4. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” is David Bowie’s 14th studio album, originally released on 12th September 1980.

By the start of 1980 and the new millennium, Bowie was artistically on top of the world. He had just completed his massively influential and critically acclaimed “Berlin Trilogy” and spent much of 1978 on his hugely successful Isolar II world tour. There were very few artists that dominated the 1970’s as much as David Bowie, with a collection of 11 studio albums that continue to inspire artists to this day.

So Bowie approached making a new album at start of 1980 with lots of confidence and excitement, keen to continue his musical successes. After working with Brian Eno on his last 3 albums, Bowie decided to approach this album with a more commercial focus and with less emphasis on the experimental. Bowie was keen to record a killer album.

So out was Eno from his recent previous albums, but he retained his ever faithful and reliable MOR rhythm section in George Murray, Carlos Alomar and Dennis Davis. From his recent past, he also recruited the excellent Robert Fripp on guitar who made such a valuable contribution on the “Heroes” album and who’s distinctive guitar sounds gives this album much of its magical edge. Also from his past Bowie brought in Roy Bittan who previously appeared on “Station To Station“. Into the mix Bowie also added Chuck Hammer on guitar synthesizer, Andy Clark on synthesizer and Pete Townsend (yes, that Pete from The Who) on guitar on the track “Because You’re Young“.

In the Producer’s chair sitting next to Bowie was the ever reliable Tony Visconti again, who had worked on and off with Bowie for much of the previous decade. Visconti would contribute acoustic guitar and backing vocals as well as adding his usual magic to the overall album production.

Recorded between February and April 1980 primarily at The Power Station studios in New York, Bowie would make a monster album that was hugely influential in the upcoming “New Romantics” movement in the UK and that many consider to be the last great album of his “Golden” period. It’s an album in which Bowie first began to look back at what has been as much as he looked forward. A number of the tracks had its origins in earlier pieces (such as “It’s No Game” and “Scream Like A Baby“) or simply had the past very much in mind such as in “Ashes To Ashes“. But any earlier references or reminisces were very much framed in music that was either current at worst or ground breaking at best…

Things kick-off with some weird studio noises as Visconti rewinds a tape before hitting the play button, followed by a countdown before “It’s No Game (No. 1)” jumps out at us. With panicked Japanese vocals first making an appearance (courtesy of Michi Hirota), Bowie does not sound happy at all as he enters the scene and literally screams at us the English translation of the lyrics that indeed life is no game (“So where’s the moral, When people have their fingers broken, To be insulted by these fascists, It’s so degrading, And it’s no game“). The music is brutal and thumping and with Fripp’s manic guitar, it’s the heaviest Bowie has sounded in years. Bowie doesn’t really do protest songs as such, but here Bowie is clearly stating his anger at the current state of things. The track ends brilliantly with some playful Fripp guitar sounds as Bowie screams for him to just “SHUT UP, SHUT UP” !! Bowie hasn’t sounded quite this anguished since “Five Years“. The track had its origins, especially lyrically, in a much older unreleased song called “Tired Of My Life” that goes back to the pre-Ziggy days (available though on many bootlegs). A track that I don’t think Bowie has ever performed live.

Things mellow slightly with “Up the Hill Backwards“, with Visconti’s acoustic guitar starting things off before the catchy melody and chant like vocals of Bowie/Visconti/others in unison kicking in. The MOR rhythm section sound great here as does Fripp’s guitar that makes an appearance between verses, but really shines during the outro. Bowie is typically cryptic with lines such as “The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom, And the possibilities it seems to offer” again suggesting that politically things need to be reassessed. It’s a track I’ve always enjoyed in that it doesn’t really sound like anything he’s quite done before or since. It was released as the 4th single off the album but as almost everyone who would be interested already owned the album, it flopped and only reached No. 36 in the UK. It was backed by the previously unreleased “Crystal Japan” which is but one reason why it’s in my collection (the other being I bought anything that had Bowie’s name on it). A track Bowie rarely performed live although it did make an early appearance in the “Glass Spider’s” tour set-list.

 

 

Next comes the superb title track in “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” and we’re back in disturbed territory again. With themes of insanity and murder, the track is one Bowie’s very best “hard rock” pieces with again both the MOR rhythm section and Fripp’s amazing guitar work really shining here. Visconti also deserves much credit, with a wonderfully atmospheric dense vibe and crunching bassline sounding both threatening and catchy at the same time. The lyrics tell of a mentally unwell girl who has suffered at the hands of the protagonist “She asked me to stay and I stole her room, She asked for my love and I gave her a dangerous mind, Now she’s stupid in the street and she can’t socialise“. It’s such a great song and one that Bowie has performed live on numerous tours. Released as the 3rd single off the album, it wasn’t the monster hit of its two predecessors and managed to only reach No. 20 in the UK.

 

“Ashes to Ashes” is THE killer track off the album and in my estimation, one of the top 3 songs Bowie has ever recorded. It’s a song that is so unique in its sound and atmospherics that it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Bowie (and Vistonti’s production) able to create such a piece. Famously referencing again Major Tom from “Space Oddity“, things have gone from bad to worse for our wayward astronaut as it turns out the reason for his disappearance and erratic behaviour is that “We know Major Tom’s a junkie“. Musically, this has everything. A wonderful central rhythm section with treated bassline, beautiful synthesizer atmospherics, a brilliant lyric and accompanying vocal performance and a simply gorgeous nursery rhyme outro (“My mother said, to get things done, You’d better not mess with Major Tom“) with Chuck Hammer’s beautiful guitar synthesizer refrain the perfect way to finish the piece. It’s THE perfect combination of pop meeting avant-garde. Released as the first single off the album prior to the album release, it became Bowie’s only second visit to the No. 1 position in the UK single’s chart (with coincidentally the re-released “Space Oddity” being his first No. 1 in 1975). Interestingly, it flopped in the US, where only Bowie’s disco period had really charted well prior to the “Let’s Dance” juggernaut to come. The success of the single certainly wasn’t hurt with the wonderful accompanying video, which remains my favourite Bowie video. Based very much on Bowie’s appearance on the “Kenny Everett Video Show” (watch performance here) with his 1979 “Space Oddity” remake (discussed later), it features the 3 key characters (the Clown/Pierrot, the Madman and the astronaut/Major Tom) in a surreal, dreamlike world. Directed by David Mallet (who Bowie met on the Kenny Everett show), it still holds today as a masterpiece in the music video genre. Just to be absolutely certain the single would sell well, RCA released it with 3 different covers that in turn each had 4 different sets of Bowie “stamps” along the border. So that’s potentially 12 different covers for the Bowie completionist to collect. Being literally a penniless student at the time, I had to settle for just the one copy of the single. Watch the stunning video here.

Side 1 finishes with the other monster hit off the album, “Fashion“. Although Bowie was always at the head of any fashion trend, here the topic of fashion was more centred around politics and how being left or right minded politically was often a question of fashion for many, especially the young. But the line “We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town, Beep-beep” is one of my all-time favourites and makes me smile every time I hear it. Musically, everything again centers around the solid MOR rhythm section and Fripp’s amazing blasts of guitar, this possibly being Fripp’s best performance on the album. The track is that rare mixture of rock anthem and catchy pop, disco groove that is almost impossible to resist. Released as the 2nd single off the album, it reached No. 5 in the UK charts. At least there was only the one cover to collect this time. Watch the music video here.

Side 2 begins with the epic “Teenage Wildlife“, as Bowie reflects somewhat sombrely on the current grim state of affairs and likely not so rosy future with a younger self (think any number of those within New Romantics movement). Bowie seems both frustrated that he’s seen as some kind of prophet “”Well, David, what shall I do?, They wait for me in the hallway”, I’ll say, “Don’t ask me, I don’t know any hallways“” and at their overly naive and unoriginal outlook “A broken-nosed mogul are you, One of the new-wave boys, Same old thing in brand new drag, Comes sweeping into view“. It’s Bowie at his most reflective and cynical as he produces one of his very best vocal performances. Musically, Fripp is the star here with his guitar work the centerpiece of the whole thing and not unlike his work on the song “Heroes”. I’ve always loved this song and all the pity that he’s not performed this live to my knowledge.

The superb “Scream Like a Baby” is however THE star of side 2. The track is musically based on a old piece called “I Am A Lazer” he wrote for a group he put together in the mid 70’s called “The Astronettes” that featured his girlfriend at the time Ava Cherry. Musically, it’s very similar with a wonderfully powerful drum beat by Davis, an Alomor guitar riff that drives the whole piece along and with all sorts of musical flourishes creating a dark atmosphere. Lyrically it’s totally different and one of his more chilling as Bowie recounts how he and “Sam”, society misfits due to their sexuality (“Well, they came down hard on the faggots, And they came down hard on the street“) are taken by the authorities, tortured and brainwashed with drugs to conform, else face the finality of the furnace (“Blindfolded, chains, and they stomped on us, And took away our clothes and things, And pumped us full of strange drugs“). Bowie’s anguished vocals are again brilliant, especially when he can’t quiet get the word society out “Now I’m learning to be a part of socie-soc-soci-tsociety“. But the highlight is the bridge where the vocals are split into two tracks, one in each speaker with one speeding up while the other slows down as Bowie laments “No athletic program, no discipline, no book, He just sat in the backseat swearing he’d seek revenge, But he jumped into the furnace singing old songs we loved“. It reminds me of the schizophrenic hell of “All The Madmen” and leaves us thinking that Bowie is perhaps Sam all along. It’s a Bowie gem that has sadly never graced the live stage.

“Kingdom Come” is the obligatory cover, although it’s actually the first one to appear on a studio album since “Wild Is The Wind” on “Station to Station” (there would be many many to come in Bowie’s upcoming 80’s albums). By Tom Verlaine (of “Television” fame), it’s my personal low-point of the album although it does fit the overall dark themes of Side 2 and quite nicely flows on from the previous track. Telling the experiences of being in prison (perhaps the madmen from the previous “Scream Like A Baby“), “Well I’ll be breaking these rocks, And cutting this hay“, Bowie just wants one day where he can be free before his inevitable end “Sun keeps beating down on me, wall’s a mile high, Up in the tower they’re watching me hoping I’m gonna die“. It’s a depressing piece that lacks the musical adventurism of most of the album. The track was actually released as a limited edition white vinyl single many many moons later in 2015 as part of the always exciting Record Store Day promotion.

 

“Because You’re Young” features the great Pete Townsend (if you say Who, I’ll laugh) on guitar and is kinda special on that basis alone. As one would expect, Townsend’s distinctive guitar is the feature of the track although the bass line throughout is rather nice as well. Coming back perhaps to the troubled girl from the title track, here Bowie describes people he cares about having a troubled relationship, due in part perhaps because they’re so young “He punishes hard, Was loving her such a crime?, She took back everything she said, Left him nearly out of his mind“. It’s another track that Bowie would discard and never perform live.

The album comes full circle and ends as it began with “It’s No Game (No. 2)“. Unlike the frantic start, here the music is much slowed down with Bowie singing this time with a sad, resigned tone rather than the anger at the start. It’s almost as if after all we’ve been through in the album, Bowie has now simply given up on everything. Only the 3rd verse differs from No. 1 “Children round the world, Put camel shit on the walls, They’re making carpets on treadmills, Or garbage sorting“. Life is no game indeed as things end with the end of the tape reel flapping around in the player…

This really is an amazing album, with Bowie at the height of his powers and one which I continue to enjoy playing from start to finish. Bowie has taken much of the originality and experimentalism of his Berlin Trilogy and polished it up with a slightly more commercial edge and reflective set of lyrics. The final result is a Bowie masterpiece which set the high standard by which he was to be subsequently measured.

The album cover is one of my favourites that took as its base a photo of Bowie by Brian Duffy in Pierrot costume, only for it to be cutup (to Brian’s annoyance) and made into a part real, part cartoon collage by Edward Bell. The final effect is I think fantastic (the wonderful “David Bowie Is” exhibition had a large display of how this was all created).

There have been a number of re-releases of the album over the years, but at this stage no major box set or special anniversary edition. Hopefully that might change with it being this year 40 years since it was released (oh my God, I’m getting soooo old).

RCA released this on CD in 1983 (and is one of the very few RCA CDs I don’t actually own) but the most significant re-release was the excellent Rykodisc CD release in 1992 that featured the following bonus tracks:

“Alabama Song” written by Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill was first made popular in a rock context by The Doors. David Bowie included this as part of his set during the 1978 Isolar II world tour (which kinda fitted in with his “German/Berlin” period songs) and recorded it as a single in 1980. The result is somewhat bizarre, odd sounding experience with Bowie’s vocals never quite matching the key and pace of the backing band. Having said that, I love this interpretation although Alomar has described it as his least favourite Bowie recording experience. The single was a minor hit in the UK, reaching No. 23.

The “Alabama Song” single was backed with a newly recorded acoustic version of “Space Oddity“. After initially rejecting the opportunity to produce the original track back in 1969, Visconti didn’t miss the chance to finally produce this iconic song. Whereas the original “Space Oddity” was a massive production piece, here everything has been stripped back to a bare minimum, which just a basic drum and acoustic guitar arrangement. Even the “take-off” sequence has been reduced to just 10 seconds of silence. It’s interesting but a mere shadow of the original masterpiece. Bowie performed this on the Kenny Everett Show where the ground work for the “Ashes To Ashes” video was laid. Watch it here.

“Panic in Detroit” is a drastically re-worked version from 1979. Whereas the original “Aladdin Sane” version had a menacing edge to it all, Bowie here seems to be just taking the piss, with the way he sings the “Panic in Detroit” line simply hilarious. It’s a fun listen but ultimately dispensable.

“Crystal Japan” is a slow, synthesizer-based instrumental that was released in Japan as a single (instead of “Alabama Song” which was its b-side). Recorded during the Scary Monsters sessions, it was ultimately scrapped when Bowie decided he didn’t want Low/Heroes type instrumentals to impact the album’s commercial appeal. Bowie was fascinated with Japan, with Japan a key influence in the album, not only here but with the Japanese vocals on “It’s No Game (No 1)” and the key line in “Ashes To Ashes” (“Pictures of Jap girls in synthesis“). It’s a very nice, moody piece that would have fitted in rather well on the “Heroes” album next to “Moss Garden“.

“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” also featured on the rather excellent “A New Career In A New Town” 1977-1982 Box Set. If you ever want to explore Bowie’s last collection of albums with RCA, this is the best place to start.

 

Bowie would in the end not tour the album. Initially, he was already committed for the remainder of 1980/early 1981 in playing his acclaimed role as deformed John Merrick in the Broadway version of “The Elephant Man“. But any plans of touring the album in 1981 were dashed when on 8 December 1980, Bowie’s friend John Lennon was so tragically murdered. Bowie had no stomach for any subsequent touring and live performances and we had to wait until 1983’s “Serious Moonlight” tour to see him on the concert arena again.

“Scary Monster (and Super Creeps)” marks the end of an era on numerous fronts.

He would never record again with his MOR rhythm section who have collectively worked with Bowie since the “Station To Station” tour in 1976. Although Carlos Alomar would work with Bowie again on numerous projects, neither Dennis Davis or George Murray worked with Bowie again.

He would also end his partnership with Tony Visconti. Although Visconti would produce the “Baal” EP in 1981, Visconti would not produce another Bowie studio album for over 20 years, until “Heathen” in 2002. I can’t help thinking many of Bowie’s subsequent albums suffered and really missed the master in the producer’s chair.

Bowie also formally ended his management commitments with his previous manager Tony Defries. After being ripped off by Defries for years, Scary Monsters marked the last album in which Bowie had to make royalty payments to Defries (and a reason why we had to wait until 1983 until his next album). In some ways, this actually helped Bowie in that he wasn’t primarily focused on just making money, knowing the more successful the album, the more Defries benefited. If Bowie recorded an experimental commercial flop, at least it meant Defries also financially suffered. This “constraint” was gone post 1982 and I’m not sure having a more commercial focus helped Bowie in the long run.

Finally, it marked the end of his relationship with his label RCA and so ended Bowie’s so-called “Golden Era” that started way back in 1971 with “Hunky Dory“. Although RCA were always a little questionable in their promotion of Bowie and in their handling of his catalog (the debacle that was the “Bowie Rare” album springs to mind), they at least supported Bowie (more or less) during all his various ch-ch-changes throughout the 70’s. Scary Monsters marks the last studio album with RCA, subsequently signing with EMI for a monster fee to record the subsequent commercial monsters that were Bowie’s 80’s albums. But with big money comes big responsibilities and Bowie struggled to record albums that were artistically satisfying while ensuring EMI got the commercial success such a massive sign-on fee demands. RCA for all their dysfunction at least provided an environment by which Bowie could record albums as diverse and remarkable as “Ziggy Stardust” to “Diamond Dogs” to “Young Americans” to “Low” and finally all the way through to “Scary Monsters”.

“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” would be the standard and the extremely high bar set for which all subsequent Bowie albums would be measured. Although Bowie would sometimes come close (“The Next Day” was close, “1. Outside” was ever closer), it was a standard by which Bowie would never quite reach again.

As much as I love this album, there are still 3 other albums from his RCA era that I rank higher. But that’s a story for another day…

Best Tracks: “Ashes to Ashes“, “Fashion“, “Scream Like a Baby“

12. David Bowie (aka Space Oddity)

“David Bowie” is David Bowie’s 2nd studio album, originally released on 14th November 1969.

In many ways, the David Bowie story almost starts here. Almost.

By 1969, David Bowie had already been in the musical industry for five, very long, long years. But despite releasing numerous singles both with a number a different bands (The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third) and as a solo artist and also releasing his first album “David Bowie” in 1967, all these releases had been commercial flops. He would have had more hot dinners than the number of records Bowie had sold collectively by 1969.

1968 had been the worst year yet, with no official releases at all and with Bowie seriously wondering if a career in music was really for him. Perhaps he would make a more successful Buddhist monk?

His then manager Kenneth Pitt still had enough confidence in his boy to invest in the making of an extended music film/video (released many years later as “Love You Till Tuesday“) that would showcase the musical talents of Bowie and could be used to promote his struggling star to be. Featuring mainly material from his first album “David Bowie“, they decided it needed something new and modern to just spruce it all up a bit.

After watching and being inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece, “A Space Odyssey”, Bowie wrote a new song called “Space Oddity” about a doomed astronaut, Major Tom. The strength of this song along with other demos he recorded around this time was enough for Bowie to be offered a new recording contract with Mercury Records.

Bowie was back in business.

Recorded between June-September 1969, his first album with Mercury Records called somewhat unimaginatively “David Bowie” (as was his previous album) was a really interesting affair. Sounding nothing like his previous Mod, come English Musical Hall numbers, the new album was a bizarre collection of songs that included everything from quaint folk numbers, romantic ballads, hippy anthems, hard rockers to futurist sci-fi art pieces. This was both the strength and weakness of the overall album, in that it features so many different styles and influences, but lacks the focus and single artistic direction of many of Bowie’s very best albums.

Bowie clearly wasn’t too sure of his place or destiny within the musical world (a fault that can be attributed somewhat to his then manager Kenneth Pitt who thought any career in “rock music” would be limited), but Bowie at the time liked The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and so these influences feature heavily in the album.

Recorded by a number of top British session musicians such as Tim Renwick, Rick Wakeman, Terry Cox and Herbie Flowers (and the odd Bowie mate such as Benny Marshall), it was also the first album to be produced by Tony Visconti, his to be long-time collaborator.

The album opens with the iconic “Space Oddity“. This is one of THE Bowie classics and an incredibly important song that features on/off for the rest of Bowie’s entire career. It’s a song that’s worthy of a book on its own, beginning life as mentioned earlier as the centrepiece of the “Love You Till Tuesday” promotional film. Starting with slowly building acoustic guitars and slow military style drum beat, it tells the tale of the doomed flight to the moon by Major Tom, who mysteriously loses contact with Ground Control. The production here is just fantastic, with weird electronic swells and soundscapes thanks to Bowie’s toy Stylophone and Rick Wakeman’s Mellotron, creating a musical atmosphere that still sounds fresh and futurist to this day. The taking off and finale sequences are just amazing, as are Bowie’s vocals as both Major Tom/Ground Control. It’s THE perfect pop song.

Remarkably, Tony Visconti wanted nothing to do with the song, thinking it a piece of commercial/popularist crap that was taking advantage of all the current interest in the upcoming Apollo moon landings. So it was actually Gus Dudgeon who would later make his name producing many of the Elton John classic albums who was drafted in to produce just the “Space Oddity” track. Gus, thank you, you did a superb job, sounding vastly superior to all the others versions and demos that were previously recorded.

“Space Oddity” was initially released as single way before the album on 11 July 1969 and it looked for a while that it would continue the run of commercial flops with minimal initial sales. But then the BBC decided to adopted it as the music for their coverage of the moon landing (clearly not listening too carefully to the lyrics) and it starting its journey up the UK charts, peaking at an impressive No. 5. Bowie, finally at long long last, had his first hit (although it only initially made No. 124 in the US).

The story of “Space Oddity” however was far from over.

In 1970, Bowie won an Ivor Novello “Special Award For Originality” for “Space Oddity”, a notable achievement for the struggling Bowie.

After finally finding true fame and success with Ziggy Stardust, Bowie re-released “Space Oddity” in 1973 especially for the US market and recorded a new video at Trident Studios, directed by the legendary Mick Rock (Bowie’s “official” photographer during this period). “Space Oddity” finally became a US hit, reaching No. 15 on the charts. Watch the official Ziggy Stardust era video here.

In 1975, “Space Oddity” was re-released as a single yet again, this time backed with “Changes” and a superb previously unreleased track from the Ziggy Stardust sessions “Velvet Goldmine“. It reached No. 1 in the UK, giving Bowie his first ever UK No. 1 single and at the time, a record of being the longest period for a single to reached No. 1, some 6 years after it was initially released.

In 1980, a stripped down new version of “Space Oddity” was released as the B-Side of the single “Alabama Song“. Finally, Tony Visconti got to produce a version of “Space Oddity”, some 10 years after rejecting the project. A video of this version was made for the hilarious Kenny Everett Show. Watch it here.

The Major Tom character would feature in a number of subsequent recordings by Bowie, most notably the majestic “Space Oddity” follow-up “Ashes To Ashes” in 1980 (which coincidently would become Bowie’s 2nd No. 1 UK single) and the Pet Shop Boys remixed version of “Hallo Spaceboy” in 1995. Major Tom would also finally feature (it is popularly believed) as the skeletal astronaut remains in the “Blackstar” video from 2015. Say goodbye to Major Tom here.

Bowie would perform “Space Oddity” live throughout his career and would rightly always remain a crowd favourite.

Now onto the rest of the album…

“Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed” is an interesting affair. Said by Bowie at the time to be a reflection of his feelings following the death of his father, the song appears to be about a girl who is of a higher class and standing than Bowie and who’s stare reflects this difference in standing. Featuring for Bowie very upfront and some would say distasteful lyrics, “I’m a Phallus in pigtails, And there’s blood on my nose, And my tissue is rotting, Where the rats chew my bones” just isn’t going to help the protagonist get the girl. The music starts with basically an acoustic guitar, before a basic drum beat and electric guitar riff kicks in, followed by more guitars, harmonica and then the full Tony Visconti big production treatment takes over (with Visconti’s bass very high in the mix), then more horns, then the lot really. It ends up being a raunchy, over-the-top rock-based affair and quite unlike anything Bowie had done before (or since really). By far the “rockiest” track on the album.

“(Don’t Sit Down)” is a 40 second piece of studio foolery, with Bowie singing to a basic rock track “Yeah, yeah, baby, yeah” a few times, followed by “Don’t sit down” a few times before Bowie bursts out in hysteric laughter. This track was dropped from all the subsequent RCA re-issues of the album. Is it in my Top 100 list of great songs? No.

“Letter To Hermione” is the first to two tender love ballads on the album addressed to his ex-girlfriend Hermione Farthingale who had left him just before recording the album. It’s both incredibly beautiful and sad in equal measure and with lyrics such as “And when he’s strong, He’s strong for you, And when you kiss, It’s something new, But did you ever call my name. Just by mistake?“, you can’t but feel Bowie’s pain. This broken relationship had a huge impact on Bowie, later describing love as a “disease” and despite getting married the following year to Angie Barnett, one senses he didn’t find true love again for another 20+ years.

“Cygnet Committee” is the centrepiece on the album, a 10 minute epic on the consequences of blind faith in the new, post hippy world. Bowie plays the weary leader of a cult for which he no longer has the belief or inclination to continue and his angry and frustrating annoyance at those who won’t listen to his rejections. It’s the first time that Bowie sings from the position of “outsider” and for which the lyrics appear intentionally obtuse, ambiguous and open to (much) interpretation. It certainly won’t be the last time fans puzzle on precisely Bowie’s meaning within a lyric. Although it’s a great track, it’s not at the same level of much of his future work, especially musically, which is a little ploddy and pedestrian, when it really should have been epic and climatic. It is however a clear sign of some rather special things to come.

“Janine” is a fairly standard rock song, although a tad more up-lifting than some of the prior content.  It does however contain the lyric “Janine, Janine, you’d like to crash my walls, But if you take an axe to me, You’ll kill another man, Not me at all” which hints at schizophrenia, a topic Bowie would return to again and again in the future.

“An Occasional Dream” returns us back to his woes with Hermione and is another beautiful love song that is more bitter than sweet. “In my madness, I see your face in mine, I keep a photograph, It burns my wall with time“. The 22 year old Bowie never sounded quite as vulnerable as he does at times on this album.

“Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud” is one of the real gems off the album and along with “Space Oddity”, a real highlight and dare I say, early Bowie masterpiece. In reality a basic folky ballad (as evidenced by the “Space Oddity” B-side version, recorded earlier and featuring just acoustic guitar and Arco bass), the version on the album gets the full Visconti huge orchestra production treatment. Telling the story of a young, peaceful mystical boy awaiting execution by hanging from village folk who both fear and misunderstand him, he reluctantly gets rescued by the great mountain of Freecloud, who destroys the village before they can harm him. The imagery, the musical atmosphere, the emotion and vocal delivery is all pure vintage Bowie at his absolute best. This track is the only one other than Space Oddity that Bowie would perform live once he entered his Ziggy Stardust period, as a medley with “Oh You Pretty Things” and “All The Young Dudes“. A Bowie classic in every sense.

“God Knows I’m Good” is a quaint tale set to chirpy acoustic guitars of a little old lady praying she doesn’t get caught shop-lifting a tin of food, only to then pray for forgiveness once she gets caught. Bowie would often touch on religious themes in future work, this being another sign of things to come.

The album closes with the marvellous “Memory Of A Free Festival“, a truly beautiful, somewhat romanticised account of the free musical festival Bowie helped to organise in his home suburb of Beckenham, South London earlier that year. By all accounts Bowie was stressed as hell and had a miserable time, but this song tells how he had hoped the event would had gone. Starting slowly with a simple organ, Bowie’s wonderful vocals recounts how “The children of the summer’s end, Gathered in the dampened grass, We played Our songs and felt the London sky, Resting on our hands, It was God’s land. It was ragged and naive. It was Heaven.” With beautiful imagery, including meetings with passing Venusians (yes, I suspect there was a lot of bliss passed around that day), the song then breaks out into the second half chant “The Sun Machine is coming down, and we’re gonna have a party.” where the band breaks out and backing vocals spreads out the joy of the free festival. It’s another early Bowie treasure. A reworked version was broken into two parts and released as a single the following year, but as with Bowie’s output at the time and like the sun machine itself, sadly sank without a trace.

The original album cover featured a permed, “Dylan-esque” image of Bowie on a background designed by Victor Varasely. The brilliant artwork on the back cover was created by Bowie’s friend George Underwood and features different images and characters from the album.

In the US, the album was re-titled to the much better “Man of Words/Man of Music” while using the same photo of Bowie but on a plain blue background.

The album really is quite excellent that features many Bowie treasures and gave many glimpses of Bowie treasures to come. Sadly and to Bowie’s frustration, despite the relative success of the “Space Oddity” single, the album did poorly and failed to initially chart. Bowie had to wait a further three long, long years before he finally achieved long lasting success with the “Starman” single and “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” album.

It’s at this point, that this album was given a new lease on life. Bowie’s record label at the time, RCA, bought the rights to the album (and the follow-up “The Man Who Sold The World“) and repackaged and re-released them in December 1972, just as Bowie’s fame was really taking off. The album was renamed “Space Oddity“, given a new cover featuring a close-up of our hero in early Ziggy Stardust guise, had some ludicrous notes printed on the back cover and finally achieved the success it deserved, reaching No. 17 in the UK charts. This would be the cover and title used for the next 30 odd years and the one I and many others grew up knowing the album by.

There have been various re-releases and remasterings of the album over the years. The most notable being in 1990 as part of the truly excellent Ryko CD re-release series that included a number of bonus tracks; the single version of “Memory of a Free Festival” Part I and Part II and:

“Conversation Piece“, an absolute gem of a song originally released as the B-side of the single “The Prettiest Star“, the follow-up single to “Space Oddity”. It’s one of my favourite songs from this period, a brooding, quiet piece on the topic of loneliness and isolation. Bowie’s vocals are just exquisite here and you just want to give him a huge hug. Features Marc Bolan on guitar as an added bonus. A re-recorded version of this was done for the abandoned “Toys” project in the early 2000’s which was almost as good.

In 2009, a 40th Anniversary version of the album was released, that featured the original cover, plus a bonus disc that included a bunch of demos and live BBC recordings from this period, as well as “Conversation Piece” and the following notable tracks:

“The Prettiest Star” was the follow-up single to “Space Oddity” and sadly, returned Bowie back to the long line of commercial failures. Which is a real petty because it really is a beautiful love song, that featured his good friend and musical adversary Marc Bolan on lead guitar. This single was the only time I believe they played together until right up to the very end when Bowie appeared on the “Marc Bolan Show” a few short weeks before Bolan’s tragic death. A much more widely known version was recorded and included for the “Aladdin Sane” album, with Mick Ronson playing the Bolan guitar part almost note for note. Both are wonderful, it’s just this version is more special.

A version of “London Bye, Ta Ta” was recorded around this time and kinda takes you back to the weirdness of Bowie’s debut album when it was first written. Based on the difficulties of the black community living in London, it’s a song Bowie has recorded a number of times but never to satisfaction of it being officially released.

“Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola” is an odd affair, the exact backing track to “Space Oddity” but with lyrics changed completely to that a love song and sang entirely in Italian. Strangely, it kinda works but Bowie would sing in a foreign tongue much more effectively on tracks such as “Heroes” and “Seven Years In Tibet” in the years to come. It was first generally available on the 1982 compilation album “Bowie Rare“, his last release with RCA.

At the time of writing, it’s the 50th anniversary of the initial release of the album. To celebrate, a number of exciting new releases are planned (initially in vinyl format) to capture the various demos that were recorded at the time. These are currently:

“Spying Through A Keyhole (Demos and Unreleased Songs) 7″ Singles Vinyl Box Set”

“David Bowie With John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson Clareville Grove Demos 3X7″ Vinyl Singles Box Set”

“The Mercury Demos Vinyl”

I’ll update with more details on these once they’ve all been released.

A rather impressive remixed version of the album (remixed by Tony Visconti) was also released in 2019 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, that brings new life to many of these excellent tracks.

The 1969 “David Bowie” album would prove to be a false start for Bowie, with the “Space Oddity” single doing well, but the album itself yet another commercial failure. For 3 more years, it would appear that Bowie might perhaps be destined to be yet another “one-hit” wonder. That would all finally change in 1972 when an orange-haired, rock ‘n’ roll alien would invade the earth and our TV screens.

But that’s a story for another day.

Best Tracks: “Space Oddity”, “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud”, “Memory Of A Free Festival”