David Bowie is (part 6): 'You've Really Made The Grade'



The Riot Squad

After recording his first album, Bowie joined mod band The Riot Squad to help them out and to try out some new material as his band had fallen apart. They recorded their version of 'I'm Waiting For the Man' before the Velvet Underground version was even released due to an acetate copy Bowie's manager brought back from New York, as well as Bowie's own Velvets-inspired 'Little Toy Soldier'. The Velvet Underground would prove to be an important influence on the development of Bowie's music.
 
At the end of 1967, David Bowie, frustrated with his lack of commercial success, left Deram and went off to learn to dance and act. He studied dance and mime with Lindsay Kemp who had his own 'Pierrot' show. Eventually they produced their own show with some of Bowie's music. In 1968 Kemp and Bowie were hired for a BBC drama The Pistol Shot.

Bowie then started a year-long relationship with another dancer, Hermione Farthingale. After the drama job finished they formed a multimedia trio called Turquoise. Eventually this would include guitarist John Hutchinson and be re-named Feathers (Farthingale would later be immortalised on Bowie's second album in the song 'Letter to Hermione').

The group appeared in a promotional film to boost Bowie's flagging career called 'Love You Till Tuesday' (which you can watch here). His manager intended it to be a CV that he could use to show to producers. The film showcases Bowie's songs, singing and mime. Bowie moved in with Farthingale and it was there that he wrote a new song for the film that would change his life and career forever. It was called 'Space Oddity'. At the end of the filming Hermione broke up with Bowie saying it had been an intense year. She also wanted to return to dancing full-time. Bowie was heartbroken but carried on regardless. It was the end of a short-lived experiment with cabaret.


From left to right:
 Hermione Farthingale, DB, Tony Visconti, John Hutchinson 

The first track to appear on the promo film is the titled track: 'Love You Till Tuesday'. Next up is 'Sell Me A Coat' from David Bowie's eponymous debut album. Track three is a charming story about what it is like to be four years old, 'When I'm Five'. Clearly the babysitting had given Bowie ideas for several songs. Track four is 'Rubber Band'. The next track, 'The Mask' demonstrates Bowie's new skill at mime. 'Let Me Sleep Beside You' is a wonderful song which Bowie claimed to have written much earlier. He told a BBC radio presenter in 1969 that he had written it it 1965 but never recorded it as his mother thought it was dirty. Track seven is 'Ching-A-Ling'. Remarkably and unexpectedly from such a light pop song, the counter-melody to Farthingale's 'Ching-A-Ling' chorus, sung by Bowie and Hutchinson (first heard at 0:29 on this version) is precisely the same tune as turned up on Bowie's next album but one, 'The Man Who Sold the World' on the much darker and heavier song 'Saviour Machine' played by first the lead guitar and then the synthesiser. The penultimate track is the original version of 'Space Oddity'. Written in his then-girlfriend Hermione Farthingale's attic flat, it was apparently inspired by the gift of a Stylophone from Marc Bolan. Those two notes one semi-tone apart form the haunting back-drop for the claustrophobia of the song. The final track is 'When I Live My Dream' from the 'David Bowie' album. 

Once again, nothing came of the new approach. With the caberet idea abandoned, Bowie fell in with the 'underground movement' (what you could also call hippies) in 1969. He moved in with Mary Finnigan and together they helped to organise the Beckenham Arts Lab. Bowie started talking about 'collectivism' and playing acoustic folk music. Around this time Bowie re-recorded 'Space Oddity', this time with acoustic guitars and the stylophone (although some of the original brass remained). 'Space Oddity' was released the week before the Apollo 11 moon landing and was used on the BBC coverage. The single entered the bottom of the charts and then dropped out destined to be another flop. On 16 August Bowie played the Beckenham Free Festival (which was immortalised in his 'Memory of a Free Festival') five days after his father's funeral. Then he went back in the studio to record another album. In the last week of September with the record company's entire sales, marketing and promotion teams working on the single, 'Space Oddity' jumped up the charts to 25, eventually reaching number 5.

Next time: one-hit wonder or superstar?