David Bowie is (part 10): 'Hang On To Yourself '

From January 1971 until into 1972, David Bowie was gradually forming and evolving the concept behind Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie's attempt to encapsulate the concept of the outsider, the rock 'n' roll star that burnt out and rocked themselves into oblivion. He was based in part on Vince Taylor, an old-school rocker, whom Bowie had met as a teenager, who was convinced he was the link between UFOs and the son of God. His name came from Iggy Pop and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a psychobilly act from the 1960s. The sessions began on 8 November 1971 and one of the first songs to be recorded was 'Hang onto Yourself' which quoted Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry and was reminiscent of Gene Vincent and Vince Taylor.   

The look for Ziggy Stardust was partly based on the Droogs from Stanley Kubrick's banned film version of 'A Clockwork Orange'. But, said Bowie later, "to lessen the image of violence, I decided we should go for extremely colourful and exotic material in place of the Droog white cotton". This was matched with the colourful boots wrestlers wore at the time. Finally, with the help of Angie and her hairdresser the trademark flame-coloured hair, spiky on top and straight down the neck was created. On 11 January 1972 Bowie was booked to record a session for the BBC to promote his recently released 'Hunky Dory' album. Instead Bowie played 'Hang onto Yourself' and 'Ziggy Stardust' from the next album. The only track he did play from 'Hunky Dory' was the Velvet Underground-inspired 'Queen Bitch'.

 

For Bowie, Ziggy Stardust was also about sexuality. He talked about 'the pretty things', by which he meant 'the coming generation'. He felt he was writing a manifesto for a generation free of Victorian values, work practices and sexual morality. He was to be the spokesperson for this free, glamorous, bisexual generation (the 'homo superior'). It was in January 1972 that Bowie talked to Michael Watts of Melody Maker. He told him "I'm going to be huge and it's quite frightening in a way". He also said "I'm gay - and always have been, even when I was David Jones". There has been much discussion about whether this was an honest confession or a marketing ploy to gain extra publicity for his music. It seems quite clear that Bowie was bi-sexual but the timing was also clearly planned. It may well not have been as cynical as some suggest, however. I think it simply fitted with what he was trying to say at the time. It was certainly a brave thing to do. Homosexuality had only been decriminalised in Britain in 1967 and arrests for 'Gross Indecency' had actually increased in the intervening years. Yet many people have since said that the sight of an out gay man made it much easier for them to feel that being gay was acceptable or even cool. A catalyst for this was the Top of the Pops show on 6 July 1972 on which Bowie performed 'Starman'. As the chorus approaches Mick Ronson moves in to Bowie's microphone to share the singing responsibilities and Bowie casually put his arm around Ronson. At that moment nation gasped, some in disgust but many in admiration. Lots of people pick that moment as the moment they became a Bowie fan.

 
By July 1972 'Starman' had reached number 10 in the singles chart and 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' had reached number 5 in the album charts. David Bowie had finally achieved the stardom he craved and the musical acclaim he had been striving for for a decade.
 

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
All songs written and composed by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	'Five Years'	4:44
2.	'Soul Love'	3:33
3.	'Moonage Daydream'	4:35
4.	'Starman'	4:13
5.	'It Ain't Easy' (Ron Davies)	3:00

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	'Lady Stardust'	3:20
7.	'Star'	2:50
8.	'Hang On to Yourself'	2:40
9.	'Ziggy Stardust'	3:13
10.	'Suffragette City'	3:25
11.	'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide'	3:00

In September 1972 David Bowie began his US tour. After hiring jazz piano player Mike Garson (or Garson the Parson as Bowie called him because of his constant attempts to convert everyone he met to scientology) the tour bus set off for the gruelling schedule across America. Bowie loved travelling across America. He took in everything he saw and used much of it to write new songs during the tour. The first song he came up with almost immediately was 'Jean Genie'. On 6 October, the band stopped off in New York and recorded it. It was released as a single on 25 November and reached number 2 in Britain. Here is the video.

In November, Bowie wrote 'Drive-In Saturday', inspired by things he saw on the train to Pheonix. He included it in the set almost immediately.

Bowie had a four-day break in Los Angeles on his 1972 US tour before two shows in Santa Monica. They stayed in the Beverley Hills Hotel where there were all manner of boys, girls and drugs on offer. Although Bowie didn't partake in the drugs himself, plenty of people did, Quaaludes being the drug of choice. Elton John was there some of the time (also on tour) as was Andy Warhol and Iggy Pop. Bowie wrote 'Cracked Actor' specifically about his experiences there. The line 'since he pinned you baby' refers to 'pinning' someone, meaning that they were addicted to the drugs you were selling them.

Some of the shows on Bowie's first US tour were quite poorly attended but the two Santa Monica shows on 20 and 21 October were a huge success. The seventeen song set-list ranged across five albums (including the as-yet unrecorded next album) and for the next twenty years the bootleg recording would be a classic and allegedly influenced a number of English punk bands. Here is 'Changes' from 'Hunky Dory' from that night. On 3 December, Bowie returned to New York where he recorded his own version of 'All The Young Dudes' and 'Drive In Saturday'. Then he got the boat back to London.

Post Script
In March 1972 Bowie heard that Mott the Hoople were splitting up. He played them a song that he had just written with them in mind and they loved it. In May they recorded it and it was released in July. It got to number 3 in the charts. Bowie was so confident in what he was doing that he felt comfortable in giving away such a great song. Bowie sings backing vocals on the Hoople version. Here is his version.

Here is rare footage of early Ziggy-era Bowie spliced together from two live concerts just as he was on the cusp of fame.

Here Bowie performs 'Ziggy Stardust' a whole year before the Hammersmith Odeon gig in D. A. Pennebaker's 'Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture'.

Here Bowie, in an interview from 1977, retells how he invented the character of Ziggy Stardust.

In July 1972 Bowie audaciously offered to produce an album for Lou Reed. Reed had been around since the mid-sixties and Bowie had been famous for a matter of weeks. Nevertheless Reed's solo career had stalled and he was personally a mess. The album that resulted, 'Transformer', has since achieved cult status and the tracks 'Walk On the Wild Side' and 'Perfect Day' (also released as two sides of a single) have effectively become Reed's signature songs. See here for more on this.

Next time: Dali, Scientology and suicide.

David Bowie is (part 9): 'Make way for the homo superior'

David Bowie spent much of 1971 on his own, or with his wife Angie, at their home in Haddon Hall. At an upright piano Bowie started writing. The music poured out of him. It was during this period that he wrote some incredible songs, such as 'Changes', 'Life On Mars?' and 'Oh! You Pretty Things'.

In April, Bowie went into the studio with the future Spiders From Mars to record his fourth album. As Tony Visconti was off with Marc Bolan, the album was produced by Ken Scott with help from Bowie himself, or as the sleeve note put it 'assisted by the actor'.

As many of the songs were piano-based, Bowie invited a young session musician, piano player Rick Wakeman, who would shortly after go on to find fame himself in the band 'Yes', to play on the album. Wakeman has said that as Bowie played him the songs the hairs stood up on the back on his neck. It is rare, he said, for this to happen. But on this occasion it happened again and again and he knew immediately he was going to be part of something a little special.

Two of the songs on the album are about people Bowie admired. One is for Bob Dylan, the other Andy Warhol. After recording, 'Andy Warhol', Bowie met him in his studio known as 'The Factory'. Bowie said later of the meeting, "I was invited up to The Factory... I met this man who was the living dead. Yellow in complexion, a wig on that was the wrong colour, little glasses. I extended my hand and the guy retired, so I thought, 'The guy doesn't like flesh, obviously he's reptilian.' He produced a camera and took a picture of me. And I tried to make small talk with him, and it wasn't getting anywhere. But then he saw my shoes. I was wearing a pair of gold-and-yellow shoes, and he says, 'I adore those shoes, tell me where you got those shoes.' He then started a whole rap about shoe design and that broke the ice. My yellow shoes broke the ice with Andy Warhol." Bowie played Warhol the song and he hated it. Bowie also performed a mime which was filmed:


Hunky Dory sounds as good today as it did when it was made. It is a modern classic and yet another leap for Bowie's song-writing, this time into the stratosphere. Like every record Bowie had released before it, it was not a hit. But this time was different. People had begun to sit up and take notice and, although he did not know it at the time, the groundwork had been laid for the massive success that was just around the corner.

Hunky Dory
All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Side one

1. 'Changes' – 3:37
2. 'Oh! You Pretty Things' – 3:12
3. 'Eight Line Poem' – 2:55
4. 'Life on Mars?' – 3:53
5. 'Kooks' – 2:53
6. 'Quicksand' – 5:08

Side two

1. 'Fill Your Heart' (Biff Rose, Paul Williams) – 3:07
2. 'Andy Warhol' – 3:56
3. 'Song for Bob Dylan' – 4:12
4. 'Queen Bitch' – 3:18
5. 'The Bewlay Brothers' – 5:22

Bowie had been without a recording contract when he started work on the album at Trident Studios in April 1971. RCA Records in New York heard the tapes and signed him to a three-album deal on 9 September 1971, releasing Hunky Dory on 17 December. Supported by the single 'Changes', the album scored generally favourable reviews and sold reasonably well on its initial release, without being a major success. Melody Maker called it "the most inventive piece of song-writing to have appeared on record in a considerable time", while NME described it as Bowie "at his brilliant best". In America, Rolling Stone wrote "Hunky Dory not only represents Bowie's most engaging album musically, but also finds him once more writing literally enough to let the listener examine his ideas comfortably, without having to withstand a barrage of seemingly impregnable verbiage before getting at an idea". However, it was only after the commercial breakthrough of Ziggy Stardust in mid-1972 that Hunky Dory became a hit, climbing to #3 in the UK charts. In 1973, RCA released 'Life on Mars?' as a single, with a video by Mick Rock, which also made #3 in the UK.



Bowie himself considers the album to be one of the most important in his career. Speaking in 1999, he said: "Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, 'Good album, good songs.' That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, 'Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?' There was always a double whammy there."

Post-script
'Shadow Man' is a song for which Bowie made a demo in September 1971. Neither the demo nor any other version has ever been released. It was re-recorded for the Toy album in 2000 but that hasn't been released either. Hear the demo version here. Hear the Toy version here.

In 1974, Dana Gillespie, a singer who briefly sang as Bowie's backing singer, recorded her version of  'Andy Warhol'. Hear it here.

Next time: Spiders, stars and dudes

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 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?

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

David Bowie is (part 4): 'Can't Help Thinking About Me'

The Lower Third had been together for about a year, playing gigs in Margate in Kent, when, in 1965, the core three members decided to take a shot at fame and headed to London in search of a singer. David Jones auditioned with a friend, Steve Marriott, later of the Small Faces, and although they preferred Marriott, he left and Jones got the gig. Over the next few months David Jones convinced the band to learn new songs by the Yardbirds, The Kinks and The Who as well as getting them to help with his own compositions. It quickly became evident that the eighteen year-old David Jones was taking creative control. After a summer of gigging in Margate and other towns in the south-east and the replacement of the drummer, The Lower Third had transformed into a Mod band and were ready to record their first single. 'You've Got a Habit of Leaving' was written by David Jones and was produced by Shel Talmy who, as well as producing the Manish Boys single, had had hits with The Who and The Kinks. It was credited to 'Davy Jones and the Lower Third'.

 

'You've Got A Habit Of Leaving' and the B-side, 'Baby Loves That Way' were both re-recorded in 2000/2001 for the unreleased David Bowie album 'Toy'. It was leaked onto the internet in 2011.



After David Jones' third attempt at stardom came to nothing EMI pressured Talmy to terminate his singles deal. At the same time Les Conn decided to pack in the music business but David already had a replacement in mind, Ralph Horton. Horton called a publicist he knew called Ken Pitt to help with the management of Davy Jones. Pitt explained that he was too busy, and in any case the name was a problem as there was another Davy Jones in America, who would go on to join the Monkees. David Jones already had a replacement name in mind. A few years earlier he had seen the film The Alamo and had become obssessed with the character Jim Bowie. So from henceforth he would be known as David Bowie.

Horton scored the band a number of gigs over the late summer and autumn of 1965 as well as a new recording contract through producer Tony Hatch with the Pye label. Bowie bought a guitar and was writing songs throughout this period: 'London Boys', 'Maid of Bond Street' and his eventual next single 'Can't Help Thinking About Me'.





The first single released under the name David Bowie is clearly a step up in both his writing and singing ability and deploys techniques he would use again and again in his career such as the 'pre-chorus' and the idea of songs as stories. Whilst Bowie lyrics are very rarely autobiographical, it is possible that lines like "It seems that I've blackened the family name / Mother says that she can't stand the neighbors' talking" do indeed refer to his own situation. His mother, Peggy, was getting fed up with his obsession with music at this point and wanted him to get a proper job. Bowie, of course, was not about to do that and felt unashamed about following his dream. The B-side is 'And I Say To Myself'. The single was released in January 1966, a week after Bowie's nineteenth birthday. The single failed to make an appearance on the main chart although it did get to twenty-five on the Radio London chart and number 34 on the Melody Maker chart.
 

'Do Anything You Say' b/w 'Good Morning Girl' was the first single credited simply to 'David Bowie'. Bowie's manager, Ralph Horton, sacked The Lower Third arguably because of his jealousy of their closeness to 'his' David. He would give David lifts to gigs in his Jag while the rest of the band had to use their converted ambulance. They were replaced with The Buzz. Unlike The Lower Third, The Buzz were a manufactured band and it shows. 'Can't Help Thinking About Me' had at least made it onto the bottom of some of the charts but this was a total flop.

At this point Ralph Horton realised there was nothing else he could do for David Bowie's career, so once again he contacted Ken Pitt, who decided to come to one of his shows. He was very impressed and after talking with him at Horton's flat, he became Bowie's manager.

In June 1966, Tony Hatch began producing 'I Dig Everything' but, dissatisfied with The Buzz, he replaced tham all with session musicians. The resulting cheesy grooviness pretty much guaranteed the record would be the failure that it was.





With 'I Dig Everything' b/w 'I'm Not Losing Sleep', David Bowie was being taken even further away from the limited success he had achieved with 'Can't Help Thinking About Me'. His manager Ken Pitt knew Bowie would go nowhere on the Pye label, who were planning to drop him anyway, so he planned to get him a new record deal.

In 1965 David Bowie recorded demos for three songs that were never otherwise recorded. They are: 'That’s Where My Heart Is', 'I Want My Baby Back' and 'Bars of the County Jail'.

There are also another three songs he recorded in 1965 that were never released. They are: 'I’ll Follow You', 'Glad I’ve Got Nobody' and 'That’s a Promise'.

(To hear each track click on the relevant title.)

Next time: David Bowie records his first album