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Category:    Home > Reviews > Pop > Rock > British > David Bowie (1967 self-named debut album/Deluxe Edition CD Set/Deram/Universal Music)

David Bowie (1967 self-named debut album/Deluxe Edition CD Set/Deram/Universal Music)

 

Sound: B     Music: B-

 

 

For most people, they first knew David Bowie for his earliest hit, Space Oddity, a 1969 single that recharted higher in 1973 (even when he started, he was a few years ahead of just about everyone else) thanks to Stanley Kubrick hit films 2001: A Space Odyssey & A Clockwork Orange, plus his own rising popularity.  However, his actual start as David Bowie happened in 1967.  Originally going around as Davy Jones, the co-lead singer of The Monkees made him change that to the name we know now and a self-titled debut album David Bowie was issued by Deram.  Universal has issued it in another one of their ace Deluxe Edition CD sets.

 

This side label of Decca Records was also known for music of The Moody Blues and this album has some material that sounds like Blues-tinged British Invasion music of the time, but the 14-track release has some very interesting material.  Even though Bowie had not found his sound yet, you can hear his articulation, ideas and approach even starting to form here in the following tracks:

 

1)     Uncle Arthur

2)     Sell Me A Goat

3)     Rubber Band

4)     Love You Till Tuesday

5)     There Is A Happy Land

6)     We Are Hungry Men

7)     When I Live My Dream

8)     Little Bombardier

9)     Silly Blue Boy

10)  Come And Buy My Toys

11)  Join The Gang

12)  She’s Got Medals

13)  Maid Of Bond Street

14)  Please Mr. Gravedigger

 

 

CD 1 offers the album in Stereo and Mono mixes, interesting in comparison in that the mixing can sound can be more different than just sound imaging.  It suggests a Bowie just finding his way, pushing the music styles he was trying to do, but still staying within them; something he would soon defy.  Still, it is better than the overly commercial product he was releasing in the early 1980s like Let’s Dance and Day In, Day Out because it is more ambitious and honest; not overly polished like the sound that almost killed him artistically two decades later.  This is the first time the Mono versions have been officially issued on CD.

 

CD 2 has 25 more tracks that are the result of meticulous research from some very smart, caring people at Universal searching the archive.  Besides further, additional alternate cuts of the album tracks, we get his novelty record The Laughing Gnome in two versions, some B-sides to the few singles that Deram issued off of the album, the rare London Bye Ta-Ta version of the also-included In The Heat Of The Morning, Karma Man in two versions and five songs recorded for a BBC Radio program.

 

Over both discs, the sound is definitely 1967, but the ideas seem to be trying to push beyond that and sometime start to get there.  Bowie’s voice is identifiable even then and he was already finding ways to form the phrasing that would eventually make his vocals stand out against what was soon to be many imitators and many more endlessly influenced to this day.  The result is a solid first chapter of one of the most important performers in music history and reminds us how priceless key albums like key films that are not discussed enough can be, but the Deluxe Edition series has been Universal’s music CD equivalent of The Criterion Collection and it is another great installment.

 

The PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo and Mono are as good for their age as they are going to get in this format, though I had wished that these had SA-CD layers so we could really hear how good the masters are.  Mono is mono, while the Stereo comes from the original 4-track masters.  Once again, a rich, informative booklet with an essay and all kinds of technical facts, historic information and illustrations is included.

 

 

For more on Bowie, here is our coverage of the excellent DVD The Berlin Years at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6293/David+Bowie+%E2%80%93+The+Berli

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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