David Bowie ' "Spying Through A Keyhole" 4 × Vinyl, 7", Mono, 2019 (Parlophone)

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.

David Bowie - "Alabama Song"/"Space Oddity" 45 rpm Vinyl, 1980 (RCA)

There is no better song than "Alabama Song."   I only know four versions:  Lotte Lenya, The Doors, David Johansen (N.Y. Dolls) and of course, David Bowie.  All versions of this song are great.  Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil wrote it.  And thinking about it now, this song I knew since I was a baby.  My family household played the "Lotte Lenya Singing Weil" album, and my German grandmother had the album as well.  So no escaping from "Alabama Song."  Nor do I want to flee from this song.   Bowie does a great version, which was recorded during his "Lodger" period, and I presume with the same band that is on the album.    A commentary on his times in Berlin, when he lived there with Iggy Pop during the making of "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life."   There is a sense that he's singing this song as if it was something from his past. Even though it was a few years in the past, it had the bite of discovery.  I think for him, and for me as a listener.   It's a beautiful melody, and all versions are sung if the melody is crashing into a wall.   What comes afterward is a new beginning.  A new something. 

"Space Oddity, " this version recorded in 1980 is the best.  Sparse, and very much reminds me of John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" recording.  The minimal approach is piano, loud drums, and maybe a touch of an electric guitar, with the acoustic.  It has always been a beautiful song, and by far, this version is the best.    Not sure if it is easy to track down - or if it is in a best of Bowie album somewhere in the world.  But do get it.