The David Bowie works

In this thread I will go through the works of David Bowie; for me one of the greatest artists in rock music, even it it should be no secret that I regard his 1970's optput higher than most of the other albums. I will focus mostly on albums, from his 1967 self titled debut to Blackstar. When I find it relevant, I will go through some non-album singles, but I can not promise to talk about all of them.

So let's begin. I decided to start with the 1964 to 1967 singles. In this period he released a handful of singles, first with different (backing) bands, The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third, and later as a solo artist. In general, few of these, if any, really indicate that David Bowie was to become one of the most important artists in rock music.

The first is "Liza Jane", released in 1964 by the then 17 year singer - who had not yet decided on the artist name Bowie - along with his then band The King Bees. The song is written by the record producer Leslie Conn and is in the genre of British rhythm and blues. It's well executed, but hardly outstanding among other more prominent artists in that area (e.g. the Yardbirds). It is however interesting to hear him with a r&b vocal performance.

The second, "I Pity the Fool" (1965), recorded with The Manish Boys, is a cover version of the Bobby Bland song and finds him sounding remarkably like Eric Burdon from the Animals in the chords, but in the chorus it's easy to recognize his voice (listen for instance to his trademark vibrato). The sound is raw and unpolished and not without musical intensity.

"You've Got a Habit of Leaving" (1965, with The Lower Third) is self-penned and produced by Shel Talmy (known from early Kinks and Who singles) which is easy to hear in the production. Sadly the vocals are very weak, and the song does not hang together well. I sense an inspiration from Pete Townshend, but unlike in the best Who works there is an unclear formal structure, for instance the verse sounds more like a pre-chorus. I would however like to praise the production.

"Can't Help Thinking About Me" (1966) is the first song released under the name of David Bowie (again with The Lower Third), and while it is far from being a masterpiece, there's a hint at his later idiosynchracies. Just take the song title. Musically it's more daring, especially as different harmonic patterns clash, and we get quite around the circle of fifths. Sadly it's also rather disjointed, for instance, sometimes the melody ends on a note that doesn't fit with the chords. Production-wise I sense some folk inspiration.

"Do Anything You Say" (1966) is the first to be credited only to David Bowie, despite the presence of his then backing band The Buzz. It sounds more American, for instance with a Motown-like drumbeat and call and response vocals. Sadly, the melody is very insecure and unfocused, and the backing vocals are weak - and off-key at several points.

"I Dig Everything" (1966) continues in the same vain (Motown-inspiration), but the melody is even weaker. It resembles The Temptation's "My Girl". Vocally he doesn't sound like he really cares.

"The Laughing Gnome" (1967) is quite a change of pace. It's basically a novely song with the high-pitched "gnome" voice recorded at half-speed. The intro sounds remarkably like "Puppet on a String". Musically the song is much more focused than the previous songs, for instance with quite a strong chorus. There are also some lyrical jokes, f.e. "Where do you come from? Gnome-man's land"). In the long run, the gnome voice becomes tiring, but the song is not without charm, and it would go well as a children's song. While making no impact in 1967, it later became a British hit in 1973 after his breakthrough with Ziggy Stardust, much to Bowie's own annoyance.

All in all recordings of mixed quality, and few things really make them stand out from most music of the time.