While the words “heavy” and “David Bowie” aren’t synonymous, the late great Starman nonetheless produced his fair share of visceral material over the years. If you go back to the earliest days of his career, he incorporated a bit of heavy-metal flavor into some of his tunes, namely on songs like “Width of a Circle”, which kicks off the brilliant The Man Who Sold the World, from 1970. And, during his glam-rock days, he could undoubtedly rev things up with the best of them (i.e., the hard-driving blues stomp of “The Jean Genie” or the metallic-crunch of “Cracked Actor,” for example).
But, in this writer’s opinion, if you’re truly looking for the “heaviest” Bowie song of all time, you have to fast-forward to the 1990s, where you will encounter the menacing industrial-flavored ripper “Hallo Spaceboy”. It became a staple in his latter-career setlists for a reason, as it was absolutely a force of nature when performed in a live setting. Case in point, checkout this killer performance of the song at Howard Stern’s birthday party from 1998, which definitely packs a punch. Crank it!
