David Bowie: Toy - 2001 (2021)

This was an interesting oddity. Considered Bowie's great "lost album", the tracks were recorded between the Hours... and Heathen albums and were revisits of some of Bowie's "pre-fame" 1964 to 1971 material - before he became the David Bowie everyone knew - re-recorded by his current band. 

It was described as a sort of "Pin Ups but without the hits", and, of course, this time all the tracks were Bowie ones. The album was scheduled for release in March 2001 but ultimately never got issued until its posthumous release in 2021 due to EMI/Virgin's financial problems in 2001. It has remained Bowie's "ghost album" according to Tony Visconti.

Whereas the Pin Ups covers were recorded in a glammy seventies rock style, the songs here are notable because what were (certainly in some cases) somewhat twee sixties jangly pop offerings in their original form are given a new millennium makeover. The overall sound is similar to that presented on the Hours... album, indeed Toy almost acts as a credible follow-up to that release.

Incidentally, there is a lyric on Strangers When We Meet, from the 1. Outside album, that says "no trendy rechauffé", meaning no "rehash". Well, Bowie has given all of these a trendy rechauffé, that's for sure, albeit a successful one, so it was certainly not a hash.

Let's dig everything...

The collection gets off to a fine start with the highly believable solid grinding rock of I Dig Everything, originally a 1966 single. Its muscular sound now sounds like a BritPop offering, no vibes from 1966 are detectable at all. 

There are a few more on the uplifting, poppy sound of the excellent, early Who-like You've Got A Habit Of Leaving, particularly in its big harmony typically sixties chorus. This song was originally a 1965 single and this incarnation of it sounds bloody great. I'm thinking just how good it would have sounded on Pin Ups.

The very sixties vibe of the 1966 'b' side (to Rubber Band) of The London Boys is slowed down and given a warmer, deeper makeover, making it very much like a contender for Hours....It also has a bit of a thirties Germany feel to it, something Bowie liked. 

The hippy-ish Karma Man, from 1967, was always one of Bowie's better "pre-fame" numbers and here it retains most of its original charm, with just a bit more oomph and a more mature vocal from the older, throatier Bowie.

Conversation Piece is a long time favourite of mine, in its original form from the 1969 Space Oddity sessions. Here. Bowie's song about his student days - "living over a grocer's shop owned by an Austrian" - is considerably slowed down here and given a dominant, sweeping, romantic string backing. I like this version, and it has a sensitive appeal, but I still prefer the faster, slightly quirkier original.

The haunting Shadow Man dated from the 1971 Ziggy Stardust sessions. It is a sombre, once more string-backed highly evocative song. It would not have fitted the Ziggy album in any way. Indeed its innate sadness sounded way ahead of its time and very new millennium, actually. Bowie re-recorded it the next year for the Heathen album, in an even more downbeat, mournful sound.

1967's Let Me Sleep Beside You is another of Bowie's superior sixties numbers and its strong backing here makes it even better. 

Hole In The Ground came from the same 1969 sessions as Conversation Piece and it is another that has the feel of a credible 2001-2002-type song. It has a nice deep backing and had Bowie put it on Hours... or Heathen I am sure many would not have realised it was an old song. Check out that lovely bass-line in places too. 

Baby Loves That Way was the 1965 'b' side of You've Got A Habit Of Leaving, recorded by Bowie originally as Davy Jones and The Lower Third. No amount of 2001 upgrading can make it sound like anything other than a sixties song, albeit not a bad one. There's more great bass on this one as well.

Can't Help Thinking About Me was the first single released under the David Bowie name, from 1966. It's another goodie too, with a catchy, rocking chorus and overall good vibe to it. This updated version once again is a convincing one.

Silly Boy Blue was one of the more lightweight numbers from the 1967 David Bowie album, but it is considerably improved upon here, bulking its ambience out and turning it into a mature song, something it never was. It features some nice piano, drums, bass and strings on it as well as a typically sonorous Bowie vocal.

The pleasantly industrial ethereal chug of Toy (Your Turn To Drive) was a new track, one that spontaneously developed during the session spent re-recording I Dig Everything. These two contemporary-sounding tracks bookend this intriguing album perfectly. 

What I like about the songs on here are that Bowie has mostly selected the best of the material from the "early period", and not attempted to re-visit some of the more twee songs that appeared on the David Bowie album. Incidentally some of the "alternative mixes" in the Toy Box Set Deluxe release are even chunkier and more rocking, well worth checking out. These mixes also include In The Heat Of The Morning, an excellent song not included on the original Toy album. I love all of this stuff.

Also included on the extended re-release of Toy but not on the album originally scheduled for issue was Liza Jane, a blues cover released by Davie Jones With The King Bees, in 1964, when Bowie was only 17. The original is actually still pretty good, but this updated cut is magnificently bluesy, full on harmonica, pounding drums and lots of wah-wah guitar. I love it, as indeed I do the whole album.