DAVID BOWIE SOMETHING IN THE AIR VINYL FULL

‘All The Madmen’ from The Man Who Sold The WorldĮntering his curly-haired Dylan-esque folk rocker phase, Bowie’s theatrical narratives hit a new high with ‘Space Oddity’. Still unreleased (officially at least) ‘Little Boy Soldier’ is an early example of Bowie’s unusual blend of influences, styles, outrageous magpie tendencies and, in the end process, something truly memorable and original. The verses emulated Newley, the choruses Velvets frontman Lou Reed. That said, Bowie was also smitten enough by an early acetate of The Velvet Underground & Nico album that his manager Ken Pitt had brought back from New York) to steal lyrics ( taste the whip in love not given lightly) from that record’s daring S&M anthem ‘Venus In Furs’ for his own ‘Little Toy Soldier’, another tale of everyday whipping. ‘Little Toy Solider’ from Little Toy Soldierīy 1966, the man born David Jones had already sped through uninspiring R&B and mod-pop phases, and chosen a new sound for his newly adopted surname – a pop hybrid influenced by early British psychedelia, but also more old-fashioned British musicals, from theatrical vignettes to actor/singer Antony Newley, who (like the emerging Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd) sang in a distinct British accent instead of aping the Yanks. And apologies too for concentrating on the first half of his career: but that’s where the real gold lies. In reality, Bowie in Ten Records is an impossibility almost an oxymoron.

So on the occasion of his birthday, it seems timely to review many of them – though ten records only seems like scratching the surface just as his most obvious milestones neglects the lesser-decorated achievements that demand equal attention.

DAVID BOWIE SOMETHING IN THE AIR VINYL FULL

46 years on, it’s partly why he occupies an unparalleled position in contemporary culture that, and his astonishing, compelling, rich command of sound and vision.Įven after the overwhelming newsprint that documented Bowie’s death, and in the end-of-2016 reports that again eulogised Bowie, documenting the shock of discovering his ailment and demise, the focus was on Blackstar, but not the full extent of the incredible zigs and zags that Bowie’s music and lyrics took over the 50 years-plus he was recording. Risk-taking and restlessness became dominant parts of his DNA.

And while he was at it, he was publicly courting the nascent gay market, before any other artist, musical or otherwise. In the photo, Bowie looked imperious (far more so than Burretti, clearly a star in his own mind even though he’d only had the one hit (Top Ten single ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969), and he’d lost that particular record deal (already his second).īut he’d secured another, and set off on another musical course, the latest of his ch-ch-ch-changes (as the chorus of his 1971 single ‘Changes’ would have it). The problem was, ‘Rudi’ couldn’t sing, and in any case, Bowie became too occupied by his own launch as the next Jagger, namely Ziggy Stardust, just as Arnold Corns made way for The Spiders From Mars. Bowie called Burretti “the leader of the whole gay scene… the next Mick Jagger” – Bowie had decided his chum – re-christened Rudi Valentino – would front a new band project, Arnold Corns (in tribute to Pink Floyd’s cross-dressing anti-hero Arnold Layne), singing Bowie’s songs. The photo in question was on the cover of a 1970 edition of Curious, ‘The sex education magazine for men and women’ as the banner read, in a time even before Gay Lib had got underway in the UK. A year on, I still haven’t got around, or had the heart, to change it, as if I was finally over it: the shock has subsided but not the Bowie-shaped hole in my life, or in culture. Since David Bowie’s death on January 10th 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 26th album Blackstar, my Facebook avatar has been a photograph of him, taken in 1970, standing alongside his then protégé, costume designer and rock-star wannabe Freddie Burretti.

Martin Aston reflects on the incredible zigs and zags that Bowie’s music took over the 50 years-plus he was recording.

David bowie something in the air vinyl