David Bowie is (part 18): 'Sometimes I feel the need to move on'

In December 1977, David Bowie narrated Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. It was released in May 1978. Bowie has since said that he did the project as a Christmas present for his then 7 year old son, Duncan Jones. The narration was then used for a Disney cartoon (see it here).

At the end of January 1978, David Bowie began filming Just A Gigolo, Bowie's second major film role. The film was set in Berlin and Bowie was excited to filming in many of his old haunts and, in particular, to meet Marlene Dietrich, in her first film appearance for 18 years. Unfortunately for him, all her parts were filmed separately in a studio set in Paris and Bowie had to act to a chair. The two parts were cut together later. The hostile reception the film received led Bowie to joke that it was "my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one" (see a clip here).

The Isolar II 1978 World Tour, more commonly known as The Low / Heroes World Tour or The Stage Tour, was a worldwide concert tour by David Bowie. The tour opened on 29 March 1978 at the San Diego Sports Arena continuing through North America, Europe and Australia before reaching a conclusion at the Nippon Budokan in Japan on 12 December 1978. The tour comprised the usual central group of Alomar, Davis and Murray fortified with guitarist Adrian Belew from Frank Zappa's band, violinist Simon House, pianist Sean Mayes and keyboardist Roger Powell. The show would last an hour and a half beginning with 'Warzawa', combining tracks from Low and "Heroes" as well as Ziggy-era stuff and a Station to Station set. On 8 September Bowie released a live album from the Philadelphia shows called Stage. At that time Bowie was taking advantage of a short break in the tour to begin recording another album. Here is the Stage album. This show is from the later Japanese leg.

The third and final instalment of the Berlin trilogy or 'Triptych' as Bowie was now calling it was Lodger. Although not having the same epic grandeur of the previous two albums Lodger retained the same spirit of experimentation; it was quirky and highly original and inventive. Bowie also abandoned the idea of an instrumental side two. This change in style is partly because of the location. Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland had much more comfortable and conventional surroundings than Hansa in Berlin.

Guitarist Carlos Alomar and violinist Simon House felt as though Brian Eno's creativity was beginning to dry up although some of the techniques employed by Eno, Bowie and Visconti helped the musicians to find something great within themselves. Guitarist Adrian Belew was asked to play a solo over a track he had never heard before. They refused to even tell him what key it was in. He was told, "Just play!" He had three chances and then they would move on to another song and do the same thing again. His solo on 'Boys Keep Swinging' is incredible yet he has no memory of playing it. Sometimes seen as one of Bowie's more underrated albums there is much to pique ones interest. On 'Boys Keep Swinging' the musicians changed instruments to give the track a rough edge; 'Yassassin' has a Turkish feel; and 'Red Money' used the same music as the song 'Sister Midnight' that Bowie had given to Iggy Pop for The Idiot. 'Boys Keep Swinging' is also notable because (in the words of co-producer Tony Visconti) it features the "exact same chord changes and structure, even the same key" as 'Fantastic Voyage', another song on the album. Tracks like 'D. J.' and 'Look Back In Anger' are among Bowie's best from the period. After the Isolar II Tour was over in December and a long break the album was finished off in Record Plant Studios in New York in March 1979 and released in May. Despite weak reviews, the album reached number 4 in Britain and number 20 in the US.

 

Lodger

All lyrics written by David Bowie; all music composed by Bowie and Brian Eno, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Fantastic Voyage' – 2:55
2. 'African Night Flight' – 2:54
3. 'Move On' (Bowie) – 3:16
4. 'Yassassin' (Bowie) – 4:10
5. 'Red Sails' – 3:43

Side two

1. 'D.J.' (Bowie, Eno, Carlos Alomar) – 3:59
2. 'Look Back in Anger' – 3:08
3. 'Boys Keep Swinging' – 3:17
4. 'Repetition' (Bowie) – 2:59
5. 'Red Money' (Bowie, Alomar) – 4:17

 
Next time: Fripp, Merrick and Baal

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 16): 'I've lived all over the world'

By the end of May 1976 David Bowie was back in the studio in the French chateau where he had recorded 'Pin Ups'. This time, however, he wasn't recording his own album but an album with Iggy Pop, The Idiot. The starting point was the song 'Sister Midnight' a song Bowie had written with Carlos Alomar and performed on his recent tour. Bowie also offered Iggy 'China Girl' and 'Nightclubbing' which Pop eagerly accepted. The rest of the album was written between them. For Bowie, as producer, it was an opportunity to experiment with tape loops, electronic instruments and European music, something he would develop further on his next album.


Bowie and Iggy Pop decided to move to Berlin to get off cocaine. They were, in a sense, in rehab. Bowie gave away many of his possessions, drastically reduced his entourage to two or three people and bought his own bread and milk. In August 1976 Tony Visconti arrived in Berlin. Hansa Studios on the Kurfurstendamm was to be the location of David Bowie's so-called 'Berlin Trilogy'. Studio 1 had been booked for Bowie to work on some music he had originally recorded for the soundtrack to the film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'. This had been abandoned when the deal fell apart. Instead the studio was used to do some post-production on Iggy Pop's The Idiot. In early September Visconti, Bowie and his by now consistent band of Alomar, Murray and Davis met up once again in the chateau and were joined by piano player Roy Young and guitarist Ricky Gardiner and later by ex-Roxy Music, art-rock experimenter and synthesiser wizard Brian Eno.

 

The sessions were very experimental. Bowie had come only with a few riffs and ideas which were worked up by the band. After a brief visit by Angie Bowie and her boyfriend Roy Martin which ended in a fight between the two men, Bowie wrote 'Breaking Glass' with the lyrics, "I've been breaking glass in your room again... Don't look at the carpet I drew something awful on it". This referred back to Bowie's interest in Kaballah. 'Always Crashing in the Same Car' was a reference to his Mercedes which he crashed twice. Bowie had an idea for a song based on his experiences in Poland. Whilst he was in Paris for legal meetings with his former manager Michael Lippman, Eno pieced his part together. One day he heard Visconti's son Morgan playing the haunting notes A, B, C on the reception room piano and so Eno incorporated it as the main melody of what became 'Warzawa'. Bowie then added his wordless vocals based on a recording of a Balkan choir.

 

After the sessions came to end there were overdubs to be done. These were done at Hansa in Berlin, at the newly opened Studio 2 which was right next to the Berlin Wall. There they completed 'Subterraneans' and 'Weeping Wall'. The result was an album that, when it was released in January 1977, elicited little critical response and what response it did get was mostly mired in confusion. Some critics did like it but it would take a long time before it would be considered a great work of art. The album reached number two in Britain and the single, 'Sound And Vision', got to number three despite Bowie doing almost nothing to promote the album and refusing to tour with it. The album is, of course, Low.

 

Low

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

Side one

1. 'Speed of Life' – 2:46
2. 'Breaking Glass' (Bowie, Dennis Davis, George Murray) – 1:52
3. 'What in the World' – 2:23
4. 'Sound and Vision' – 3:05
5. 'Always Crashing in the Same Car' – 3:33
6. 'Be My Wife' – 2:58
7. 'A New Career in a New Town' – 2:53

Side two

1. 'Warszawa' (Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:23
2. 'Art Decade' – 3:46
3. 'Weeping Wall' – 3:28
4. 'Subterraneans' – 5:39

A second single, 'Be My Wife', failed to reach the Top 40 in Britain.

In March 1977 David Bowie decided to tour not with his own new album, Low, but with Iggy Pop's The Idiot. The first gig was in Aylesbury, the town where Ziggy made his debut. At first no one noticed Bowie but a few songs in someone spotted him playing an electric piano. The audience split in two, half the audience moved to catch a glimpse of Bowie, the rest stayed where they were and watched Iggy Pop. Former New York Doll Johnny Thunders, the Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock and the Damned's Brian James had stayed watching Iggy. Nevertheless many punks didn't mind admitting they had been inspired by Ziggy Stardust. During the tour Pop and Bowie were interviewed on the Dinah Shore programme in America. This illuminating interview is most remarkable for how relatively 'ordinary' the pair seem (Click to watch Interview 1, Interview 2, and a performance of 'Funtime'). The band playing with them included brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, who would later be half of Bowie’s band Tin Machine.

Next time: lust, walls and dolphins.

David Bowie is (part 13): 'Tens of thousands found me in demand'

Between October 1973 and February 1974 David Bowie began to record a new album with his old producer and friend Tony Visconti. Bowie had originally intended his next album to be a rock adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. He had even got as far as writing three songs for the project, '1984', 'Big Brother' and 'We Are The Dead'. When he approached Orwell's widow, Sonia, she refused permission on the grounds that she thought it sounded 'bizarre'.

Undeterred, Bowie came up with his own concept of a dystopian post-apocalyptic future world, known as Hunger City, complete with roller-skating gangs, violence and drugs. Bowie played a new character, Halloween Jack, a 'real cool cat'. At the time of its release Bowie described Diamond Dogs as "a very political album. My protest... more me than anything I've done previously". Diamond Dogs' raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch old bands / And jump in the river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years. Bowie himself has described the Diamond Dogs, introduced in the title song, as

"all little Johnny Rottens and Sid Viciouses really. And, in my mind, there was no means of transport, so they were all rolling around on these roller-skates with huge wheels on them, and they squeaked because they hadn't been oiled properly. So there were these gangs of squeaking, roller-skating, vicious hoods, with Bowie knives and furs on, and they were all skinny because they hadn't eaten enough, and they all had funny-coloured hair. In a way it was a precursor to the punk thing."

Diamond Dogs was released at the end of April and it went to number one in Britain and to number five in the US.

Diamond Dogs

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Future Legend' – 1:05
2. 'Diamond Dogs' – 5:56
3. 'Sweet Thing' – 3:39
4. 'Candidate' – 2:40
5. 'Sweet Thing (Reprise)' – 2:31
6. 'Rebel Rebel' – 4:30

Side two

1. 'Rock 'n' Roll with Me' (lyrics: Bowie; music: Bowie, Warren Peace) – 4:00
2. 'We Are the Dead' – 4:58
3. '1984' – 3:27
4. 'Big Brother' – 3:21
5. 'Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family' – 2:00

On 1 April 1974 David Bowie arrived in New York. He intended to move there and to sort out his problems with manager Tony Defries. Almost immediately he contacted Michael Kamen, a British rocker with a coke habit and a band that included guitarist Earl Slick. Kamen was employed as his Musical Director. He also auditioned a young session musician called Carlos Alomar but Alomar wasn't prepared to take the big drop in wages MainMan was offering. In June Bowie began the Diamond Dogs tour. His fans were shocked to see the 'Ziggy' hair and outfits gone in favour of floppy blonde hair, double-breasted suits and braces.

The first leg of the (US) Diamond Dogs Tour had elaborate staging that Bowie had been toying with since 1971. The $400,000 set included a backdrop of thirty-foot skyscrapers representing 'Hunger City', his dystopian metropolitan setting, plus a motorised bridge, a remote-controlled mirrored module and a cherry-picker in which Bowie would descend singing 'Space Oddity' into a radio mic disguised as a telephone. Bowie was obssessively attempting to assimilate the then-current cutting-edge R&B/soul into his repetoire and despite the outrage and negative criticism of his peers, he achieved it with some considerable success, as can be heard on the album David Live which was recorded on 14 & 15 July 1974.



When the first leg of the tour was finished Bowie went to Sigma Sound in Philadelphia to record a session for his next album. This time he managed to get Carlos Alomar to join him. The result of this first session, which was a conscious effort to make a soul-orientated album, was another new direction. Around this time Bowie realised that he was not an equal partner in his management company MainMan, as he had naively assumed, but an employee! Shortly after the tour resumed, Bowie was introduced to a young BBC director called Alan Yentob who wanted to make a documentary about him in America. The result, Cracked Actor, depicted Bowie thin, paranoid and frequently 'out of his gourd', as Bowie would later put it, on cocaine. It is a fascinating document of a man who was lucky to survive this period in his life.



In October 1974 Bowie decided to ditch his expensive set in its entirety and play the shows with an even more blatant soul sound. In November he filmed for the Dick Cavett Show in New York. Again it demonstrates the effect of excessive amounts of cocaine, although his addiction was to get even worse.



Next time: Lennon, more cocaine and The Tree Of Life

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)

David Bowie is (part 5): 'You've Tried So Hard To Fly'

After the disaster of 'I Dig Everything', it was time for another change. Against the odds, Ken Pitt secured Bowie an album contract with a subsidiary of Decca Records, Deram. Bowie told producer Mike Vernon that he could handle all the string and brass arrangements he needed to make an epic first album. In long sessions that took place at the same time as the Beatles Sgt. Pepper sessions, Bowie and his bass player Derek 'Dek' Fearnley struggled to write string and brass parts. Bowie couldn't read or write a note of music although Dek had had piano lessons as a child. Nevertheless it was a painful and hurried process. According to biographer Paul Trynka, one clarinettist from the London Philharmonic refused to play saying "there are five notes in this bar. There should be four".

Despite these problems, on the first of June 1967 (the same day as Sgt. Pepper) 'David Bowie' was released. The first single, already released at the end of 1966 was 'Rubber Band' a curious, almost military band-style piece. Other songs sounded like show tunes in the style of Judy Garland, comedy songs in the style of Anthony Newley, throwaway pop songs, ballads or soul numbers, prefiguring Bowie's exploration of the soul scene in 1975's 'Young Americans'.

The album contains a number of songs that explore the relationship between adults and children.'Uncle Arthur' was inspired by the discovery that Derek Fearnley had lied about his age when joining the Buzz and was in fact 27 not 20 and an uncle. Bowie sometimes saw Fearnley's nephew at his brother's house and would sometimes babysit for Alan Mair, whose group were also managed by Ken Pitt. Mair's son, 'Little Frankie Mair' became the subject of 'Little Bombardier', although in the song Frankie was an adult who liked playing with children and attracted suspicion. 'Silly Boy Blue' is about a student of Buddhism, as Bowie was himself briefly. At the end of the song Bowie repeatedly sings 'Chime', the name of his teacher Chime Rinpoche.

Another theme that appears on many later David Bowie albums first appears here on 'We Are Hungry Men'. Bowie writes from the point of view of someone that presents himself as a 'messiah' that has come to help people, but turns out to be a very sinister and dangerous person that tries to use his charm for his own ends. 'Please Mr. Gravedigger' is a bizarre spoken-word piece complete with gravel, rain, thunder and sneezing. The subject matter was the death of a child, apparently inspired by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's murder of Lesley Ann Downey. A little dodgy perhaps but the album is full of interesting stories. The album demonstrates a huge leap forward in Bowie's singing and song-writing and shows the depth of Bowie's ambition, the range of influences he could employ and his propensity for risk-taking. It also demonstrates two other themes there were to run throughout Bowie's career. The first is a skill for delegation. Bowie was able to inspire people to take 'Dek' Fearnley to take on much of the reponsibility for arranging the songs on the album. Throughout his career Bowie would inspire musicians, arrangers and producers to take on tasks and, at the same time, to produce their best work. The second is an ability to use the recording studio itself as an instrument. Bowie does it here particularly 'Please Mr. Gravedigger', but it is a technique Bowie used on much of his experimental work.

'David Bowie' (1967)
All songs written and composed by David Bowie
Click on each track to hear it.
1. Uncle Arthur
2. Sell Me A Coat
3. Rubber Band
4. Love You Till Tuesday
5. There Is A Happy Land
6. We Are Hungry Men
7. When I Live My Dream
8. Little Bombardier
9. Silly Boy Blue
10. Come and Buy My Toys
11. Join The Gang
12. She's Got Medals
13. Maid Of Bond Street
14. Please Mr. Gravedigger

A second non-album single was recorded after the album in January but it was released first in April 1967. Although the subject of much derision later in his career, the kitsch and humourous 'The Laughing Gnome' succeeds on its own terms and is a well-crafted song. The B-side is 'The Gospel According to Tony Day'.

The third single released to promote the album was 'Love You Till Tuesday'. The B-side is 'Did You Ever Have A Dream'.

During the sessions for the album another track was recorded but left off the album and never released. It is the superbly mad 'Over The Wall'. The song was re-recorded by future TV sitcom star Paul Nicholas performing as Oscar. This version also failed to make the chart.

At this point, David Bowie was introduced to a young producer that had just come over from America. Although the first records they made together also failed to get into the chart, the partnership would prove to be one of the most enduring and critically successful in popular music history. Tony Visconti producer a number of songs, all of which were turned down by the label executives at Deram. They were 'Let Me Sleep Beside You', which is a great song and which was to be backed with 'Karma Man', 'In The Heat Of The Morning', whose first lines 'The blazing sunset in your eyes will tantalize / Every man who looks your way', has almost exactly the same tune as the first lines from 'Ziggy Stardust', namely 'Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with weird and gilly / And the spiders from mars' and 'London Bye Ta Ta', his best song to date.

Next time: Velvet Underground, dancing and mime