David Bowie is (part 17): 'Wir sind dann helden, für einen tag'

After the first tour with Iggy Pop, David Bowie declined to join a second because, in his own words, "the drug use was unbelievable, and I knew it was killing me". However on 16 April 1977 he began producing another album for Iggy Pop, Lust For Life. Once again Bowie had some songs written which Pop added lyrics to, most of which he took just as Bowie had written with one notable exception. The song 'Success' Pop described as a "damn crooning thing". He stripped down the melody and made it his own. One song Bowie didn't write but did have a hand in, in a roundabout way, was 'The Passenger'. Bowie heard guitarist Ricky Gardiner playing around with some chords and urged Pop to use it to write another song which, of course, he did. When the album was released in August it reached number 28 in Britain, still Iggy Pop's most successful album here (Click to hear 'Lust For Life', 'The Passenger', 'Tonight', 'Success' and 'Neighbourhood Threat').

As with The Idiot so with Lust For Life, David Bowie used making an album with Iggy Pop as a way of developing ideas for his own next album. The heart of the 'Berlin Trilogy' the next album, "Heroes", was the only one entirely recorded in Berlin, during July and August. Co-producer Tony Visconti described Berlin at that time as both "a dream... and [a place] where everything said, "We shouldn't be making a record here"". The main Hansa studio was right by the Berlin Wall. Visconti says it was "really scary. We recorded 500 feet from barbed wire, and a tall tower where you could see gun turrets, with foreign soldiers looking at us with binoculars." This set the tone for the sessions.

They were joined by Alomar, Davis and Murray plus Brian Eno once more. The only song Bowie had worked out before reaching the studio was 'Sons of the Silent Age', an interesting track as Bowie employs a singing style from a much earlier time in his career, around 1967. 'V-2 Schneider' is a reference to German rockets from the time of the second world war and the founder of Bowie's favourite German electronic band Kraftwerk, namely Florian Schneider. Again Bowie employed the technique of writing the songs at almost the same time as recording them, in the case of the title track quite literally. Bowie had watched Pop improvising lyrics as he recorded them or finalising them at the last minute and he adopted the same technique on the song "Heroes". Visconti says, "He would scribble down a few notes on the top of the piano, then say, "OK, drop me in after 'Dolphins can swim'." And that way he wrote and sang "Heroes" simultaneously. At the end of half an hour we had a complete vocal." Of course the song also namechecks the Berlin Wall itself, the scene of a romantic moment. Bowie claimed to have seen two lovers share a kiss by the Wall. Later Tony Visconti claimed it was him and his girlfreind although she has since denied it. Strangely, the song that would become Bowie's best known and his fans' favourite only reached number 24 in Britain. The album, however, when it was released in October made number 3.

"Heroes"
All lyrics written by David Bowie; all music composed by Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Beauty and the Beast' – 3:32
2. 'Joe the Lion' – 3:05
3. ''Heroes'' (Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:07
4. 'Sons of the Silent Age' – 3:15
5. 'Blackout' – 3:50

Side two

1. 'V-2 Schneider' – 3:10
2. 'Sense of Doubt' – 3:57
3. 'Moss Garden' (Bowie, Eno) – 5:03
4. 'Neuköln' (Bowie, Eno) – 4:34
5. 'The Secret Life of Arabia' (Bowie, Eno, Carlos Alomar) – 3:46

 

On 9 September 1977 David Bowie began promoting his new album and single with a TV appearance on the new show of his old rival and friend Marc Bolan, called 'Marc'. Bolan's new band was essentially Bowie's old one, namely Tony Newman and Herbie Flowers. When Bolan explained he wanted Bowie to join them for a jam at the end of the show Bowie told him he hadn't brought a guitar. Bolan handed him a vintage Fender Stratocaster and insisted he keep it. Bolan was apparently upset when it became clear that Bowie wanted to play the guitar part himself on the backing track that would accompany him on his performance of "Heroes" (see it here), understandable given it was the first time it had been performed on TV. Bowie showed the song to Newman and Flowers and they picked it up immediately. At the end of the show Bolan announced 'a new song' and they went into the jam (see it here). As Bowie began to sing Bolan attempted to stand on a monitor, missed it and fell off the stage. The camera zooms in on Bowie grinning and the credits roll. The recording of the show was already running very late and the cast of 'Coronation Street' were waiting to begin filming. The unionised crew refused to go into overtime and the show had to go out like that. It wouldn't have been so tragic but for the fact that by the time the show went out Bolan was dead. His girlfriend crashed the purple Mini GT he was in into a tree on the south side of Barnes common around 5am on 15 September. Bowie was devastated by Bolan's death and attended his funeral.

After keeping a low profile during the previous year (the cover of the album 'Low' is a visual pun as in the word 'Low' and a shot of Bowie in profile) Bowie was now doing lots to promote his new material. After his appearance on Marc, Bowie recorded a Christmas special with Bing Crosby. The small talk may have been scripted and appear fake but the politeness and friendliness was apparently genuine. Bowie appeared relaxed, clean-cut and healthy which was a reasonably honest portrait of him at this time. On his up-coming tour he did have one notorious 24-hour coke bender, but that aside Bowie was now living a much cleaner lifestyle. Here is his duet with Bing and here is his specially pre-recorded video of "Heroes" for the 1977 Bing Crosby Christmas Special.
 

Next time: Gigolos, voyages and a stage

David Bowie is (part 12): 'Everything's Alright'

In July 1973, David Bowie took the Spiders minus Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey and the rest of his entourage to the chateau in France where T-Rex had recorded 'The Slider' and there they recorded Bowie's next album, 'Pin Ups'. It was to be an album of covers of some of Bowie's favourite songs from the sixties. It was effectively the last of the Ziggy-era albums which entered the charts at number one when it was released in October. Its predecessors were also still on the charts at numbers 13, 19 and 26. Whilst perhaps not the best-sounding Bowie album today it is nevertheless a fascinating document, an insight into how Bowie worked at that time and it would have been fantastic to any fan wanting more from 'Ziggy', as well remaining an interesting take on the Mod period.

According to co-producer Ken Scott, the album was intended to be "a complete opposite of his other albums" and "he wanted to do songs that weren't known as well in the States as they were in England". The woman on the cover with Bowie is 1960s supermodel Twiggy. On the back of the album sleeve Bowie writes of Pin-Ups: "These songs are among my favourites from the '64–67' period of London. Most of the groups were playing the Ricky-Tick (was it a 'y' or an 'i'?) Scene club circuit (Marquee, eel pie island la-la). Some are still with us. Pretty Things, Them, Yardbirds, Syd's Pink Floyd, Mojos, Who, Easybeats, Merseys, The Kinks. Love-on ya!"

Pin Ups
(Click each track to hear it)

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	'Rosalyn' (Originally recorded by The Pretty Things)	Jimmy Duncan, Bill Farley	2:27
2.	'Here Comes the Night' (Notably recorded by Them)	Bert Berns	3:09
3.	'I Wish You Would' (Notably recorded by The Yardbirds)	Billy Boy Arnold	2:40
4.	'See Emily Play' (Originally recorded by Pink Floyd)	Syd Barrett	4:03
5.	'Everything's Alright' (Originally recorded by The Mojos)	Nicky Crouch, John Konrad, Simon Stavely, Stuart James, Keith Karlson	2:26
6.	'I Can't Explain' (Originally recorded by The Who)	Pete Townshend	2:07

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	'Friday on My Mind' (Originally recorded by The Easybeats)	George Young, Harry Vanda	3:18
8.	'Sorrow' (Notably recorded by The Merseys)	Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, Richard Gottehrer	2:48
9.	'Don't Bring Me Down' (Originally recorded by The Pretty Things)	Johnnie Dee	2:01
10.	'Shapes of Things' (Originally recorded by The Yardbirds)	Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf	2:47
11.	'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' (Originally recorded by The Who)	Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend	3:04
12.	'Where Have All the Good Times Gone' (Originally recorded by The Kinks)	Ray Davies	2:35

In October 1973 David Bowie recorded a one-off show for NBC in America called 'The 1980 Floor Show'. A bizarre combination of songs and acting the highlight has to be Bowie singing a duet of 'I Got You Babe' with Marianne Faithful dressed as some sort of perverted nun and apparently doing an impression of Velvet Underground singer Nico. Watch it here. Another highlight from 'The 1980 Floor Show' is one where Bowie tries out an early version of '1984' before, or possibly just after, he had given up on the idea of a musical adaptation of George Orwell's book (his widow, Sonia, refused permission on the grounds that she thought it sounded 'bizarre'). In this version the song is mixed with 'Dodo', a song that wasn't on the album that 1984 became, and which was only released in 1990 on the CD version of that album. See it here. Incidentally, the female backing singer in these videos is Ava Cherry, Bowie's then-girlfriend. Finally here is an interesting performance of Space Oddity, which was originally recorded in 1969 (skip to 3:48).

By the end of 1973 Bowie had decided he wanted to try a funky, more American vibe to his music. At a recording session for his next album, where they tried recording 1984/Dodo/1984 (reprise), it soon became clear that Mick Ronson and the rest of the band were not able to give Bowie what he wanted, or at least not immediately as he demanded. It was the end of the Bowie/Ronson partnership*. Around this time Bowie, Angie and Zowie moved to Chelsea while Defries, Bowie's manager, confidant and father figure moved to America. Without this crutch, Bowie became a mess and shortly after he started doing cocaine, the first time he had ever regularly taken drugs, to 'calm him down'. It was around this time too that Bowie became fascinated by Mick Jagger. Soon he would have the same relationship with Jagger he had had with Marc Bolan. He saw him as a friend but also a rival. Bolan had not made much of a mark in America so perhaps this was the source of Bowie's interest. As a result Bowie started making music that sounded very much like the Stones. One of the songs Bowie was working on in the studio sounded uncannily like the Rolling Stones. It was released as a single in February 1974. Here is the 'salsa' version that was released in America.

 

Post Script
* "It was the end of the Bowie/Ronson partnership" as far as Bowie's career was concerned but Bowie gifted Mick Ronson three songs for his solo album 'Slaughter on 10th Avenue', which was released in 1974, including 'Growing Up and I’m Fine'.



Shortly before he started working on his next album in early 1974, Bowie recorded a bunch of tracks with a group called the Astronettes, including singer Ava Cherry, who would sing with him for the next four years. The sessions weren’t officially released until the mid-1990s, but “I Am a Laser” is notable for a few reasons – not least that Bowie later reworked it as “Scream Like a Baby.”



Next time: cocaine, milk and pentagrams.

David Bowie is (part 8): 'I'd rather stay here'

Original UK cover

At the beginning of 1970 Bowie's half-brother Terry who had been having schizophrenic episodes for a while had been admitted to Cane Hill, a mental asylum not far from Beckenham. Bowie's aunt Pat later criticised Bowie for abandoning his half-brother although there seems to have been little he could have done for him. Nevertheless Bowie appeared to feel guilty, perhaps a form of 'survivor's guilt' that Terry had inherited the madness that afflicted their mother's family while he had not.

In any case it was the inspiration for one of the best tracks on his next album, The Man Who Sold the World, namely 'All the Madmen'. Bowie describes Cane Hill 'a mansion cold and grey', 'high' and on the 'far side of town'. He also sings, 'I'd rather stay here with all the madmen' (including Terry), than remain on the outside with all 'the sad men'.

The Man Who Sold the World has a hard-edged, heavy rock sound that propells Bowie's songs into new dimensions. There has been discussion about how much this was down to Bowie and how much this was down to guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist/producer Tony Visconti who did a lot of the work arranging the songs while Bowie was elsewhere. I prefer to think of it as a dialectical relationship. Bowie inspired Ronson/Visconti to come up with the arrangements that in turn inspired Bowie to deliver his side of the bargain. This is borne out by the fact that when Ronson/Visconti when on to form 'Ronno' shortly afterwards the results were less than impressive. This album, however, is a classic, Bowie's first truly great album.

 

The Man Who Sold The World
All songs written and composed by David Bowie

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	'The Width of a Circle'	8:05
2.	'All the Madmen'	5:38
3.	'Black Country Rock'	3:32
4.	'After All'	3:52

Side two
No.	Title	Length
5.	'Running Gun Blues'	3:11
6.	'Saviour Machine'	4:25
7.	'She Shook Me Cold'	4:13
8.	'The Man Who Sold the World'	3:55
9.	'The Supermen'	3:38

   

Original US cover (with Cane Hill in the background)

In late 1970 it seemed as though all the pieces were finally dropping into place for David Bowie. However, over the next few months everyone except his girlfriend Angie would desert him. First it was producer and bassist Tony Visconti. Visconti decided he needed to spend time with his other up-and-coming artist: Marc Bolan. Bolan had just shortened the name of his band to T-Rex and Visconti produced his next single and album. 'Ride a White Swan' would be Bolan's breakthrough single. Meanwhile Bowie went back into the studio to record his next single. As all of the songs on The Man Who Sold the World were deemed to have too much of a hard rock edge and too dark a lyrical content to be commercially viable for a single release, Bowie recorded a new song 'Holy Holy'. This version has never been released again, always replaced by a version re-recorded in 1972 during the Ziggy Stardust sesssions. Shortly afterwards Ronson and Woodmansey decided to go back to Hull and Bowie hired Tony DeFries, a lawyer, to rid him of his out-of-touch (as Bowie saw it) manager Ken Pitt. In a few months time DeFries would assume the role of Bowie's manager but for the moment with the failure of yet another single, DeFries lost interest. Bowie was creatively isolated and alone. However it was this state of affairs that would, in the end, be the making of him.

 

In 1971 Bowie cocooned himself in Haddon Hall. With Visconti off with Marc Bolan, his flat was empty so Bowie installed an upright piano. Instead of his 12-string guitar, Bowie now started writing on the piano. The result was a slew of great piano-based songs such as 'Changes' and 'Life On Mars?' but perhaps one which is overlooked is 'Oh! You Pretty Things'. The song, which like McCartney did with 'Yesterday', Bowie woke up humming, was given to Peter Noone formerly with Herman's Hermits to record and was released as a single. It got to number 12 in the charts. So Bowie's first big hit since 'Space Oddity was sung by someone else, although Bowie plays piano on the track. Bowie was happy, however, and he would go on to record it for his next album.
 

Burretti and Bowie

David Bowie formed the fictional band Arnold Corns around this time. This was one of Bowie’s side projects and Bowie wrote the songs. The 'singer' was 19 year old dress designer Freddie Burretti (also known as Rudi Valentino). With the help of Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder, Arnold Corns was created during the spring of 1971. Bowie was writing material that later became his fourth album, as well as songs earmarked for Burretti. Burretti as the frontman was a total fabrication. Bowie sang on all the recorded material.

 

The band’s first single was 'Moonage Daydream' with the B-side 'Hang On to Yourself', released on B&C Records in May 1971 and was a flop. Both these songs later reappeared on Ziggy Stardust in new versions with updated lyrics. The Arnold Corns versions appeared as bonus tracks on the Rykodisc CD re-release of The Man Who Sold the World. A second single 'Looking for a Friend' with the B-side 'Man in the Middle' was planned but scrapped. In 1972, B&C issued 'Hang On to Yourself' with the B-side 'Man in the Middle' as the second single.

 

1972 re-issue cover

On 30 May 1971 Angie Bowie gave birth to Duncan Zowie (pronounced Zoe) Haywood (after David's father) Jones. At first known as Zowie Bowie, he would later change his name to Joe and then Duncan Jones (he is now a film director). Bowie wrote the song 'Kooks' about his new-born son and just a few days later he was performing it at the BBC for their In Concert programme.


At the last minute Bowie phoned Mick Ronson whose band Ronno had not been doing too well. Ronson did the BBC session and he also brought Woodmansey and Ronno's new bass player Trevor Bolder with him. Thus this session marks the first time the future 'Spiders' played together. Shortly after the four went into the studio to record Bowie's fourth album.

 

Post Script

In 1974 Bowie produced a version of 'The Man Who Sold The World' for the singer Lulu. Bowie sings backing vocals and his band play on the track.

Bowie also wrote another song called 'Right On Mother' for Peter Noone in 1971 although this one failed to chart. To hear them, click on the links to Bowie's demo and Noone's single. Incedentally, Bowie played the piano on Noone's version. Herbie Flowers wrote the B-side, 'Walnut Whirl' and played bass on Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side, which was produced by Bowie.
 

Next time: everything's going to be fine

David Bowie is (part 7): 'I Want To Live'

In 1969, for the first time in his career, David Bowie was unsure of himself. In his own words, "I was looking for myself". Producer Tony Visconti, who would become a long-standing Bowie collaborator, had only produced two previous albums and was unsure what to do either. The band, 'Junior's Eyes', didn't know what was expected of them. The band never played the songs live. The result is a missed opportunity.

Confusingly released in Britain as 'David Bowie' (the second album with this name - in the US it was given the appalling title of 'Man of Words/Man of Music' and in 1972 it was re-issued at the height of Bowie's fame as 'Space Oddity', which is how I have known it for the last twenty years), Bowie's second full-length offering lacked an overall vision. Some of the songs sound as though they could have been recorded at any point since about 1967, a hippy feel with a bit of Bob Dylan in there. There is a tiny bit of Bowie's former show-tune style. But Bowie's song-writing was finally reaching maturity and there are one or two songs that point the way to new horizons.

A great song is 'God Knows I'm Good' about an old woman 'hot with worry', her face 'white with fear' who feels compelled to steal a tin of stewing steak, presumably because she can't afford it, forcing us to ask who the real criminal is. 'Memory Of A Free Festival' tells of a festival he organised with Beckenham Arts Lab. My favourite, however, is the much-maligned 'Cygnet Committee'. At 9 minutes, 33 seconds it was Bowie's longest song until 'Station to Station' at 10 minutes, 14 seconds. 'Cygnet Committee' contains a recurring theme of Bowie songs, that of the messiah. Bowie based this song on the way he had come to feel about hippies, as he saw it, leeching off him and using him and the Arts Lab for their own ends rather than that of the cause. He also felt that the hippy cause could be manipulated by a messianic figure for devious ends and that people would still blindly follow them.

Despite perhaps not showing Bowie at his best, there is some excellent song-writing here and if it were not for the fact that he made so many better albums later, it might even be seen as a great album.

 

'David Bowie' (1969, re-issued as 'Space Oddity' in 1972)

All songs written and composed by David Bowie

Side one
No.	Title	Length

1.	'Space Oddity'	5:15
2.	'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed'	6:55
3.	"(Don't Sit Down)" (On subsequent re-releases, the track was appended to "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", and on the Space Oddity reissue, this track was removed completely.)	0:39
4.	'Letter to Hermione'	2:28
5.	'Cygnet Committee'	9:33

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	'Janine'	3:18
7.	'An Occasional Dream'	2:51
8.	'Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud	4:45
9.	'God Knows I'm Good'	3:13
10.	'Memory of a Free Festival'	7:05

In 1969, Bowie met Angela Barnett and they married a year later. Bowie once said they met "because we were both going out with the same man". That man was Calvin Mark Lee, Head of Promotions at Mercury Records. Lee claims he had a sexual relationship with Bowie and Barnett was his girlfriend. They all went for a Chinese meal at Lee's expense at the rest, as they say, is history. Bowie and Barnett moved into a flat in Haddon Hall, a large Victorian house in Beckenham. Other residents included Tony Visconti, Bowie's producer, and his girlfriend, John Cambridge, Bowie's drummer and sometimes Bowie's half-brother Terry. Bowie wasn't writing much during this period but he wrote a song for his new love called 'The Prettiest Star'.

On 8 January 1970, his 23rd birthday, Bowie went into the recording studio to record the song as a follow-up single to 'Space Oddity'. Tony Visconti had arranged for Marc Bolan to play lead guitar on the track. Bowie and Bolan had enjoyed a friendly rivalry for a number of years and all was going well until Bolan's wife June said "The only good thing about this record is Marc's guitar". Marc hurriedly left the studio. The song would become well known three years later when Bowie re-recorded the song for his 'Aladdin Sane' album with Mick Ronson faithfully recreating Marc's solo note for note. The original, whilst being slightly slower, more laid-back and less tight, is actually remarkably similar to the more well-known version, yet it reportedly sold less than 800 copies.

 

By 1970, Bowie's backing band 'Junior's Eyes' was falling apart. Guitarist Mick Wayne's drug intake was making him unreliable. Drummer John Cambridge suggested a guitarist he had played with in his preious band 'The Rats'. His name was Mick Ronson. From the moment Bowie heard Ronson play the two clicked. Bowie quickly taught Ronson his songs and they formed a new band: The Hype. Drummer Cambridge was a cowboy, guitarist Ronson was known as 'Gangsterman', Visconti on bass was known as 'Hypeman' and Bowie was 'Rainbowman'. After having abuse shouted at them at gigs, the band dropped the outfits and reverted to playing as 'David Bowie' but the music worked. The band's first job in the studio was to re-work 'Memory of a Free Festival' as a single but not before Cambridge, who was struggling with a difficult bass drum part, was replaced by Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey. Then they went to work on a new album.

Post Script: Here David Bowie appears on TV in 1970 to perform 'Space Oddity' and to collect a 'Special Merit Award for Originality' in an incredible pair of orange flares.



On March 11 1970, The Hype played at the Atomic Sunrise Festival at the roundhouse in Chalk Farm. Footage of the gig was shown on March 11 this year at the same venue. Here is a clip.



Next time: schizophrenia, Peter Noone and Spiders (From Mars)