The only Classical music record in my collection, and I bet you can’t guess why. This completes my David Bowie collection, that doesn’t mean I have everything he ever did on vinyl, that’ll never happen as since his death whoever owns the rights to his music has been punting out any old shite they can find so long as they can put his name on it, it means that albums wise I have all the ones I want…for now.

This album features Bowie narrating Prokofiev’s “Peter & The Wolf”, a children’s story where characters are represented by different instruments of the orchestra, on one side and a recording of Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra” on’ t’other. Both pieces were written as a way of introducing children to orchestral music and on here both are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra (although the Britten piece was recorded 2 years prior), one of the USA’s “big five” orchestras don’t you know. My Dad had a recording featuring both which he used to play to us, I’m sure in a vain attempt to have me and my brother develop an appreciation of “proper music”, but I don’t recall who narrated that one.

Prokofiev wrote “Peter And The Wolf” in 1936 and there have been over 400 recordings of it including those narrated by Leonard Cohen, Sean Connery, Boris Karloff (!), Dame Edna Everage and one with Vivian Stanshall which includes appearances by Brian Eno and Chris Spedding (now there’s one I’d love to hear). For this recording RCA asked both Alec Guinness and Peter Ustinov to narrate but both declined so Bowie stepped up. He wanted to make it for his son Zowie/Duncan who was 7 at the time. The music was recorded in Philadelphia and Bowie added his narration in December 1977 at RCA Studio B in New York after completing promotional duties for “Heroes”.

It seems the orchestras conductor, Hungarian violinist Eugene Ormandy, was not entirely convinced about Bowie’s involvement. He had no idea who he was and when told he was a rock star was singularly unimpressed. He did however enjoy the finished performance. As did others as on release in 1978 it reached #136 on the Billboard chart and in 1979 was nominated for the Grammy for Best Children’s Recording (it lost out…to the soundtrack from The Muppets !)

Yes it’s one for the Bowie nerds but that describes me perfectly so yah-boo-sucks. Lastly, isn’t it a shame the Philadelphia Orchestra isn’t the string players who appeared on Philadelphia International Records, that woulda made this whole thing much more funky.

Peter And The Wolf - https://youtu.be/9vr4JRbz8Yg?si=9ej4BtnpFwn82o-N

In 1969 David Bowie made a promotional film, “Love You Till Tuesday”, at the prompting of his the manager Ken Pitt, to try and bring him to a wider audience. The half-hour film was intended to showcase seven of Bowie's songs. There were four from his 1967 debut “David Bowie”, two of which were re-recorded for the film, his planned follow-up single "Let Me Sleep Beside You" and two new songs "When I'm Five" and "Ching-a-Ling". Just as filming started Bowie added a new song he’d written, “Space Oddity”. It would also include a mime piece performed and narrated by Bowie. 

Bowie had to wear a wig throughout the filming as he had had his hair cropped for a part in the film “The Virgin Soldiers”. Manager Ken Pitt fell out with the director who wanted to make the “Space Oddity” segment somewhat more risque and the whole film had cost him much more than anticipated. All that combined with no-one wanting to buy it meant that the whole project was shelved. In 1984 Ken Pitt contacted Polygram video who finally released the film, titled on VHS video and Deram released this soundtrack album.

Eight of the songs on this 12 track compilation appeared in the film "Love You till Tuesday”, “Sell Me a Coat”, “When I'm Five”, “Rubber Band”, “Let Me Sleep Beside You”, “Ching-a-Ling”, “Space Oddity” and ”When I Live My Dream”. It was the first time this version of "Space Oddity" had been released. It is Bowie’s original recording of the song and nowhere near as polished as the finally released single version. Bowie’s voice sounds genuinely strange in places too, so much so that I don’t think it’s him and someone else is singing the “Ground Control” parts.

"Ching-A-Ling" and "When I'm Five" were also being issued for the first time. The first of the two is a folky thing with vocals shared between Bowie’s girlfriend at the time, Hermione Farthingale (later the subject of the song “Letter To Hermione”) and his friend John Hutchinson (is it him singing the “Ground Control” parts on “Space Oddity”?) with Bowie on backing vocals (part of the backing vocal melody resurfaced in "Saviour Machine" on the abum "The Man Who Sold The World"). ”When I’m Five” is a trite, slightly silly childlike song in the vein of others from his debut album, but I like it, it’s silly. The versions of "Sell Me A Coat" and "When I Live My Dream" here are different from those found on Bowie’s 1967 debut album.

The track list is rounded out with Bowie’s first ever single “Liza Jane” (I think this was the first time I got to hear it, it being as rare as rocking horse doo-doo), originally released in 1964 under the name of Davie Jones & The King Bees, “The Laughing Gnome” and 1966 B-side (!) “The London Boys” which is one of the young Fabid Bowie’s better songs of the period, the tale of a young Mod coming to the big smoke to hang out with the Faces and the toll trying to keep up with them  takes on him.

This is Bowie in transition between the musical theatre/Anthony Newley style he projected on his 1967 debut album, “David Bowie”, and the singer/songwriter style he would take on with the release of the single “Space Oddity”, songs like “Let Me Sleep Beside You” and his 1970 album, also titled “David Bowie”. It really isn’t a record for the casual Bowie listener but definitely for the Bowie nerd…that’ll be me then.

When I’m Five - https://youtu.be/qLoO9Ek-3FU?si=m4tRT-2e8H_TcNKU

Gene Clark was a founding member of The Byrds, a superb singer, one of the architects of what came to be known as Country Rock and at times a truly wonderful songwriter. But like a few other guys we’ll encounter in this blog he had his demons and tried to quiet them with booze and drugs leading to an early death. “Collected” is a 3xLP wrap-up of Clark’s work from The Byrds to the end and was very much an impulse buy.

As you’ll find out soon I recently bought an album by Monica Queen on which is a cover of Gene’s song “Why Not Your Baby” recorded in 1968 with Bluegrass Banjo player Doug Dillard during the sessions for their album “The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark”. It didn’t make it onto the album in 1968 but was released as a standalone single in 1969. I was listening to Ms Queen’s version one Sunday morning when it suddenly struck me what an incredible song it is. So I went digging online for the original and by the time I’d played through Dillard & Clark’s take twice I was almost in tears. It’s quite superb, have a listen down there.

Gene Clark wrote “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”, “She Don’t Care About Time” and “Eight Miles High” for The Byrds before leaving because of a combination of jealousy over the money he earned from songwriting royalties from the other members and his own fear of flying, necessary while touring in the US. His first solo album “Echoes”, made together with West Coast Country duo the Gosdin Brothers, was a mixture of Country, psychedelia and baroque pop.

The rest of the music within is broadly folk based American roots with a sprinkling of Country. It covers his time with The Byrds, solo and with Doug Dillard, reunions with former Byrds as McGuinn, Hillman and Clark and some of his later recordings with singer Carla Olson. Highlights start with the previously mentioned “Why Not Your Baby” (please have a listen below, it’s quite beautiful), of course The Byrds jangle fest “Feel A Whole Lot Better”, the gentle “For A Spanish Guitar”, the title track from his 1974 solo album “No Other” which when it wasn’t ridiculed was ignored at the time but is now seen as a classic, and a fabulous thigh-slapping run through the traditional song “In The Pines”.

Gene Clark passed away at the age of 46 from a combination of problems related to substance abuse. He was a great songwriter and but for his difficulties with travel and various substance and alcohol problems to curb those fears, who should really have a much higher profile in American music. Along with Gram Parsons and Townes van Zandt, Gene is another of the lost souls who should have done much, much more.

Why Not Your Baby - https://youtu.be/VtiXNB68XKc?si=VstJTOSJKR-Ozu2H