Arnold Corns: Moonage Daydream & Hang Onto Yourself (a-side)

The Arnold Corns were a band formed by David Bowie in 1971 as a vehicle to record some of his songs. The demos were a dry run for his ‘Ziggy Stardust’ persona and were recorded using musicians from Dulwich College.

The songs included early versions of “Moonage Daydream” and “Hang onto Yourself”. These would eventually be re-recorded (with different lyrics) for the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album.At the time Bowie was under contract to ‘Mercury’ records and so had to use a pseudonym to release the tracks, hence the Arnold Corns name.

Two additional tracks were recorded “Man in the Middle” and “Looking for a Friend”, but these featured Freddi Buretti as the vocalist rather than Bowie, and were backed with the band that played on the ‘Hunky Dory’ album.

Moonage Daydream/Hang onto Yourself was released as a single in 1971, but was a flop. A second single Looking for a Friend/Man in the Middle with vocals by Freddi Buretti was planned but later scrapped.
All four of the Arnold Corns tracks were re issued in 1984 on a limited 12” release in Scandinavia.