collins.

....Certainly The Dame has done some terrible stuff. And some of it happened between '74 and '79; like, for example, this here live version of 'Knock On Wood' in which he sees fit to impersonate the 'gritty' honk of Bryan bleedin' Adams. Then there's all this 'theatrical' stuff wherein he pretended he was a very thin white Oscar Wilde and wore those breeks in the shape of yachting vessels and sang tune-free, thespian-hued, pigs' middens called things like 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City'.

....Never mind, though, he was, for the most part, David Bowie (and we were not) and this is his fabulous 'soul' period; 'Sound And Vision', 'Golden Years', 'Young Americans', 'John I'm Only Dancing', 'Wild Is The Wind', '1984', 'Boys Keep Swinging' and the single version of 'Heroes'. The rest, the ones you've never heard of ­ nearly half of this 100 per cent pointless collection ­ are cobblers (and almost all of it now sounds like it was produced using technology made out of the paint-pots of Phil Collins). Eschew such ill-disguised swindle gambits forthwith and tape all the good stuff off someone old instead. 6/10

DAVID BOWIE: The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979 (EMI) "DAME Dave may well be at an all-time critical low with his recent excursions into jungle, but this compilation perfectly displays not only his finest work, but also his most influential.

....It covers a period in which Bowie moved from conceptual performer ("Diamond Dogs" and "David Live") through his flirtations with White Soul ("Young Americans") on to epic funk rock ("Station To Station") and finally ending with his triumvirate of techno-embracing Eno collaborations ("Low", "Heroes" and "Lodger"). Five years of extreme creativity - fuelled by addictions to both travel and coke - which found Bowie happily trampling on his less interesting Ziggy manifestation, even if he now maintains that he can barely remember any of it.

....Most people point to Ziggy Stardust as a representation of Bowie at his best. However, where that era concerned itself with the image of sexual exploration thinly wrapped in an alien concept and soundtracked by out-takes from The Velvet Underground and T Rex, it was in these, his golden years, that Bowie laifd down his real manifesto: experiment with the creative form and forget the financial consequences. - MARTIN JAMES Four ****"

DAVID BOWIE: The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979 (EMI) "DAME Dave may well be at an all-time critical low with his recent excursions into jungle, but this compilation perfectly displays not only his finest work, but also his most influential.

....It covers a period in which Bowie moved from conceptual performer ("Diamond Dogs" and "David Live") through his flirtations with White Soul ("Young Americans") on to epic funk rock ("Station To Station") and finally ending with his triumvirate of techno-embracing Eno collaborations ("Low", "Heroes" and "Lodger"). Five years of extreme creativity - fuelled by addictions to both travel and coke - which found Bowie happily trampling on his less interesting Ziggy manifestation, even if he now maintains that he can barely remember any of it.

....Most people point to Ziggy Stardust as a representation of Bowie at his best. However, where that era concerned itself with the image of sexual exploration thinly wrapped in an alien concept and soundtracked by out-takes from The Velvet Underground and T Rex, it was in these, his golden years, that Bowie laifd down his real manifesto: experiment with the creative form and forget the financial consequences. - MARTIN JAMES Four ****"

DAVID BOWIE: The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979 (EMI) "Compilation of the Thin White Duke, Phase II IN which Bowie forsakes Ziggy, glam-rock et al, and reinvents himself as soul crooner, Krautrock-influenced experimenter and proto-punk. Although opening him to the accusation of opportunist dilettantism, the late Seventies saw the cracked actor produce his most enduring work, and enjoy the commercial success which eluded his glam contemporaries who, stuck in 1972-mode, ended up as lacklustre cabaret versions of their former selves.

...."Sound And Vision" which opens this collection, is the most joyful single in the Bowie catalogue, and lifts the spirits in spite of seemingly endless repetition. "Fame" joins Bowie and John Lennon in a glorious pastiche of contemporary funk, while the elegiac "Heroes" remains his greatest piece of rock theatre. The album's oddity is a rare, but dull, cover version of Bruce Springsteen's "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", presumably included to tempt Bowie collectors. Peter Huxley".