David Bowie - Love You Til Tuesday (1984)

(U.K 1962–2016)
.

On January 10th, the world mourned the loss of music innovator David Bowie, who lost the battle to liver cancer at the age of 69. Born and raised in Brixton, South London as David ("Davie") Jones, he changed his name to Bowie early in his career to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. From singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter and actor, Bowie was a trailblazing figure in pop culture for over four decades, and a pioneer of glam rock in the 1970s.

Bowie had been struggling for years to achieve some semblance of commercial and artistic success as a musician, a journey that included stints as a blues-singer for mod-rock groups such as The King Bees and The Mannish Boys, a campy dance-hall dandy with a taste for Anthony Newley, and a Dylan-esque folksinger. While all of these musical incarnations failed miserably, it was, strangely enough, Bowie's participation in an avant-garde mime troupe that put him on the pathway to the kind of success he so badly craved. In 1968, now a solo mime artist, Bowie opened a show for Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex, and in the process, ended up crossing paths with Bolan's producer Tony Visconti.

Bowie in early 60's

Visconti's account of their initial meeting: "I met David about a month after Marc [Bolan] and I remember the weather. It was a nice day, I was in David Platz’s office at 68 Oxford Street and he played me Bowie’s first Deram album, saying, 'What do you think of this kid?' I said, he’s all over the map.' You know that album, 'Uncle Arthur,' 'Mr Gravedigger' and so on, crazy songs, 'Laughing Gnome'? I said, he’s great but so unfocused.' And he said, 'Come and meet him, he’s in the next room.' David was about 19 at the time, very nervous sitting there. He knew he was going to meet me, it had all been set up, and David Platz left us after five minutes. We got on very well, we shared a love of Andy Warhol, underground music, a group called The Fugs, which few British people were aware of. He was obviously in love with American music and I loved him, he was a singer songwriter, had this great English accent and now we were going to work together. So we took a long walk down Oxford Street, on this nice day, we continued to talk the whole day and about three hours later ended up on King’s Road near a film theatre where Roman Polanski’s Knife In The Water was playing. We’d been talking about foreign films and Truffaut, specifically black and white and scratchy films, so we went in there and we said goodbye at about 7 in the evening. We’d struck up a great friendship."

To say this was a fortuitous encounter would be a vast understatement because Visconti proved to be instrumental in shaping the careers of both Bolan and Bowie, as well as helping to foster the birth of the glam-rock movement that would make them both superstars by 1972. At the time of their meeting in 1968, Bowie had managed to record an album for Deram the previous year, but it had failed to chart. As Visconti noted when he first heard the LP, David Bowie is an unfocused pastiche of an album, touching on dance hall numbers, show tunes, British invasion and even novelty songs. What was conspicuously absent was any significant reference to rock music, a much better forum for Bowie's growing avant-garde inclinations. This and the inconsistent songwriting all but sealed its fate with the public. As a result, his days at the label were numbered, and he was unceremoniously dropped in early 1968. However, just before his exit from Deram, Bowie had composed and recorded "Space Oddity," a song destined to eventually bring him his first taste of commercial success, and he had collaborated on a song with Visconti, "Let Me Sleep Beside You," which is arguably his first successful attempt at writing a rock song and a harbinger of what was to come next. Bowie had written a good deal of new material by the time he entered the studio again in 1969, this time on the dime of Mercury Records, to record his second album, now with Visconti as his producer. Among the songs to be recorded was a new version of "Space Oddity," which was obviously influenced by the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the impending Apollo 11 moon landing. Bowie had originally written and recorded the song for a promotional film for Deram called 'Love You Till Tuesday', which ended up staying in the can until 1984, when it was eventually released on vinyl by Deram, and then Pickwick on CD in 1992.

"Space Oddity" was his his first Top-5 UK hit in the late '60s. Released as a single in July 1969, the title and subject matter were inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and introduced the character of Major Tom. The United States' Apollo 11 mission would launch five days later, and would become the first manned moon landing another five days later. Written by Bowie for his promotional film 'Love You Till Tuesday', a longer re-recorded version of the song was included as the opening song for the 1969 album David Bowie (released that November). Upon its re-release as a single in 1973, the song reached #15 on the Billboard chart and became Bowie's first hit single in the US. Still one of his best-known songs, "Space Oddity" was a largely acoustic number augmented by the eerie tones of the Stylophone, a pocket electronic organ played by Bowie.
.
This post consists of MP3's ripped from CD and features artwork for both the Deram Vinyl release and my Pickwick CD release.  I've also taken the liberty of including as a bonus track, the original Demo release of Space Oddity, which is nearly 1min shorter than the 1969 album release.
Although I grew up listening to Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust glam era it is interesting to hear his earlier works and gives one a full appreciation of  Bowie's musical talent and the legacy that he has left behind.
Goodbye Major Tom.......The stars are very different today without you.

Track Listing 
01 Space Oddity (Original LP Release)
02 Love You Til Tuesday
03 When I'm Five
04 Ching-A-Ling
05 The Laughing Gnome
06 Rubber Band
07 Sell Me A Coat
08 Liza Jane
09 When I Live My Dream
10 Let Me Sleep Beside You
11 The London Boys
12 Space Oddity (Bonus Original Demo)


Musicians:
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Derek Boyes: organ
Dek Fearnley: bass
John Eager: drums


David Bowie Link (89Mb) New Link 23/12/21

David Bowie - Unauthorised Live (Vol 1) Ex. Bootleg

(U.K 1964-Present)
.
Born David Robert Jones in 1947 in South London, David Bowie was playing sax on a semi-professional basis by 1963, while working for a London ad agency. In the same year he formed his own group, Davy Jones & the Lower Third, who released a couple of obscure and now very valuable R&B flavoured singles in the mid-Sixties.
In 1966, after signing to Pye he changed his surname to Bowie to prevent confusion with David Jones of the Monkees. Around this time he worked with Lindsay Kemp's mime troupe picking up many of the theatrical techniques that were to later become integral to his work.

After a handful of disappointing singles with Pye he moved to Decca, where he released quirky pop hits "Rubber Band" and "The Laughing Gnome" before "Space Oddity" became a Top 5 hit in 1969. Although a melodic tune, its success could be attributed to Bowie's uncanny knack of tapping into the spirit of the times: the single roughly coincided with the first man to land on the moon. The accompanying album, 'Man Of Words, Man Of Music' (1969) was retitled to cash in on the single's success.

Bowie's second album, 'The Man Who Sold The World', a much heavier, more compelling work, was released a year later. He had, by now, assembled a more permanent band comprised of Mick Ronson guitar (pictured right), Trevor Bolder bass (later to join Uriah Heep) and Woody Wood-Mansey drums. In 1971, this line-up released the critically acclaimed 'Hunky Dory', but the following year saw Bowie's real breakthrough when 'The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars', became his first million-seller in the UK and - later - the US. A highly theatrical stage show and outlandish costumes meant that Bowie began to rival Marc Bolan as ruler of the glam-rock roost. Bowie was rarely out of the charts for the next eight years or so, and had his first hit single since "Space Oddity" with "Starman" (1972). He was in demand as a producer and songwriter, performing these duties on Lou Reed's Transformer' and Mott the Hoople's 'All The Young Dudes' respectively.
.
.
After the massive success of 'Ziggy', 'Aladdin Sane' (1973) was inevitably something of an anti-climax. 'Pin Ups' (1973) was however, a genuine disappointment; a scrappy collection of cover versions, it preceded Bowie's decision to stop working with the Spiders. Instead, he regrouped with new musicians to record 'Diamond Dogs' (1974), a doom-laden concept album based on George Orwell's novel 1984. In the summer of 1974, Bowie returned to live performance with a lavish US tour, later commemorated on the million-selling live album 'David Live' (1974).
.
.
As the tour progressed, Bowie started to move toward the more soul-funk orientated sound of his next album 'Young Americans' (1975), which provided two massive hits in the shape of the title track and "Fame" (co-written with John Lennon).
'Station To Station' (1976) was Bowie's masterpiece, an astute collection of anguished ballads and aloof, crystalline funk. It was accompanied by a stunning tour, and despite the ill advised 'jocular' Nazi salute to fans on his arrival at Victoria station in London, Bowie's standing was maintained by an excellent performance in Nic Roeg's film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.

After 1976's excesses Bowie decamped to Berlin, where with ex-Roxy Music synth player Brian Eno, he fashioned a trilogy of innovative albums: 'Low' (1977), 'Heroes' (1977) and 'Lodger' (1979).
The title track of 'Heroes' was one of his most romantic songs and was a worldwide hit single and 'Lodger' spawned the UK Top 10 single "Boys Keep Swinging".
Little was heard from Bowie for the next year or so, until "Ashes To Ashes" (1980) became his first UK Number 1 single since the 1975 re-release of 'Space Oddity'.
This was followed a few months later by his last great album, 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)', which spawned more hit singles in the title track "Fashion" and "Up The Hill Backwards". At the same time, he made an acclaimed appearance in the New York production of the play The Elephant Man.

A lengthy sabbatical followed: aside from a collaboration with Queen on the chart-topping single "Under Pressure", Bowie's only new recorded work was the 'Baal' EP, a collection of songs which coincided with his performance in Brecht's play.

A new single in 1983 "Let's Dance", produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers, topped the UK and US charts, as did the 'Lef s Dance' album which followed in its wake. Two further singles, "Modern Love", and a cover of Iggy Pop's "China Girl", were culled from the album and went to the Top 5 in the US and UK. Bowie also starred in Oshima's film 'Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence' and embarked on the triumphant Serious Moonlight tour, playing to over two million people.
Unfortunately, thereafter, Bowie's fortunes declined. "Blue Jean" was another Top 5 single, but the album which followed, 'Tonight' (1984) lacked the commercial impact of 'Let's Dance'. After a part in the disastrous musical Absolute Beginners Bowie released a new album, 'Never Let Me Down' (1987), to coincide with the hugely ambitious Glass Spider tour. Both were dismissed by the critics.

Characteristically, Bowie switched direction after this debacle and put together a back-to-basics rock band in which he was just another member, alongside ex-Iggy Pop alumni Hunt and Tony Sales and lead guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Known as Tin Machine the band's self-titled debut album (1989) was well received and reached the UK Top 5. Later Tin Machine releases fared less well.
EMI released his comprehensive hits, 'Changes Bowie' (1990), while Bowie himself announced Sound & Vision, a tour which would see him perform all his old favourites for the very last time to large crowds of appreciative fans of all ages. Since then, Bowie appeared only occasionally (he married Somali model Iman in 1992), although a new solo album 'Black Tie White Noise' was released in 1993, to some critical acclaim.

During his peak in the Seventies, Bowie was a hugely influential artist: his restless spirit, sexual ambivalence, effortless cool and unwillingness to settle into one image or style of music inspired thousands of younger musicians [extract from The Ultimate Encyclopedia of ROCK - ed. Michael Heatley, Carlton Books. 1994, p184-185]
.
Bootleg Review
Based on the track listing of this Australian bootleg, it is more than likely that it consists of recordings made by Bowie for the BBC over a five year period (1967-1972).
There are several other bootlegs floating around with the same track listing - namely 'White Light / White Heat' (1990), 'Bowie At The Beeb' (1989) and an extremely rare 'Original BBC Transcription' triple LP set, 3 sides comprising the program "Bowie at the Beeb" and 3 sides with "Marc Bolan at the Beeb." Each program runs for nearly an hour and is filled with unreleased live gems and interview segments recorded for various BBC radio programs from 1967 through 1972. These were authentic BBC-produced ultra high quality discs, made in extremely limited quantities in 1988--perhaps only 50 sets--and sent to UK and Commonwealth radio stations, which generally played them only once.

More recently, there has been an official 3CD release of Bowie material, entitled 'Bowie At The Beeb' (Best of the BBC Radio Sessions 68-72) and is still available from Amazon.

During the years 1967-1972, David Bowie recorded 12 sessions or shows for BBC radio, largely for promotional purpose. When in mid-1972 he had achieved stardom, the need to do these radio performances had disappeared and Bowie did not return until 1991 with Tin Machine. Their has been some confusion surrounding the BBC sessions from the 70s. More or less starting with the bootleg Ziggy 1 - My Radio Sweetheart, tracks from arbitrary sessions were fragmentarily released on LPs and tapes - BBC Show May '72 (Avenue Records SRL BN 2378) for instance features tracks from several 1972 sessions and not from one single show. Up until the mid 90s, several sessions, like the 21-09-71 Bob Harris session, still were a complete mystery.

Some of the confusion was clarified when on 14-02-87 the BBC broadcast "Bowie At The Beeb", featuring tracks from sessions between 1967-1972.
For an accurate listing of Bowie's BBC recordings, see the following: bowiewonderworld, illustrateddbdiscography and bowieatthebeeb
.
Now I've always believed that when you see " Live At The BBC " it doesn't really mean it's really 'live' if you've ever heard BBC radio presenters like John " that was quite tasty " Peel or any others you'll know that they say " and we have [musician's name] here live in the studio." It's in a studio and it will never give you a live feel for the songs. It's just BBC engineers working on Bowie's songs and in return you could, I suppose, think of them as session outtakes from his album.

This post consists of a mp3 rip (320kps) taken from CD and includes full album artwork, along with the covers for the alternative bootleg releases. The quality of the recordings are quite exceptional and probably match those of the recent official release.
Note: Even though this bootleg is entitled as Vol 1 there was never a Vol 2. released by the Mojo label for David Bowie.
.
Track Listing
01 - White Light /White Heat #2
02 - Let Me Sleep Beside You
03 - Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed
04 - Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
05 - Bombers
06 - Almost Grown
07 - Kooks
08 - The Supermen
09 - Ziggy Stardust #1
10 - Five Years #1
11 - Starman #3
12 - Rock'n'Roll Suicide #4
13 - Hang On To Yourself #2
14 - Waiting For The Man #1

A majority of the tracks on the bootleg came from the following Ziggy Stardust-era tracks and their BBC sessions. The remainder were from earlier recordings in 1969-1970
#1 David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars, Sounds of the 70's, January 18, 1972
#2 David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars, Sound of the 70's: John Peel, May 16, 1972
#3 David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars, Johnnie Walker Lunchtime Show, May 22, 1972
#4 David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars, Sounds of the 70's: Bob Harris, May 23, 1972
.
Musicians:
David Bowie (vocals, guitar, keyboard)
Mick Ronson (guitar, vocals)
Trevor Bolder (bass)
Mick Woodmansey (drums)
Mark Carr Pritchett (rhythm guitar)
George Underwood (vocals)
Dana Gillespie (vocals)
Geoffrey Alexander (vocals) 
;.
Bowie Link (94Mb) New Link  27/02/2024