DON'T DIG TOO DEEP, PLEADS ODDITY DAVID BOWIE

Gordon Coxhill | November 15, 1969, New Musical Express (UK)

David Bowie's first two albums (1967 and 1969, both eponymously titled in his native UK) were over-quota with feyness. They were also the work of a man audibly not quite sure what to do with his talent.

However, the second album spun off the single "Space Oddity" (and was retitled after it in some territories). The tale of an unstable astronaut sentencing himself to a lonely death in the desolate depths of space hardly seemed the sort of thing to reap dividends from the euphoria surrounding Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind, but it established Bowie as a chart artist — as well as a distinctive voice.

It's interesting to note the ambivalence Bowie expresses about fame in this half-page New Musical Express feature. Although his next album, The Man Who Sold the World, was released a year later, he kept such a low profile in the two years after this early success that some considered it a form of retirement. –Ed.

It looked like a piece of master planning, but it wasn't. It looked like a monster hit, and it was. David Bowie's "Space Oddity," inspired by a visit to the film "2001," was released just as the world was staying up all night to watch the moon landing.

Like the modest, self-effacing young man he is, David passed the credit on to his record company, but as it was written last November, he can hardly disown his amazing foresight!

"Put it down to luck," he said over the phone from Perth where he was about to begin a short tour of the Haggisland. "I really am amazed at the success of the record, even though I had confidence in it.

"I've been the male equivalent of the dumb blonde for a few years, and I was beginning to despair of people accepting me for my music.

"It may be fine for a male model to be told he's a great looking guy, but that doesn't help a singer much, especially now that the pretty boy personality cult seems to be on the way out."

Much as David takes his songwriting seriously, he is amused by pundits who examine his material looking for hidden meanings even he is totally unaware of. "My songs are all from the heart, and they are wholly personal to me, and I would like people to accept them as such.

"I dearly want to be recognised as a writer, but I would ask them not to go too deeply into my songs. As likely as not, there's nothing there but the words and music you hear at one listening.

"I see you've noticed that my songs are seldom about boy and girl relationships. That's because I've never had any traumas with girls.

"I like to think myself a pretty stable person, and I've never had a bad relationship with an intelligent girl. And if a girl isn't intelligent, I don't want to know."

Although David made a very good impression on the recent Humble Pie tour, he maintains he is a songwriter first, and even denies he is a good performer.

"It was my first tour," he told me, "and I never stopped being surprised the concerts even went on. It appeared so badly organised to me, but I suppose everybody knew what they were doing.

"For me, it was nothing near an artistic success, mainly because I was limited to a twenty minute spot, and I ended up accompanying myself after a mix-up.

"I was very pleased to see that 'Space Oddity' went down well, I thought the audiences would miss the orchestral backing which was on the record.

"I throw myself on the mercy of an audience, and I really need them to respond to me. If they don't, I'm lost. But all the same, I'm determined to be an entertainer, clubs, cabaret concerts, the lot.

"There is too much false pride within the pop scene, groups and singers decrying cabaret without ever having seen the inside of a northern nightclub.

"I just want to sing to as many people as want to hear me, and I don't care where I do it. Mind you, I refuse to have my hair cut or change my appearance for anybody. I'm quite happy with the way I look, and people will have to accept me the way I am, or not bother at all."

A former commercial artist, David played tenor sax with a modern jazz group, "went through the blues thing," during which time he switched to vocalist, and then joined a traditional French mime company, where he met and worked with Marc Bolan.

"Marc has been a great influence on me, not so much with his music, but with his attitude to the pop scene. He shuts himself off from the destructive elements,...