Category Archives: David Bowie

David Bowie’s first single.

So many people think that “Space Oddity” was David Bowie’s first single, but he recorded several songs prior to the release of ‘Space Oddity’. The first song he released was “Liza Jane” in 1965 .However, he did not release that as David Bowie, but as “Davie Jones with the Kong Bees”

The first song as David Bowie was “Can’t help thinking of me” which was released on January 14,1966. He had changed his name to David Bowie. Not happy with with Davie aka Davy Jones, which in the mid-1960s caused confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, he took on the stage name David Bowie after the 19th-century American pioneer James Bowie and the knife he had popularized.

“Can’t Help Thinking About Me” flopped as a single like Bowie’s previous releases, but peaked at number 34 on the Melody Maker chart after chart-rigging by his manager Ralph Horton. Disputes with Horton led to Bowie’s departure from Bowie’s band “the Lower Third” two weeks after its release. In March 1966, Bowie performed the song on the ATV programme Ready Steady Go! with the Buzz. Two months later, it was issued in the United States by Warner Bros. Records, becoming Bowie’s first US release. The original recording later appeared on the compilation albums Early On (1964–1966) (1991) and Nothing Has Changed (2014).

source

https://bestclassicbands.com/david-jones-david-bowie-1-14-166/

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

Since we are currently in Advent time, I reckon it’s safe to start talking about Christmas again.

My all-time favourite Christmas song is Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. my all-time favourite Christmas song. It’s hard to believe that they recorded it 45 years ago. It’s not just a song about the yuletide festivities and presents and the birth of Christ, but it is foremost a song of hope for a peaceful planet.

The duet was one of Crosby’s final recordings before his death in October 1977.

Following the special’s broadcast during the 1977 holiday season, “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” went unavailable for many years. It was eventually released as a single by RCA Records in November 1982 and was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart. It was Crosby’s final popular hit. It became one of the best-selling singles of Bowie’s career, with total estimated sales of over 400,000 in the UK alone. The song has since become a Christmas classic in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and has been referred to by The Washington Post as “one of the most successful duets in Christmas music history.”

“Peace on Earth, can it be? Years from now, perhaps we’ll see. I pray my wish will come true. For my child and your child too.”

He’ll see the day of glory. See the day when men of goodwill
Live in peace, live in peace again.”

David Bowie talks about his six-year-old son. That, of course, is Duncan Jones, director of movies like Moon, Source Code, Warcraft and Mute.

sources

https://musikguru.de/bing-crosby-david-bowie/songtext-peace-on-earth-little-drummer-boy-1052778.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth/Little_Drummer_Boy

The lesser known David Bowie songs

Who doesn’t know David Bowie? I don’t think there is anyone on the planet who hasn’t heard of David Bowie. Even the younger generations know his music.

However there are very few who know about David Bowie’s earliest works. Some might think that ‘Space Oddity may have been his first venture in to the world of popular music , or maybe that his carnation as Ziggy Stardust was his first musical outing. But David Bowie was active in music since he was 15, although at the beginning he used his own name of David Jones or sometimes Davy Jones. In fact his first single was with the band the King Bees or to be precise ‘Davy Jones and the King Bees’ the single was called ‘Liza Jane’

The fact there was already another Davy Jones who was the lead singer with the Monkees, to avoid confusion young David Jones took on the stage name David Bowie after the 19th-century American pioneer James Bowie and the knife he had popularised.

He then joined a band called “The lower Third” they did do some covers but also had original songs, written and composed by David Bowie.

The band were invited to play a session at the BBC, but the sessions were never broadcast. The producers the songs weren’t great and that the singer was at best mediocre. This probably is one of the biggest musical mistakes ever made by the BBC.

Not happy with how the things were going David Bowie decided to go solo and produced one of the most bizarre songs ever called ‘The laughing Gnome’

Thank God he soon changed direction again with “Space Oddity” . The rest is as the say history.

Blackstar- Elvis and David Bowie

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January 8 is a significant date in music history. On this day 3 musical legends and Icons were born.

I wont’t go too much into their lives because there is very little I can add.

Aside from being tow extraordinary artists , there is another connection to these 2 musical giants.

In 1960 Elvis released a country and western style song called “Black Star” and it was to be used in a  Western. However the song title was changed to Flaming Star. It is not clear to me why it was changed.

Like most children of the 1950s and indeed later decades , David Bowie considered Elvis a mythical figure. The two men  who would go on to share a record label, RCA, in the 1970s, also happened to be born on the same day. “I couldn’t believe it,” David  Bowie said. “He was a major hero of mine. And I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something”

On January 8 2016, on David Bowie’s 69th Birthday and 2 days before his death he released his last album, and I nearly would day his best album, titled Black Star.

The title of that album was aed back to Elvis. by the philosopher Simon Critchley, whose book “Bowie” was released in 2014,  He pointed to the rare Elvis song “Black Star,”

Maybe it was David Bowie’s tribute to Elvis.

These are the lyrics of the Elvis song. They are very poignant.

Every man has a black star
A black star over his shoulder
And when a man sees his black star
He knows his time, his time has come

Black star don’t shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There’s a lot of livin’ I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star

David Bowie’s Blackstar sounds completely different of course

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Sources

YouTube

Mew York Times