Bauhaus - Telegram Sam & Ziggy Stardust (cover versions)

Here are some glam cover versions by 80’s Goth rock band Bauhaus. A couple of Bowie and T Rex covers to link in with the last Tony Visconti blog entry.

Even original music by Bauhaus always had elements of glam rock and heavy metal so it was appropriate that they released a cover of the T Rex song ‘Telegram Sam’ in September 1980. It was followed in 1982 with a version of Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ which reached number 15 in the charts.

Tony Visconti (Producer)

Tony Visconti has emerged as one of the most influential producers of the glam rock era through work with David Bowie and T Rex.
Visconti had relocated to London in 1968 and almost immediately began producing tracks by T Rex, followed soon after by Bowie’s Space Oddity album. Although working with other artists during this period, Bowie and T Rex remain the two acts that Visconti is best remembered for.

It was Visconti who played bass and toured with ‘The Hype’ along with Bowie, guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer John Cambridge. The band was short lived but this line up went on to record ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ album. Visconti also produced ‘Diamond Dogs’, and ‘Young Americans’ for Bowie, while for T Rex he produced the classic ‘Electric Warrior’ and ‘The Slider'.
Visconti continued to work with Bowie as the decade progressed, collaborating on ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’ With production duties in 1980 on ‘Scary Monsters and Super Creeps'. Visconti renewed his association with Bowie, producing the albums ‘Heathen’ in 2002 and ‘Reality’ in 2003.
In more recent times he has produced albums for Morrissey, who had previously been produced by Mick Ronson on the ‘Your Arsenal’ album.
Metal Guru is a number one single from ‘the Slider’ album released in 1972. This version is a mash up of an earlier version from the Electric Warrior sessions, and the final version, after Visconti had added his magic.

Talking of Marc Bolan he said;“He knew he was going to be big, and he had everything to back it up; talent, imagination and great songs. His melodies were absolutely superb”
The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud is also a mash up. The first half is from a BBC live session, with the normal version of the song coming in at the end.
“My greatest pride was my orchestral arrangement for "The Wild-Eyed Boy From Freecloud". This was originally a throwaway B-side for "Space Oddity", but I heard orchestral parts in my head from the beginning. It took 5 whole days to write. I set up the studio of 50 musicians with David sitting right in the middle playing his acoustic 12-string. I was standing in front of him conducting the orchestra. At the mixing stage of this album, John Cambridge, the drummer, introduced us to his guitar player friend from Hull -- Mick Ronson. Mick came to the mix of "The Wild-Eyed Boy From Freecloud", and was persuaded to play a little guitar line in the middle part and joined in the handclaps on the same section. That is actually the first appearance of Mick Ronson on a David Bowie album”.Tonyvisconti.com

Mott the Hoople – Saturday Gig (a-side): Ian Hunter – Once Bitten Twice Shy (a-side)

While Mick Ronson was recording his second solo album ‘Play Don’t Worry’ he was also playing with Mott the Hoople and working on lead singer Ian Hunter’s debut solo album ‘Ian Hunter’. In production and style this album and Ronson’s own are part of the same blend and template.

One of the many fans of Mott the Hoople was David Bowie and he offered them a song he had just written called Suffragette City. The band didn’t really think the song was right for them so Bowie sat on the floor of Mott’s office and played All the Young Dudes on acoustic guitar, the rest as they say is history.
For the next two years Mott the Hoople had a string of hits culminating in Saturday Gig with Mick Ronson now part of the band having taken over from the brilliantly named Ariel Bender.
“This grandiose anthem was Mott the Hoople's last single and lyrically appeared to be saying goodbye to their fans. However this was not the band's intention. Keyboardist Morgan Fisher explained to Mojo magazine May 2009: "While we were making it we didn't think it was about the end, which seems incredibly naïve now. For me, it was a summing up of what had happened so far, now we'll move on. That may have been Ian's take on it too, until it all went pear-shaped."
“The song's failure to climb any higher than #41 in the UK charts was the clincher in the break-up of Mott the Hoople. Its failure caused a devastated Hunter to cancel a UK tour. He later told Pete Frame: "I thought that was the best single we ever did, and it frightened the life out of me when it didn't make it."Songfacts.com


“Oh 73 was a jamboree. The dudes were the news and the dudes were we.
Did you see the suits and the platform boots. Hey man, you wanna party”Saturday Gig 1974
The opening track on Hunters solo album was Once Bitten Twice Shy.

“This was Hunter's first single after leaving Mott The Hoople. The extended version appears on the self-titled "Ian Hunter" album, which was released by CBS in 1975. The single was released on April 4th and entered the UK charts on May 3, and stayed there for ten weeks peaking at number 14."
Songfacts.com

Mick Ronson - Billy Porter (a-side)

“Who else can play my stuff like him”?Ian Hunter

Mick Ronson is in many ways the unsung hero of Glam Rock. He is known predominantly for his guitar and production work with David Bowie between 1970 - 73 on albums such as Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, and also for work with Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople as well as on Lou Reed’s Transformer album.

Ronson first teamed up with Bowie in 1970 and was responsible for much of the production and arrangements on many of Bowie’s best ‘glam era’ albums. He began his solo career in 1973 when Bowie had disbanded the ‘Spiders from Mars’.

Billy Porter is taken from his second solo album ‘Play Don’t Worry’ released in 1975. Only four songs on the album were written by Ronson of which Billy Porter is one. All the guitar work and most of the vocal work were performed by Ronson as well as some bass, keyboards and drums.

He spent many years as a session musician working for amongst others Elton John but eventually returned to Hull disillusioned with the music business. It was while working as a gardener for Hull Council’s Parks department that he was recruited to play in Bowie’s backing band at the time ‘The Hype’ Having failed in earlier attempts in London he was at first reluctant to accept the job.

Ronson made his debut with Bowie on John Peel’s Radio 1 Sunday Show in February 1970. The hype played their first gig at the Roundhouse the same month with a line up that included Tony Visconti (Bowie’s producer) on bass. The band’s gimmick was to dress up in super hero costumes, Bowie was Rainbowman, Visconti was Hypeman and Ronson was Gangsterman.

This is often thought to be one of the catalysts that kick started glam rock and Marc Bolan is thought to have been at one of the Hypes earliest gigs getting ideas for his glam rock style.

After leaving Bowie and the Spiders from Mars he had a brief stint as part of Mott the Hoople and collaborated with Mott front man Ian Hunter as well as working on his own solo material. Mick and Ian Hunter worked together on and off for the next 20 years.

In 1993 he again worked with Bowie on his Black Tie White Noise album and produced Morrissey’s Your Arsenal album in 1992. Mick Ronson died from cancer in 1993 and had a third solo album Heaven and Hull released posthumously in 1994.

The Mick Ronson Memorial Stage now stands in the park where he once worked, Queens Gardens in his hometown of Hull. There is also a street named after him on Bilton Grange Estate, not far from where he lived.

The opening track on his second album is Billy Porter it didn’t sell in great quantities but is still brilliant. It’s a quirky song that you wouldn’t expect from guitar hero Ronson.

The Osmonds - Crazy Horses (a-side)

During the early 70’s many artists climbed upon the glam rock wagon, by either releasing songs that were written or performed by glam rock artists or deciding to appropriate the glam style for a song or two.

The Osmonds are not glam artists by any stretch of the imagination, but like the Bay City Rollers they seem to have been thrown into the mix.
But one Osmond song sprang out from the MOR, ballad style they favoured, to be a true glam rock anthem.
Crazy Horses is a diamond in the rough. If another more ‘respected’ or ‘authentic’ artiste had written and performed the song it would be seen as a rock classic. The classic keyboard/synth intro and guitar riff are as distinctive as anything by the rock fraternity.

Who else would write a song about the amount of air pollution caused by the automobile? (The Crazy Horses of the song) Remember this is before the environment became the big issue that it is today. Crazy Horses was a 1972 hit reaching number 2 in the UK top 40.

Lulu - The Man Who Sold the World (cover version) Peter Noone - Oh You Pretty Things (cover version)

In 1974 Scottish born singer Lulu released a version of Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World. Lulu is better known as the singer of Shout in 1964 and for acting in the film To Sir with Love in 1967. Latterly she is known for singing with Take That on Relight My Fire, and for at one time being married to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb.

Bowie produced her version of the song as well as contributing saxophone and backing vocals. Mick Ronson was also at the sessions to add some guitar. This song was produced towards the end of Bowie and Ronson’s collaborations so may have been one of the last things they worked on together. The song went to number 3 in the UK charts.

From Uncut magazine in June 2008 Lulu recalled:
"I first met Bowie on tour in the early '70s when he invited me to his concert. And back at the hotel, he said to me, in very heated language, 'I want to make an MF of a record with you. You're a great singer.' I didn't think it would happen, but he followed up two days later. He was uber cool at the time and I just wanted to be led by him. I didn't think 'The Man Who Sold the World' was the greatest song for my voice, but it was such a strong song in itself. In the studio, Bowie kept telling me to smoke more cigarettes, to give my voice a certain quality. We were like the odd couple. Were we ever an item? I'd rather not answer that one, thanks!For the video, people thought he came up with the androgynous look, but that was all mine. It was very Berlin cabaret. We did other songs, too, like 'Watch That Man,' 'Can You Hear Me?' and 'Dodo.' 'The Man Who Sold the World' saved me from a certain niche in my career. If we'd have carried on, it would have been very interesting."

Another David Bowie song covered by an unlikely source is Oh You Pretty Things. (Technically it’s not a cover as it was recorded prior to Bowie’s own version on Hunky Dory).

The song was recorded in late 1970 early 1971 by Peter Noone better known as the lead singer of Herman’s Hermits. As with Lulu’s version of The Man Who Sold the World, Bowie also plays on this song, this time contributing Piano.

While the tune is jaunty enough, the lyrics tell a somewhat darker story of paranoia and schizophrenia. The song when sung by Peter Noone becomes a cheesy, cabaret style oddity.
I don’t think that he really knew the hidden (or not so hidden) meanings in the song.
Having said that, for some strange reason I do like this version, anyway the song peaked at #12 in the UK.

Mud - Mr Bagatelle (b-side)

Between 1973 and 1976 Mud were a constant presence in the British charts. Notching up eleven top ten hits, which included three number 1’s. (Tiger Feet, Lonely This Christmas and Oh Boy)

Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (Chinnichap) after their success with Sweet were looking for another band to write for and manage. That band was Mud (Les Gray, Ray Stiles, Rob Davis and Dave Mount).
Mud were signed To Mickie Most’s RAK label and their first Chinnichap penned single ‘Crazy’ was released in January 1973. Eventually reaching number 12 in the charts.

By October 1973 the Chinnichap sound was beginning to make a bigger impact on the charts and in teen magazines. Their third single ‘Dyna-mite’ was released at this time and was the first single of Mud’s that I bought. The following January saw the release of ‘Tiger Feet’ Mud’s most enduring and biggest hit. It spent four weeks at number 1 in February 1974, and became the biggest selling single of the year.

The B-side of ‘Tiger Feet’ was Mr. Bagatelle. Like the Sweet; Mud wrote most of their own B-sides of which this is a good example. It is an acoustic strum that rambles along quite nicely. But again it was a favourite of mine as a kid.

Rob Davis the guitarist in Mud and co-writer of this song eventually went on to bigger and better things. Writing "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" for Spiller in 2000; and "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" for Kylie Minogue in 2001.

In 1975 Mud’s relationship with Chinnichap was coming to an end, and the last Chinnichap song released by the band was ‘Moonshine Sally’. The song had actually been recorded some years earlier but for some reason was kept back until now. It reached number 10.

Sweet - Spotlight (b-side), Jeanie (b-side)

Poppa Joe: The Sweet
It’s funny the way music can polarize normally sane and level headed people. Glam rock was seen as a joke at the time by many so called serious music fans. Why listen to Slade or T.Rex when you could bore the pants off everybody by playing The Grateful Dead at 2 o clock in the morning.

One of the greatest dividers of musical taste in the early 70’s was The Sweet. They had a slow start in the UK charts; and it was not until they teamed up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (commonly known as Chinnichap) that they started having top ten hits. At heart Sweet were no nonsense rockers and at times some of the ‘bubblegum’ songs Chinnichap were providing was at odds with their true musical identity.
It was not until 1972’s Wig Wam Bam that the group even started to get a harder edge to the sound. In fact this was the first song where the band had actually played their instruments. On all earlier singles the backing music was played by session musicians, something which always pissed off the band as they were all accomplished musicians in their own write.

They (Brian Connolly, Andy Scott, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker) had always written and played on the B-sides of their records, so it was only a matter of time before they began to write and produce the A-sides as well. This signaled a heavier, rockier Sweet sound. The first of these self written singles Fox on the Run was released early in 1975, but by then the glam rock boom had almost run its course.

It may be time for a Sweet re-appraisal. One of the biggest sellers in the glam era but also one of the most underrated. Maybe it was because of the way they looked or because they didn’t play the instruments on their early recordings, who knows. Ask anyone for a list of their favourite ‘Glam’ anthems and I’m sure a Sweet song will be in there somewhere. Blockbuster, Hell Raiser, Ballroom Blitz, the list goes on.

Spotlight is the B-side to Alexander Graham Bell which reached number 33 in 1971. Written by the band members it is not as heavy as later B-sides penned by them, and shows a lighter musical touch.
Jeanie is the B-side to Poppa Joe a number 11 from 1972. This is almost as ‘bubblegum’ as the songs Chinnichap were writing for them. A light hearted love song to ‘Jeanie’ not much more to say other than its bright and ‘poppy’ and I used to play it more than the A-side.
The two B-sides highlighted here are from their earlier Chinnichap singles. As with most glam rock the music and lyrics would never win any awards for being sophisticated, intellectual or philosophical. Still, writing a song about the guy who invented the telephone has got to get some praise and kudos. In their own way the lyrics are quite tender and poetic.
“A candle flickers in a window
Two thousand miles away she waits there
There's a young man thinking by a window
How was she to know just how much he cared
The sun rises early in the morning
Millions of people still unaware
of something he discovered without warning
so he could show a girl just how much he cared”Alexander Graham Bell – Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman 1971.

Slade - My Town (b-side), She Did It To Me (b-side)

Based on overall chart performance Slade were the most successful artist of the glam rock era. This was highlighted in Channel 4’s ‘Top Ten Glam Rock Artists of All Time’, where Slade and strangely the Bay City Rollers came in first and second respectively.

At their peak Slade were the most commercially popular band in the UK. They achieved 12 top five hits from 1971 to 1974. This included six number 1’s, three number 2’s and two songs at number 3. Three of their singles went straight into the chart at number 1, a feat last accomplished by the Beatles. After 1975 Slade’s success faded however, but they did have some further success in the early 80’s with another two top ten hits, Run Runaway and My Oh My.

I must admit that at times during the early seventies I think I preferred Slade over even Bowie or T.Rex. For great, stomping, heavy, guitar driven pop they couldn’t be beaten. Apart from the great song writing, Slade’s greatest asset was having Noddy Holder as front man. Noddy (Neville) Holder had one of rock’s great voices and unlikely as it seemed had one of glam rock’s great iconic images, the mirrored hat. Along with Bowie’s Aladdin Sane lightning flash and Bolan’s “Corkscrew hair,” that mirrored hat is the most recognisable thing associated with glam rock.
Even now I still get misty eyed when certain songs come unexpectedly on the radio. We had a black Fidelity record player at home when I was a kid in the 70’s, and playing Skweeze Me Pleeze Me (sic) over and over again is one of the happiest memories from my childhood. The intentional misspelling of the song titles was also a good way to wind up teachers and parents.

My Town is the B-side to My Friend Stan released in 1973 and eventually reaching # 2 in the charts. Both are from the album ‘Old, New, Borrowed and Blue’. My Town is the harder hitting flipside to the bar room piano style evident on the A-side. No introduction, no messing about, just straight in after a single snare beat.



She Did It to Me was the flip-side to Bangin Man a 1974 Slade song that reached # 3. This was a slow, piano driven ballad in the style of Everyday the single that Slade released earlier that year. Proving that they could do slow and sensitive with the best of them.

David Bowie - Velvet Goldmine (b-side), The Prettiest Star (original), Simon Turner - The Prettiest Star (cover version)

The following article by Lou Reed from Rolling Stone magazine says it all

David Bowie's contribution to rock & roll has been wit and sophistication. He's smart, he's a true musician and he can really sing. He's got such a big range: I like the Ziggy Stardust voice, but he's got a lot of different voices. He's got his crooner voice, when he wants to. And he has a melodic sense that's well above anyone else in rock & roll. Most people could not sing some of his melodies. He can really go for a high note. Take "Satellite of Love," on my Transformer album: There's a part at the very end, where he goes all the way up. It's fabulous.

There had been androgyny in rock from Little Richard on up, but David put his own patina on it, to say the least. He thought hard about that Ziggy character; he'd been studying mime, and he didn't do it just for laughs. He was very aware of stagecraft. He made an entire show out of that character and then he left it behind. How smart can you get? Can you imagine if he had to keep doing Ziggy? I mean, if you listened to what critics and audiences say, you'd be playing four songs over and over again. David set himself up to do other characters, like the Thin White Duke. And his take on American soul music, on albums like Young Americans, was incredibly good; the original material he wrote was great.

I can't pick a favorite record. It depends on my mood -- any of the dance records; Ziggy Stardust; I always liked "Bewlay Brothers," that track on Hunky Dory. And the albums he did with Brian Eno, like Low and Heroes, are phenomenal. He's always changing, so you never get tired of what he's doing. And I mean all the way up to now: "The Loneliest Guy" on his latest album, Reality, is a great song. Yet another one.

We're still friends after all these years, amazingly enough. We go to the occasional art show and museum together, and I always like working with him. I really love what David does, so I'm happy that he's still doing it and that he's still interested. I saw him play here in New York on his last tour, and it was one of the greatest rock shows I've ever seen. At least as far as white people go. Seriously.

From Issue 946 — April 15, 2004 Lou Reed Rolling Stone magazine

David Bowie was, and is the main man as far as I am concerned, and any song he recorded during the seventies could have gone on this blog. It all started for me with the performance of 'Starman' on Top of the Pops in 1972. Bowie in a multi-coloured jumpsuit with his arm limply placed around guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulder camping it up as if his life depended on it.


"Let all the children boogie"

'Velvet Goldmine' is a song written and recorded during the Hunky Dory sessions in 1971. However, it did not make it onto the album and was eventually released as the B-side to the UK re-release of 'Space Oddity' in 1975 which eventually went all the way to number 1 in the charts. It was also used as the title for a 1998 film about the glam rock period that was loosely based on facets of Bowie's career at that time.

'The Prettiest Star' is a song originally released as a single in 1970.Bowie had recently re-recorded an old Deram track, 'London Bye Ta Ta', intended as a follow-up single to 'Space Oddity' in early 1970. However, the same sessions also produced a new composition named 'The Prettiest Star'. Bowie wrote it for Angela Barnett, reputedly playing it down the telephone as part of his proposal to her. He also chose it as his next single.

The track was significant in one other respect; it featured Marc Bolan on guitar, with whom Bowie would spend the next few years as a rival for the crown of the king of glam rock. Producer Tony Visconti, who brought the two aspiring pop stars together in the studio, recalled that the session went well until the end when Bolan's wife June remarked to Bowie, "Marc is too good for you, to be playing on this record!"

Despite receiving good notices, the single reportedly sold less than 800 copies, a major disappointment on the back of the success of 'Space Oddity'. In 1973, a more glam-influenced version was recorded and released on the album Aladdin Sane, with Mick Ronson recreating Bolan's original guitar part almost note-for-note.

Sources:

David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.80-81

Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.32
"One day though it might as well be someday

you and I will rise up all the way

all because of what you are

The Prettiest Star"The Prettiest Star - David Bowie
English musician, songwriter, composer and actor Simon Turner released a cover version of The Prettiest Star in 1973.