June
1st marks the 55th anniversary of the release of the debut eponymous
album from David Bowie. It’s an album from a young artist struggling to
find his voice, but not quite near the superstar he’d eventually
become. Musically, it is very much “of its time” with a quintessential
1960s British music hall & baroque pop sensibility more reminiscent
of singers like Anthony Newley.
Prior to this LP, Bowie had
released a string of unsuccessful singles which resulted in him being
dumped by his then label, Pye Records, before being picked up by Decca
subsidiary, Deram, for his debut album. Bowie wrote the songs over the
autumn of 1966 before booking into the studio over the winter from
November ’66 to March ’67. The music for the album was provided by a
mostly anonymous selection of studio and session musicians. As a
result, the album sounds quite dated and rather quaint when compared to
the work he’d manage to do in a few short years. There’s little
indication of the visionary trend setting innovator that was lurking
below the surface of the artist captured on this debut. There are a few
flashes of novelty sprinkled among the song and dance, but it’s all
verging on camp.
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