You can, of course, tell when it’s a Bowie song you are hearing. On Reality there are plenty of little Bowie tricks to be identified. In fact, most of these seem to date back to the late eighties or, at the best, Low or Lodger – there’s very few echoes to be heard from the early seventies. All for the better, I suppose. (?)

I’ve tried to separate out some of the Bowie paradigms on Reality and where they come from. I’m sure you’ll jump on these and tell me they all date back earlier. (I have even given my opinions though you will tell me that you cannot rate a part of a song or a chord progression out of context).

the falsetto Woo-hoo! Reality – Day-in day-out
sounds fun when done in the right place.
the deliberately flat note Disco king, the loneliest guy - Amlapura
very effective and beautiful. Noone has control over his voice like Bowie.
the rising note progression Try some, buy some; queen of the tarts – ? (I’m sure he’s done that before but cannot think of a song)
Extremely daft, it gives an overly sentimental effect when used in TSBS.
The incessant bashing aka I’d like to beat on your drum looking for water – bus stop
It’s a very delicate thing to use – in almost all contexts, repeated snare bashing will be irritating, but on Bus stop it works. On LFW it’s not perfect.
the drone verse of Pablo Picasso - ? (again I’m not sure where he first did that)
Oh, I love this, with an efficient rhythm in the background that gives it a tremendous momentum
Cute voice Days – Shining star (makin’ my love)
I don’t mind him doing this when it fits into the song. It’s no secret that I love Wood Jackson which is given precisely the right mood thanks to a moderately cute voice – but I think moderately might be the keyword here!
the yelled chorus Never get old – all Tin Machine songs and New York’s in love
OK, perhaps not quite the same type of chorus in all those songs. At any rate, yelled choruses (chori? chorae? WW?) is a beast that should be extinguished from the Bowie songbook. Hardly sounds anything but contrived.