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Bowie at the Beeb – David Bowie

Year Released: 2000

Label: EMI, Virgin

Year Bought: 2002 

Bought in February 2002 as my Bowie obsession was in full swing, this double CD of his BBC sessions from 1968 to 1972 is one for the purists.

CD1

CD1 is full of songs that never entered the public consciousness, and you can see why. They are perfectly fine, but nothing memorable, and show that Bowie was still very much working out his art at the end of the 1960s.

That's not to say it's not worth a listen though. "In The Heat of the Morning" is pure 60s pop, while "Silly Boy Blue" and "Let Me Sleep Beside You" are decent.

Bowie's only 60s hit, "Space Oddity", is missing from these sessions, with Bowie explaining in one of the interview clips you'd need three orchestras to pull it off. What you do get though is Bowie bringing together some of his most important future collaborators. 

Frequent producer Tony Visconti pops up with the Tony Visconti Orchestra for the first session, recorded on May 13 1968. Mick Ronson's first public appearance with Bowie is caught on tape during a session recorded for "The Sunday Show" on February 5 1970, and by the final session on Disc 1 you have all the Spiders From Mars in Bowie's band.

The Feb 5 recording features a performance of "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", which shows that in between folk and glam, Bowie had a stab at rock. There's influences of Cream and the Yardbirds with chromatic rises and a muscular guitar sound provided by Ronson.

The June 3 1971 recording sees the debut of "Kooks", written for his son born just four days earlier. Performed solo by Bowie, it's pretty special to hear a very fresh song that would go on to be such a classic. The odd chord change error only adds to the embryonic nature of the tune.

The first CD also has little snippets of intros from John Peel and the occasional chat with Bowie, which is pretty cool. Peel quips at one point that "Bombers" is set to be on a record called "Hunky Dory" but no one can work out how to spell it.

CD2

The second CD is much more familiar, with 15 of the 19 songs on this side coming from either "Ziggy Stardust..." or "Hunky Dory" (exceptions are "The Superman" from "The Man Who Sold The World", "Space Oddity" and two Velvet Underground songs – "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "White Light/White Heat").

The leap in Bowie's songwriting is clear. Everything is tighter and more focused. The melodies stick more. The playing is more precise. 

Do these recordings add anything to the tunes? Not really. They are all pretty much how they are on the studio albums. The stripped-back version of "Space Oddity" shows the song really only soars when it has at least one orchestra involved. 

If you're a Bowie super fan than it's definitely worth a listen, but I doubt you'll be reaching for it instead of the actual albums.

6/10

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