In 1969, Kenneth Pitt was desperate to make his wayward, odd little artist David Bowie somehow profitable. David had been plodding away for years, chasing trends, cutting singles that went nowhere, joining various little rock bands and writing tunes no-one except the most ardent Bowie-philes has ever heard.
He’d kind of lucked into a record deal with Deram (a division of Decca, the label which had famously rejected the Beatles) without having proven himself at all commercially viable. The result was eventually the first record titled “David Bowie”, which was an assortment of Anglo-oddities, part Anthony Newly style music-hall, part children’s album, and some various rock, psychedelic and folky tunes that added up to exactly nothing – as far as record sales went.
“David Bowie” isn’t a great album but it’s an interesting one. Interesting didn’t pay the bills, and David’s financier, his father, was desperate that DB finally begin to pull his own weight. At the time Bowie had had some small success on German television, so Pitt decided to produce a short film, hopefully to be sold to television, that was essentially the first set of David Bowie Music videos.
“Love You ‘Til Tuesday” became the title, and it was the opening song, the free love paean that had been meant to be the big single from David Bowie’s first album. It hadn’t made a blip, and by the time Pitt was ready to make the film, Bowie had moved on, assuming his lack of success with Deram meant he ought to indulge in artier matters.
That’s where Feathers comes in. Feathers was a art folk band consisting of David Bowie, then girlfriend Hermione Farthingale (of “Letter to Hermione” fame) and friend John Hutchinson. David insisted they be involved in the film, so a few songs from “David Bowie” were re-recorded with Hutch and Hermione providing b-vox or some instrumentation. There was also a new composition, “When I’m Five”, a view of growing up from a several pre-adolescent perspective, a mime performance called “The Mask”. Pitt thought another song was needed, something that would make a great centerpiece to the whole show. So David dutifully wrote “Space Oddity”.
Rubber Band: https://youtu.be/d9Lb9r-oh6g
Sell Me A Coat: https://youtu.be/CAybnKW1Djk
When I’m Five: https://youtu.be/qLoO9Ek-3FU
Let Me Sleep Beside You: https://youtu.be/U_hX482pLbE
Space Oddity: https://youtu.be/tRMZ_5WYmCg
When I Live my Dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgIa8UtxX4g
The above links (David Bowie videos don’t seem to want to embed with WordPress right now) all go to the official David Bowie VEVO channel on Youtube. There, in piecemeal, is the Love You ‘Til Tuesday promotional film, short the title song, “The Mask” mime performance, and the rather wretched Feathers folk song, “Ching-A-Ling”, all of which apparently are to be read out of the David Bowie official histories, the same way all non Ozzy incarnations of Black Sabbath are supposed to no longer exist, according to the official website.
