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The latest release in our “Heard Them Here First” series traces the career of David Bowie via songs he recorded by other writers. Presented in the (approximate) sequence he recorded his interpretations, the collection kicks off with Paul Revere & the Raiders’ original version of ‘Louie - Go Home’, as covered by the 17 year-old Bowie as leader of Davie Jones & the King Bees in 1964, and concludes with ‘I Took A Trip (On A Gemini Spaceship)’ by maverick Texan “outsider” musician the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a song Bowie included on his 2002 album “Heathen”.
While promoting “Heathen”, Bowie recalled that he had been introduced to the Stardust Cowboy’s work when they were with the same record company: “[They] gave me a stack of singles by this guy and I thought they were unbelievably atrocious, but in that wonderful way that you couldn’t stop listening to them, they were so awful.” There are no prizes for guessing from whom Ziggy’s surname was borrowed.
Just days after putting Ziggy into retirement, Bowie began recording “Pin Ups”, an album of his favourite songs from the 60s, represented here with the Kinks’ ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’, the Pretty Things’ ‘Rosalyn’, the Mojos’ ‘Everything’s Alright’, the Merseys’ ‘Sorrow’ and ‘Friday On My Mind’ by Australian combo the Easybeats. “These are songs which really meant a lot to me then - they’re all very dear to me,” Bowie recalled. “They’re all bands which I used to go and hear play down the Marquee between 1964 and 1967. Each one meant something to me. It’s my London of the time.”
As one might anticipate from the chameleon-like Bowie, the featured songs come from a diverse assortment of musical genres and eras: from Lotte Lenya & the Three Admirals’ 1930 recording of Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill’s ‘Alabama Song’ to Frank Black and the Pixies’ spiky ‘Cactus’ from their 1988 album “Surfer Rosa”. Other unlikely bedfellows - Johnny Mathis and Iggy Pop, Bobby Bland and the Velvet Underground, Jacques Brel and Chuck Berry, Martha & the Vandellas and Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers - make for a strikingly wide-ranging programme.
The booklet features notes by Ian Johnston, who also wrote the notes for our recent “The New York Dolls Heard Them Here First” and “The Ramones Heard Them Here First” collections.
track listing
1.LOUIE - GO HOME - Paul Revere & The Raiders
2.I PITY THE FOOL - Bobby Bland
3.FILL YOUR HEART - Biff Rose
4.IT AIN'T EASY - Ron Davies
5.WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT - The Velvet Underground
6.EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT - The Mojos
7.FRIDAY ON MY MIND - The Easybeats
8.ROSALYN - The Pretty Things
9.SORROW - The Merseys
10.WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE - The Kinks
11.AROUND AND AROUND - Chuck Berry
12.KNOCK ON WOOD - Eddie Floyd
13.AMSTERDAM - Jacques Brel
14.WILD IS THE WIND - Johnny Mathis
15.ALABAMA SONG - Lotte Lenya & The Three Admirals
16.KINGDOM COME - Tom Verlaine
17.CRIMINAL WORLD - Metro
18.DON'T LOOK DOWN - Iggy Pop
19.DANCING IN THE STREET - Martha & The Vandellas
20.IF THERE IS SOMETHING - Roxy Music
21.NITE FLIGHTS - The Walker Brothers
22.CACTUS - Pixies
23.PABLO PICASSO - The Modern Lovers
24.I TOOK A TRIP (ON A GEMINI SPACESHIP) - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
