Maps of Music

David Bowie (1969)

Where the lyrics of David Bowie take you, and where it was really made.

A hit single paid for this album, yet the album itself barely sold 5,000 copies by March 1970.

Key places

Space Oddity sessions at Trident (1969)

Recording site Trident Studios — The new version of Space Oddity was recorded here on 20 June 1969, at the start of the album sessions. The album was then recorded here through October 1969. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• David Bowie: second studio album by English musician David Bowie
• Released in the UK on 14 November 1969 through Philips Records, Mercury's affiliate
• Financed by Mercury on the strength of the single 'Space Oddity'
• Recorded from June to October 1969 at Trident Studios in London
• 'Space Oddity' produced by Gus Dudgeon; the rest of the album produced by Tony Visconti
• Session musicians included Herbie Flowers, Rick Wakeman, Terry Cox and the band Junior's Eyes
• Folk rock and psychedelic rock songs, with lyrical themes drawn from Bowie's life at the time

Background

• Bowie's 1967 self-titled debut was music hall in style and a commercial failure
• At manager Kenneth Pitt's request, Bowie wrote 'Space Oddity' for the promotional film Love You till Tuesday
• Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) inspired the title and subject matter of 'Space Oddity'
• Mercury signed Bowie in May 1969 on the strength of 'Space Oddity'
• The contract gave him enough finances to make a new studio album

Recording

• Pitt hired Tony Visconti, who had produced Bowie's later Deram sessions
• New version of 'Space Oddity' recorded on 20 June 1969 at Trident Studios
• Single lineup included Herbie Flowers on bass and Rick Wakeman on Mellotron
• Recording for the rest of the album resumed five days after the single's release on 11 July
• Recording completed on 6 October 1969

Cover

• Original UK cover: a facial portrait of Bowie by Vernon Dewhurst, placed over a work by Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely
• The artwork, titled CTA 25 Neg, was designed by Bowie and Mercury executive Calvin Mark Lee
• Back cover illustration by Underwood, depicting lyrical aspects of the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Penny Valentine of Disc & Music Echo praised the album, calling it doomy and unnerving yet close to a latter-day Dylan
• Music Now! offered similar praise, describing the record as deep, thoughtful and an experience rather than just a record
• Nancy Erlich of The New York Times praised it as a complete, coherent and brilliant vision, in a review published over a year after release
• Music Business Weekly found Bowie unsure of his direction and described the record as over-ambitious
• Zygote praised 'Space Oddity' and 'Memory of a Free Festival' but found the album lacking cohesiveness
• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice considered this album and The Man Who Sold the World overwrought excursions

Reappraisal

• Dave Thompson of AllMusic: apart from 'Space Oddity', few commercial songs, and the album is a dense, even rambling, folk excursion
• Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork: presents many ideas but does not know what to do with them
• Terry Staunton of Record Collector: may be regarded as the singer's first proper album, yet its mish-mash of styles shows him still searching for an identity
• Mike Schiller of PopMatters: far from Bowie's best, but a landmark in his catalogue and a glimpse of the artist to come
• John Tatlock of The Quietus: does not stand as a proper first album, but captures its creator at a fascinating crossroads
• Simon Reynolds: rush-recorded, arguably Bowie's worst album until the mid-1980s
• Nicholas Pegg: a remarkable step forward from anything Bowie had recorded before, with strong lyrics on 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed', 'Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud' and 'Cygnet Committee'

Records

• Reception on release was mixed
• Little promotion from the label; commercial failure, barely over 5,000 copies sold by March 1970
• Voted number 698 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album came out in the UK under the same eponymous title as Bowie's 1967 debut, a move Trynka called 'bizarre'.
• Underwood's back-cover sketches reportedly included a fish in water, two astronauts holding a rose, and rats in bowler hats.
• The sleeve's 'Depth of a Circle' title was, according to Bowie, a label typo; he intended 'Width of a Circle', which he used for a song on his next album.
• On the original pressings, Bowie was the only musician credited, because most of the players were under contract with other UK labels.
• Mercury considered 'Janine' as a follow-up single to 'Space Oddity' but scrapped the idea over doubts about its commercial appeal.
• The original UK LP carried a hidden track, later titled 'Don't Sit Down', at the end of 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed'.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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