From Fan Boy to Fame
David Bowie always loved The Beatles. They took a while to notice their long-haired fan boy.
David Bowie was born only four years after George Harrison, but lasting success eluded him until a decade after The Beatles first stormed the charts. A fan from his teens, the inventor of the ‘long haired society’ turned to his heroes when his early recording career stalled. And by the end of his life he could claim three of the Fab Four as personal friends.
1. Another long-haired young man
In 1964 David Jones, a young Beatles fan, makes his first TV appearance. With astounding chutzpah, the 17-year-old organises a publicity stunt, promoting the (fictitious) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.
The teenage David Bowie shows the self-possession that would characterise his career. He also appears to have come to studio directly from the set of the recently released A Hard Day’s Night.
Part of this homage was self-serving — put bluntly, Bowie wanted to be famous. In the mid 60s, The Beatles were the only available train to that destination and aspiring pop-stars needed adhere to the dress code. This was fast-changing and easy to misread — the album cover for David Bowie (1967) for example, looked distinctly old fashioned next to Sergeant Pepper.
2. King Bee
1964 Bowie released his first single, Liza Jane, under the name Davie Jones & the King Bees. Over the next four years, he continued on the fringes of the record industry, unable to establish a defined musical style needed for the success he craved.
His most obvious influence was the extraordinary singer/songwriter/actor showman Anthony Newley. Bowie did a passable impression of the Londoner but there was a limited market for Newley pastiches.
Bowie also tried his hand at comedy (the infamous but entertaining ‘The Laughing Gnome’) folk and shouty rock — without ever quite managing to convince. Perhaps conscious of this failing, he seems to have gone to the masters for a manual, as Pete Doggett suggests.
As early as 1965, Bowie sounded as if he was learning how to write songs by listening to With The Beatles.
3. Apple audition
Four years after his recording debut, the young man from Brixton/Bromley had still made little progress. Despite a name change and several changes of musical style he remained a fringe figure. Convinced that Deram (Decca) was mismanaging his career, Bowie was looking for a new label.
In 1968 The Beatles returned from India and and announced the formation of Apple Records, a new label for ‘creatives’. Bowie immediately instructed his then manager, Kenneth Pitt, to submit an audition tape.
As a signed artist with a major label, he might have expected his offering to advance to the top of the pile. Unfortunately, however Apple was
small label initially besieged by numerous musicians, managers, agents, artists, and hucksters…
A further complication was that the label would only recruit new talent with the agreement of all four (endlessly squabbling) Beatles.
In effect this meant that only pals — or pals of pals — of the Fab Four had a realistic chance of signing for Apple. Pitt was not impressed:
Had David not been keen on recording for Apple I would not have tolerated the deplorable organization, sheer amateurism and downright rudeness that confronted us during the three months it took Apple to give us a decision. source
Rejection
When the decision finally came, it was not good news:
Apple Records is not interested in signing David Bowie. The reason is that we don’t feel he’s what we’re looking for at the moment.
Did any of The Beatles listen to Bowie’s audition tape? None remembered having done so. Even if they had given it their full attention, they were unlikely to have been impressed.
George Harrison had sat stony-faced through the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album. Bowie’s early efforts were weak in comparision. They showed promise but never established an identifiable style.
Perhaps stung by this rejection, Bowie signed for Phillips, where he produced his first number one single, Space Oddity, the following year. But it would be take another three years — and a major reinvention before he would establish himself as a major star.
4. When David met John
We were first introduced in about 1974 by Elizabeth Taylor. We were in LA, and one night she had a party to which both John and I had been invited. David Bowie, 1999
In 1974 David Bowie went to New York to record his ‘white soul’ album Young Americans. In later interviews (see above), he implied that his first meeting with Lennon was a chance encounter. Other accounts by Visconti and others suggest that there was a determined campaign to establish contact.
According to May Pang, who was living with Lennon during his estrangement from Yoko, the two immediately men got on well. Other witnesses have reported that they drew caricatures of each other and drank cognac (hopefully in that order).
Encouraged by their initial ‘chance’ meeting, and keen to get a Beatle on his new album — Bowie phoned Lennon directly. “I’m recording a version of Across the Universe,” he told him. “Would you like to play on it?”. This bold request paid off. Lennon agreed to come to the studio play acoustic guitar.
The session was a success and Lennon later said he liked Bowie’s version better than his original recording with The Beatles on Let It Be.
5. Fame & Friendship
The two Englishmen returned to the studio for another jamming session. As they improvised, guitarist Carlos Alomar played a riff he had intended for Bowie cover of the R & B song Footstompin. Impressed, Bowie and Lennon then developed this into a new song in which Lennon sang ‘aim’ over the Alomar guitar.
Bowie then rewrote the lyric, changing ‘aim’ to ‘fame’. The resulting single was Bowie’s most successful in the US, reaching the Top Ten for the first time. Another shout-out to Lennon occurs in the title track of Young American’ (I heard the news today, oh boy!).
Though Lennon and Bowie did not record together again, they remained friends until the former’s death in 1980. When David Bowie died in 2016, Yoko described him as family. He was on friendly terms with Paul McCartney, who spoke of ‘the great laughs we had through the years’. The two men did not record together, but did share a stage at Live Aid in 1986.
Ringo was also an admirer — and recorded ‘All the Young Dudes’ on his 2006 album Ringo and Friends.
The Day I Met the Dame an afternoon with ‘David Bowie
