David Bowie - The Early Years with Paul Morley

This week we are joined by music writer Paul Morley to guide us through the early years of David Bowie - from his early life in Brixton & Bromley through to his formative experiences in Soho, his early bands & his original desire to be a saxophone player.

We find out what led to his rebranding of himself from David Jones into the David Bowie the world came to know.

After meeting Marc Bolan, Bowie was signed by Leslie Conn & released his debut album in 1967, featuring the novelty release The Laughing Gnome.

Space Oddity follows & after producer Tony Visconti dismissed the song as a novelty, Gus Dudgeon ends up coming in to produce.

The song has a singular quality & becomes a hit although such is its uniqueness David struggles to follow it up. His 2nd album (also titled David Bowie) follows shortly after & David’s time as an unknown comes to an end.

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