“I was still just a kid, When my innocence was lost”*
Announcing the April edition of SHiNDiG! a couple of days ago, we listed the tracks which Martin Ruddock imagined may have become Bowie’s aborted second album for Deram, and we promised an alternative listing proposed by an expert on early David Bowie recordings.
Though he probably wouldn’t claim it himself, Tris Penna is that more than qualified expert, as confirmed by the BBC last month when they awarded him Best Music Production for Exploring Life on Mars, last year’s superb BBC Radio 2 documentary for which he was credited Presenter/Writer & Co-producer.
Among many other qualifying contributions, Tris also oversaw UMC’s comprehensive 2010 Deluxe Edition release of the first David Bowie Deram album. He knows his stuff.
Anyway, he kindly agreed to have a stab at the same task that Mr Ruddock bravely tackled. And so, without further ado, over to you, Tris...
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Occasional Dreaming
1968 was the year of revolution, where the unbridled happy partying of 1967 morphed into a sour and angry hangover. For Bowie, 1968 was when his interest in theatrical stage performance solidified, with Lindsay Kemp's 'Pierrot in Turquoise', solo mime performances, a minor role in a TV drama, an attempt at cabaret and a multi-media trio - Turquoise/Feathers - featuring an early muse Hermione Farthingale.
Any second album with Deram would surely have reflected all this - and not for the first time, and with the lack of a hit single under his belt, DB would’ve turned to songs by others, songs that fitted snuggly into his cannon, songs that he could make his own. In 1968 Deram issued a concept album in a whacky gatefold sleeve by Lionel Bart 'Isn’t This Where We Came In?' - which is full of angularity, humour and English whimsy. At the same time Tony Visconti was working with The Move in 1968 adding orchestral wit to their narrative pop nuggets. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility to imagine a second DB Deram album to be Bart meets The Move - all with the wry, dystopian, yearning Bowie singing about unattainable love with Brechtian detachment….
Occasional Dreaming - album scheduled for November 1968 release (briefly listed in the September 1968 'Forthcoming Releases from Decca' dealer sheets) Produced by Tony Visconti. Deram SML 1027 (stereo). DML 1027 (mono).
Side One:
01 ~ Let Me Sleep Beside You - (a 'test mix' by Visconti from late 1967 is totally acoustic/orchestral - and not at all 'rock' and a great seductive album opener)
02 ~ A Social Kind of Girl (68 rewrite of 1967’s Summer Kind Of Girl - demos exist for both versions)
03 ~ The Gospel According To Tony Day Blues (the song was originally registered with this title) The 1967 studio session for this track contains several variants of the 'character role call' and it has a sardonic Brel/theatrical feel to it. Given that DB returned to songs frequently at this time, honing and improving them (Silly Boy Blue/Love You Till Tuesday/In The Heat of the Morning et al) - it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that this song would be revisited...
04 ~ Life’s a Circus (Bunn/Mackie) performed by DB in his cabaret act and by Feathers in 1968
05 ~ When I’m Five - written in 1968, performed by DB as late as 1969
06 ~ C’est La Vie - DB original that he demoed many times - the last demo probably from 1968
07 ~ Next (Brel). performed by Feathers in 1968
Side Two:
08 ~ London Bye Ta Ta - Decca 1968 version
09 ~ Angel Angel Grubby Face - 1968 demo
10 ~ Pussy Cat (Marnay, Popp, Stellman) - VERY European theatre/Lindsay Kemp type number - English lyrics to 'Manchester et Liverpool'
11 ~ Going Down (1967 demo - "Goin' down, I’m high up above you so pull me down…."
12 ~ Occasional Dreaming - (the hand written title on the tape box for 'An Occasional Dream' demo)
13 ~ In The Heat Of The Morning - Decca 1968 version
14 ~ Lover To The Dawn - written and probably performed by DB/Feathers in late 1968
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Thanks so much Tris.
A few of these tracks are already out there and you can get a hint of some of the covers by tracking down Jess Conrad’s cover of 'Pussy Cat' (or even Andre Popp’s version of 'Manchester et Liverpool') and Scott Walker’s rendition of 'Next'...not to mention Roger Bunn’s original and somewhat trippy recording of 'Life Is A Circus'.
*For those that aren’t familiar with it, today’s lyric quotation is from 'Next'.
#Bowie1968 #OccasionalDreaming #BowieCollector
