Actors - David Bowie

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David Bowie is the eponymously-titled debut album by rock musician David Bowie, released in 1967 by Deram Records, a Decca label. Its content bares little overt resemblance to the type of music that later made Bowie famous, such as the folk-rock of "Space Oddity" or the glam of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have said "a listener strictly accustomed to David Bowie in his assorted '70s guises would probably find this debut album either shocking or else simply quaint".

Bowie's influences at this stage of his career included the theatrical tunes of Anthony Newley, music hall numbers by acts like Tommy Steele, some of the more whimsical and 'British' material by Ray Davies and The Kinks, Syd Barrett's slightly cracked nursery rhymes for the early Pink Floyd, and the Edwardian flam shared by such contemporary songs as The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!". The desire of Bowie's then-manager, Ken Pitt, for his charge to become an 'all-round entertainer' rather than a 'rock star' has also been cited as impacting the songwriter's style at this time, which virtually eschewed any rock 'n' roll trappings.

"Rubber Band" was, appropriately, a marching tune with tuba as the lead instrument. "Little Bombardier" and "Maid of Bond Street" were in waltz time, and also made extensive use of brass and strings. "Love You Till Tuesday" and "Come and Buy My Toys" were among the few songs on the album with a lead (acoustic) guitar, the former heavily augmented by strings. "Join the Gang" was a rare excursion into contemporary youth culture, an ascerbic observation of peer pressure and drug use, which included sitar in its instrumentation. The final track, "Please Mr. Gravedigger", was "a macabre duet for voice and sound effects".

Despite the album's incongruity in the Bowie catalogue, critics have discerned embryonic themes that inform much of the artist's mature work. "We are Hungry Men" is told by a self-styled "messiah" whose persona would reappear in different forms in the songs "Cygnet Committee" (from Space Oddity
), "Saviour Machine" (from The Man Who Sold the World
) and "Oh! You Pretty Things" (from Hunky Dory
), not to mention the protagonist of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The track also included explicit references to abortion, infanticide and cannibalism. "There is a Happy Land" has been seen as the first manisfestation of Bowie's vision of children as a race apart from their elders, a theme revisited on The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust. "She's Got Medals" was a gender-bending tale with gay/lesbian connotations that predated the 'dress cover' of The Man Who Sold the World and the bisexual/androgynous character of Ziggy Stardust.

The album was issued in the US without "We Are Hungry Men" and "Maid of Bond Street". Its UK release (on June 1 1967, the same date as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) was preceded by two singles with the same personnel, "Rubber Band" b/w "London Boys", in December 1966, and "The Laughing Gnome" b/w "The Gospel According to Tony Day", in April 1967. "London Boys" has been aclaimed as Bowie's first mini-masterpiece, a melancholy observation of the London Mod scene of the time. "The Laughing Gnome" was a novelty record featuring chipmunk-like vocals but the varispeed technique used to create this effect would serve Bowie in more serious fashion on many future songs including "After All", "The Bewlay Brothers", "Fame" and "Scream Like a Baby". A re-recorded version of "Love You Till Tuesday" was released as a single in July 1967 b/w "Did You Ever Have a Dream". None of these records charted at the time.

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Actors - David Bowie

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