A good season for the Bowie lunatic. Parlophone and the Bowie estate has been releasing a series of demos, that is from the late 1960s. All are fascinating. "Spying Through A Keyhole" is part of a two-volume boxset of 7" singles. Elaborate packaging, perhaps a tad too much of a design project, still the music inside is way more than worthwhile. This boxset is four 7" singles (9 tracks), and it's total Kenneth Pitt era Bowie. Before he went Anthony Newley, he had a folk fixation that eventually turned into British Music Hall aesthetic, but at this time, and demo quality, a quiet look into the Bowie psyche. The famous song here is "Space Oddity," and we get two versions, one just an excerpt, and the other is a more full arranged with the assistance of guitar and voice John "Hutch Hutchinson. Who I think plays a bigger part in the other Bowie 'demos,' but more of that in another blog post.
The obscure songs here are "Mother Grey," "Love All Around," and "Angel Angel Grubby Face." Not as great as the other undiscovered Bowie material, but still interesting to hear how strong his sense of aesthetic and vision was at the time. The other obscure number, and it's excellent is "Goodbye Threepenny Joe." A great melody, lyric, and I don't know why he didn't re-do this song on a future release. For me, this is the tune that is worth the whole package. If you are a Bowie lunatic, you must have this package, but there are better demo albums out there by David, and I will be writing about them shortly.
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