The evidence of ["Space Oddity" and "The Man Who Sold The World"] is that Bowie shouldn't have needed all that hype and probably doesn't need most of the camp theatrical razzamatazz that now surrounds him.

The songs here prove that he should have made it on the music alone, and would have done so a long time ago if we'd only had our ears open. Indeed, I've a sneaking suspicion that we may have "discovered" him too late. For in many ways these albums are more satisfying than the flashy, brittle and superficially more clever stuff he's doing now.

For all its occasional naivety, "Space Oddity" remains an album of daring imagination and breathtaking beauty. It's the work of a man still searching for a coherent style of his own—but that's half its charm. Most of these songs tell a story, and their dramatic, theatrical quality (in...