David Bowie is (part 14): 'One damn song that can make me break down and cry'

Between August and November 1974, David Bowie recorded the album that was to become Young Americans on breaks between the various legs of his tour. The first leg of David Bowie's 1974 US tour was known as the Diamond Dogs Tour. The second leg was known as the 'Philly Dogs' tour (i.e. the same show but with a soul vibe). The third and final leg was known as the 'Soul Tour' and was essentially the tour for Bowie's forthcoming album (although some of the Diamond Dogs songs remained in the set list). The backing singers would perform a short warm-up set on the 'Soul Tour' which was notable for its performance of Bowie's 'Memory of a Free Festival'. This particular show is the first time Bowie performed 'Footstompin'' live. It is audio only and it is from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 28th October 1974.

 

Young Americans was recorded with Tony Visconti at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. To give the record the authentic soul quality Bowie wanted he brought in a then unknown young singer called Luther Vandross, Sly and the Family Stone drummer Andy Newmark and guitarist Carlos Alomar. Bowie would go on to work with Alomar for more than 30 years. Alomar recalled that when he first saw Bowie he was "the whitest man I've ever seen, translucent white".

By December 1974 Bowie had almost finished Young Americans. He called up John Lennon who he had met previously. He played him the record over and over again. Then, inexplicably, he told him he had decided to cover Lennon's 'Across the Universe'. No-one was more confused than Lennon himself who asked May Pang (his then-girlfriend) "why that song?" He invited Lennon to come to the studio who jumped at the chance. Carlos Alomar was playing a riff he had added to a cover of 'Footstompin'' they were performing live. Lennon, meanwhile, was playing some chords and singing some lines from Shirley & Company's disco song 'Shame, Shame, Shame'. Bowie misheard it as 'fame'. He went away and twenty minutes later he came back with the lyrics to the song we now know as 'Fame'. It was the making of the album, which was released in March 1975. The album got to number two in Britain and number nine in America. 'Fame', whilst getting to number seventeen in Britain, got to number one in America. Bowie himself described the album as "the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of muzak rock, written and sung by a white limey".

Young Americans

All songs written by David Bowie except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Young Americans' – 5:10
2. 'Win' – 4:44
3. 'Fascination' (Bowie, Luther Vandross) – 5:43
4. 'Right' – 4:13

Side two

1. 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' – 6:30
2. 'Across the Universe' (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 4:30
3. 'Can You Hear Me?' – 5:04
4. 'Fame' (Bowie, Carlos Alomar, Lennon) – 4:12

Around February 1975 David Bowie began to realise that although he had left MainMan, his former management company, they would still retain the rights to the master copy of his recordings. Although John Lennon consoled him with stories of his own on-going attempts to get free of his former manager Allen Klein, David Bowie frequently became angry and later depressed. His cocaine habit was beginning to take an even heavier toll on his psyche than was apparent from his performances on 'Cracked Actor' and the Dick Cavett Show. As a result of an argument with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, a well-known fan of occultist Aleister Crowley, Bowie became obsessed with black magic, the Nazis search for the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny (the lance that reputedly pierced Christ's side) as well as Kabbalah and the Tree of Life. Bowie would spend days off his face on copious amounts of cocaine watching black and white films about the Nazis over and over again imagining he was gaining deep insights into the nature and meaning of life. As a result of his alien appearance and behaviour (particularly the scenes in the car from 'Cracked Actor') he was cast as the role of an alien in Nick Roeg's film adaptation of the book 'The Man Who Fell to Earth'. Bowie, who mostly refrained from indulging in drug-taking during the shoot, put in a stunning, almost universally critically-acclaimed performance, demonstrating an incredible ability for focus despite his state of mind. Watch it here.

Next time: Europe, electronica and religion

David Bowie is (part 3): 'Act Tall, Think Big'

Davie Jones (top) and the King Bees
(George Underwood, far right)

The first press release for
Davie Jones and the King Bees

In 1963 David Jones joined the King Bees as the singer. In January 1964, with the help of his father, he wrote a letter to John Bloom, an entrepeneur that sold washing machines, fridges and dishwashers. The letter contained the lines, 'If you can sell my group the way you sell washing machines, you'll be onto a winner' and 'Brian Epstein's got the Beatles and you should have us'. Bloom passed the letter on to Les Conn, who spent the next few years pushing David with his many contacts. The seventeen year-old David signed a management contract with Conn, who reciprocated with gigs in the West End of London and a recording session at Decca Records. He was also famously put to work whitewashing Conn's walls with another of his finds, Mark Feld, soon to become Marc Bolan.

The King Bees first recording, credited to 'Davie Jones and the King Bees' was a single, 'Liza Jane', backed with 'Louie Louie Go Home'. Both sides of the single seem relatively undistinguished today. Even Davie Jones, the best thing about the record, sounds like he is still finding his voice in an approximation of a John Lennon-style beat singing voice. It failed to get anywhere near the chart. In June 1964 the band did some gigs to promote the single and then made an appearance on Ready, Steady, Go! In July, David announced, "I've decided to break up the band - and I've found another band."



In July 1964, the seventeen year-old David Jones joined a new band, a six-piece called the Manish Boys. Jones had improved his microphone tecnnique, his stage presence and begun to write his own songs. He left his job and would often spend weeks at a time at various friends' houses in the style of his heroes Dylan and Jack Kerouac. After a series of gigs with the Manish Boys, Les Conn secured an audition with Mickie Most, a top independent producer, hot off the back of success with the Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun'. They then recorded with Most; David's vocals were flawless, but the backing vocals were out and their time ran out.

Then in November David Jones and Woolf Byrne, another Manish Boy, were in La Giocaonda, a favoured coffee shop of musicians in Denmark Street when a BBC researcher asked if anyone had had problems with their long hair. Sensing an opportunity they agreed and were rewarded with an appearance on Tonight with Cliff Michelmore, broadcast in 12 November 1964.



The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men was, of course, a fiction, but his humour and wit was impeccable.

In December the band played a tour on a bill that consisted of Gene Pitney, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Kinks and Marianne Faithfull. One of the songs on the Manish Boys set-list was the Bobby Bland cover 'I Pity the Fool', which shortly afterwards was picked to be recorded as their first single, and was to include session musician and future Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page. It was released in March 1965.



The B-side, 'Take My Tip', a pastiche of Georgie Fame, was the first song written by David Jones to be released on record.



Once again the single failed to trouble the charts. Shortly afterwards the gigs began to dry up, they were short of money, the van broke down and by April they had split up.

Next time: new band, new single, new manager, new name.