.......was the description of his output around 1993 according to a major rock magazine.

We were barely out of the 80s when critics began savaging the decade that had been. And it wasn't just Bowie. Q magazine had a terrific "If they lived" article that revealed John Lennon's sorry trajectory since 1980 (his best moment was a 1990 collaboration with Lenny Kravitz titled Your Mama). An aged, balding Lennon was depicted in a tartan flannel shirt.

Bowie eventually identified the rut of the Rock Gods and began his battle to get out. Tin Machine boldly rejected what he had become ("piss on the icon monsters....whose guitars bequeath you pain") but Bowie was not out of jail until the mid 90s or as many critics would have it, as late as 2002. And then he retired.

Of the fallen heroes, Neil Young was maybe the first to successfully re-emerge (critically speaking). It was pretty gradual for others but eventually Dylan, McCartney, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton and Ray Davies all did something to regain critical favour. But this was not before the unthinkable occurred. The man with a voice like sand and glue put out a covers album. There should have been a law against that.

Bowie Downunder

I hate critics who slate Bowies 90s work yet say Heathen and even Reality are his best albums in decades.

They clearly have not listened to Outside or The Buddha Of Suburbia.

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I'll never touch you...
...but I will prick you!

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