David Bowie: Rock And Roll Star!
This is the fourth in the series of retrospective box sets that mine the Bowie vaults to keep obsessives happy. Following on as it does from the excellent Hunky Dory release, does it satisfy me as someone who has lived with the Ziggy Stardust album since buying it in late 1972? Well, yes and no. There is some great live material on here (quite a bit of it that was available before on Bowie At The Beeb) plus some excellent rarities from the eventual album's recording sessions that didn't make the cut. There is, however, as on all of these collections, lots of sub-standard (sound-wise) demos that I am simply not going to trawl through, hurting my ears as I do so. What is clear in terms of monitoring Bowie' development is just how comparatively lacking in self-belief at times he still was - intrinsically shy and often unwillingly to put himself forward (witness the Arnold Corns recordings). However, this is balanced by an alter-ego confidence that would gave the world Ziggy Stardust, so there you go.
My cod-psychoanalysis over, let's look at what is on offer.
Look, if I'm honest, I've listened to the grainy, crackly, God-awful sounding demo versions once, out of curious interest. I wonder, do some people listen to this stuff over and over again? Maybe they do, as they do for The Beatles Esher demos on The White album or The Clash's Vanilla Tapes (demos for London Calling) but, for me, trawling through these dreadful-sounding demos from Bowie, The Clash, The Jam, The Beatles or whoever is not even a labour of love. It has me yearning for the real thing - the actual album on which the songs ended up or indeed anything sounding remotely acceptable! Granted, there are a few genuine moments of interest dotted around notably the passage at the end of Soul Love when an oh-so polite and immaculately-enunciating Bowie tells Mick Ronson how he wants some sweet, smooth saxophones to enhance the song. It is a genuinely touching little vignette. Bowie got his wish too, didn't he?
This first CD perks up a little with the admittedly rough and ready but immeasurably superior sounding "Arnold Corns" versions of Moonage Daydream, Hang On To Yourself and the risqué Looking For A Friend (imagine how this song about gay cruising would have changed the Ziggy narrative). It's amazing that the first two tracks were released as Arnold Corns numbers, Bowie still not confident enough to release them under his own name. They are both heavier, chunkier and rockier than their eventual trebly, glammy Ziggy cousins. The latter (Looking For A Friend) is a genuinely interesting rarity. It would have been fine on the album. An even better 2022 mix of the song is found on CD 5 of this collection. Bowie's own (non-Arnold Corns) version is also on CD 5 as part of the Ziggy sessions material. The song has a bit of a feel of The Band about it, for me.
Unfortunately, we now get some lo-fi demo runs - including the saucy Sweet Head (it should never have been left off the album, should it?) - that are interesting but ultimately unsatisfying, sonically.
Let's get some live stuff, shall we? It's time for John Peel and Bob Harris, both presenting Sounds Of The Seventies and Harris doing The Old Grey Whistle Test. I'm sure I already have lots - if not all - of these tracks. Nothing new here, therefore, but compared to all those painful demos it gives us all a kick up our God-given asses. Or does it? Hold on - the first four John Peel show cuts are bloody dreadful. Delete, delete, delete, delete from my playlist. It's funny how some BBC material is excellent but some terrible. I have some from The Rolling Stones and Free that swing from the sublime to the unlistenable. I'm not sure why they were put on here, they spoil the enjoyment. However, the next five tracks from Bob Harris's Sounds Of The Seventies are rough and raw but bassy and solid, giving us a flavour of how Bowie and The Spiders sounded live circa 1972. Ziggy Stardust and Hang On To Yourself are muscular and impressive. Just check out the Velvet Underground cover Waiting For The Man too. It rocks with an edgy proto-punk/new wave menace. As for Five Years - it's wonderful to hear.
Also really top notch are the three Old Grey Whistle Test performances. The sound is great on these, crystal clear. It is also notable how there is still quite a lot of reliance of Hunky Dory material from the previous year. Just how good an addition to Ziggy Stardust would Queen Bitch have been, by the way? I have always felt it suited Ziggy far more than it did Hunky.
The next batch of John Peel show cuts are, thankfully, much better than the previous one. It was amazing just how many sets Bowie was playing on Radio One in those days, wasn't it? Every few months, it seemed. The Ziggy material is beginning to kick in now and we get dog's bollocks renditions of Moonage Daydream, Hang On To Yourself, Suffragette City and Ziggy Stardust. Top drawer. Ziggy on fire. The Spiders were similarly incendiary at this point.
The cuts from the Johnnie Walker lunchtime show are good too - Starman, Space Oddity, Changes and Oh! You Pretty Things. Walker's show was always my favourite on Radio One back then. He helped a lot in developing my taste.
The final batch of Bob Harris radio show numbers contains a really good rendition of Andy Warhol and we also hear my fave Ziggy number Lady Stardust making a welcome first appearance. Once again the sound is exceptional. In the end, it is only those first Peel show numbers that are sub-standard.
A interesting curio is the Top Of The Pops version of Starman (the appearance that got the nation talking). It dates from when artists would play live (or semi-live) on the TV show. Here The Spiders are backed by the full TOTP orchestra's sweeping strings. Bowie with strings. There's an oddity for you.
As seems to be the norm on these collections, it is from the last CD (or two - it is two here, CDs 4 & 5) that I derive the most pleasure - the remastered studio rarities and new mixes. Here we are treated to some absolute gems - Round And Round, the gloriously riffy, chunky 1972 version of The Supermen, Holy Holy (the wonderful Spiders Version), Velvet Goldmine, John I'm Only Dancing, the original single version of Starman (with the louder Morse code bit). Unfortunately it is not the original Sweet Head that is included, that is still only available back on the RYKO or 30th Anniversary releases of Ziggy. Also present on CD 5 is the Bo Diddley meets Buddy Holly uptempo romp of It's Gonna Rain Again, a most rare Ziggy sessions outtake. Indeed all the Ziggy sessions tracks just sound great. A final surprise addition is a chunky, rocking cover of The Who's I Can't Explain, pre-empting the version that would eventually appear on 1973's Pin Ups album. This version is the better one. Oh, and there's an interesting instrumental version of Moonage Daydream featuring strings alongside the recognisable big electric riffs.
A quick look in more detail at these favourite rarities of mine available here -
Round And Round was a cover of Chuck Berry's Around And Around. It was recorded in late 1971 as part of the Ziggy Stardust sessions and was due to be track four on "side one", before Starman replaced it. It is given the full-on Spiders from Mars treatment and features some red-hot guitar from Mick Ronson. Bowie, whose voice was never the most convincing in a straight ahead rock 'n' roll format, copes pretty well with it. It rocks in a full, bassy and muscular fashion.
Holy Holy was originally recorded in 1970 (see the review for The Man Who Sold The World) and in this form it is a very sixties-sounding, early T. Rex-influenced number, driven along mainly by Herbie Flowers' inventive bass, drums and backing vocals with the lead guitar considerably down in the mix and featuring a very typically late sixties Bowie vocal. it sounds in this form a lot like the final, superior material from the stuff that appeared on the Deluxe Edition of David Bowie, once Bowie had started to record some credible songs. It was actually released as a single and duly disappeared without trace. Then there is the summer of 1971 re-recorded Spiders version, which is so much better. It is faster - featuring lots of searing Mick Ronson guitar, pounding rock drums and a stronger vocal from Bowie. I say that, though, and it has me suddenly wondering whether it is the same vocal track. Maybe not. I cannot find any mention that it is, anywhere. In fact, I'm sure it is different. The vocal is slightly deeper, more resonant. Either way, the second recording turns it into a proper early seventies rock song that indeed was initially pencilled in for inclusion on Ziggy Stardust. It would have been better than It Ain't Easy, that was for sure!
Sweet Head was another one from the late 1971 Ziggy sessions this is a risqué rocker with a refrain that is almost punky in its intensity. Ronson's guitar again calls all the shots throughout this excellent track. It would have fitted in fine to the Ziggy album. It is actually the only song apart from Ziggy Stardust that mentions Bowie orange-haired creation by name. It is populated by salacious sexual references - "bob your sweet head..." and "give me sweet head..." as well as the cheeky "while you're down there....". No doubt had I heard this when I first got into Bowie, aged thirteen in 1972, I wouldn't have understood any of this. It is one of these rarities that I feel would really have done the business had it been included on the album it was intended for. It is a quality track that can consider itself unfortunate not to have made the final cut.
Velvet Goldmine was also from those same sessions as Round And Round and Sweet Head and is another truly excellent number that really should have made the album. It is a solid-paced, chunky number with a strong Bowie vocal, quality Ronson guitar, a melodic rumbling bass from Trevor Bolder and a big, clunking Hunky Dory style piano. Its backing vocals are deep and sonorous in a sort of Volga Boatmen style, or maybe like some of those found on The Man Who Sold The World album. It ends with some jaunty whistling and madcap laughing vocals fading away in the background.
Both these tracks would have fitted the 'Ziggy' narrative far better, certainly compared with Soul Love and It Ain't Easy.
Bowie always liked the whole Jacques Brel/Berlin in the 1930s decadent thing and the Brel song Amsterdam is perfect for that - a tale of drunken sailors and prostitutes. Bowie had been playing it live for a few years before he recorded it in the summer of 1971. It is a robust acoustic and evocative torch song and I first met it as the 'b' side of Sorrow in 1973. I found its images and atmosphere truly captivating. It was totally unlike anything I had ever heard from Bowie thus far. I always remember its abrupt ending too. Apparently it was going to be in the It Ain't Easy slot on Ziggy Stardust. I wish it had. For some incomprehensible reason, it isn't included on this set, but I have mentioned it anyway as it was pencilled in for appearance on Ziggy.
John I'm Only Dancing - I loved this single back in 1972 when it came out. I was far too young at thirteen to pick up on the homosexual references, as most were. It passed the BBC censorship (but not in the USA). It became a top twenty hit here. It is a nice mix of a catchy acoustic intro/ongoing riff and some vibrant Spiders rock. I remember being blown away by how great the sound was when my father allowed me to play the single on his stereo. I still love hearing it today. The original single mix dates from July 1972 and is the best one. A subsequent one was re-recorded in January 1973 using saxophone in place of the acoustic guitar riff. It is ok, but not as good as the original, neither is the 1979 remix which seems to tone down the sharpness of the acoustic guitar. For me, the original single version will always be the best - that crystal clear strummed acoustic intro and then the consecutive drumbeats leading into Bowie telling us that "Annie's pretty neat, she always eats her meat...". Hmm. Incidentally, I always used to think it was "Eileen's pretty neat...". Whatever, the song would have suited the Ziggy album's nascent decadence, I think.
The Ziggy session cut of The Supermen doesn't have the big, rolling, tympani-style drums of the Man Who Sold the World album original nor the sonorous backing vocals. Neither is Bowie's vocal anywhere near so mannered or theatrically high-pitched. This alternate version is pretty Ziggy in many ways, featuring gentle acoustic verses and a far more melodic, tender vocal from Bowie before a big Mick Ronson guitar interjection leads into a robust, solid, riffy chorus. It is very Spiders in its instrumentation and indeed, this is the version Bowie would subsequently play live. Which do I prefer? Both have good points, but if I had to make a choice at gun-point, it would always be this rocky alternate version.
It is worth remembering that the initial track listing for the Ziggy album was - Side One - Five Years/Soul Love/Moonage Daydream/Round And Round/Amsterdam Side Two - Hang On To Yourself/Ziggy Stardust/Velvet Goldmine/Holy Holy/Star/Lady Stardust. How would the world have received that, I wonder? Certainly Amsterdam would have been as superfluous as It Ain't Easy was. There was no Rock And Roll Suicide to conclude either but I love the alternative album closer Lady Stardust in its more soulful mode, I have to say. Personally, I would have taken out Soul Love (despite seriously loving it) and It Ain't Easy and found places for the beguiling Velvet Goldmine, the naughty Sweet Head and Holy Holy. Such debates are timeless, though, aren't they? We all do it, and for many albums. Collections such as this spark them up again. Would you have put the soul vibe of Shadow Man on Ziggy? We are starting to look at a different album.
Despite all the riches on offer here - and there is a bucketload of them - one thing is certain - you still can't beat the original album. To be played at maximum volume.
Check out my Ziggy Stardust review here.
