Aha! Surprise “Q” attack. That’s right, I’m going right into the Q section of the list. Why? Just because there’s only three songs that I have to write about, so it made sense to just get them over and done with before really thinking about how to approach the R’s. Will take a break for that though, I’m sure you understand. So let’s get this short selection underway. David Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ kicks things off, the penultimate track from his 1971 album Hunky Dory and a proper rocker too. Mostly made of three chords apart from the change-ups for the campy choruses. It’s usually a good time guaranteed when this comes on.

Similarly to my experience with fellow album track ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, I don’t think I really paid attention to ‘Queen Bitch’ until after Bowie died and I watched a performance of he and his Spiders from Mars (or did they go by a different name before the whole Ziggy Stardust thing) playing the track on the Old Grey Whistle Test show from the ’70s on YouTube. I may as well go ahead and embed that at the bottom. Bowie oozes coolness with the blue 12-string acoustic guitar, not much singing as he is talking in rhythm during the verses, Mick Ronson’s killing it on the golden Les Paul on the right and then they come together to share the microphone and harmonise for the choruses. It’s a boss “live” take. Live in quotations because I’m sure the only thing that’s live about it are the vocals and nothing else.

The song is a full-on tribute to the Velvet Underground, and in particular the band’s frontman Lou Reed. Everything from the smooth talking vocals to predominant use of three main chords to the lyrical subject matter, all taken out of Reed’s guide to songwriting. Take a song like Underground’s ‘Rock and Roll’ and you have the template for ‘Queen Bitch’ right there. Very sure Reed appreciated the gesture as he and Bowie would become kinda tight, and the latter would end up producing Reed’s Transformer album in 1972. They also sang the track together for Reed’s big 50th birthday party concert in New York City in 1997. I mean, I may as well embed that too. These are two legends with the crowd in the palms of their hands.