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David Bowie · S1 E5
Davy Jones Problem
The Monkees are on TV and there is already a Davy Jones in pop music. He picks a new surname from a Texan frontiersman and a knife. David Bowie is born
London, 1965. There are two David Joneses trying to make it in British pop, and the other one is winning.
David Bowie, Changes. The ultimate Bowie song about identity and reinvention. Every transformation that followed, Ziggy, the Thin White Duke, the Berlin recluse, started with the most fundamental change of all: a kid from Bromley deciding he would rather be named after a knife than be confused with a Monkee.
The Other Davy Jones
Davy Jones from Manchester is everywhere. He starred in Oliver! on the West End as a teenager, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night as The Beatles in February 1964, and is about to be cast as the heartthrob in an American TV show called The Monkees. If David Robert Jones from Bromley releases a single under his real name, every record store in Britain will file it under the wrong artist.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why did Bowie choose a name that means "knife"?
“I wanted a name with a sense of the frontier about it. Something sharp. Something that sounded like it could go anywhere and do anything.”
— David Bowie, in Buckley, David. "Strange Fascination: David Bowie, The Definitive Story." Virgin Books, 2005
Changes, David Bowie (1971)
Recorded at Trident Studios in London during the Hunky Dory sessions, with Rick Wakeman on piano. Bowie wrote it as a statement about his own restlessness, the refusal to settle into any one style or identity. Producer Ken Scott has said the saxophone solo was one of the quickest Bowie ever recorded: two takes, done. The song peaked at number 49 in the UK on release, never cracking the top 40. It became his anthem anyway.
The First David Bowie Single
In January 1966, a single called "Can't Help Thinking About Me" appears in record shops across Britain. The label reads: David Bowie with The Lower Third. It is the first time anyone has seen that name in print. The single sells poorly, but the name sticks.
What was the first single ever released under the name "David Bowie"?
The Name Change: The Details
Conversation Piece, David Bowie
A 1970 B-side that was almost entirely forgotten until it became the title of a 2019 box set. Bowie wrote it about a lonely man sitting at a window, watching the world and wondering who he really is. No persona, no character, just a young man with a new name and no certainty that it will ever mean anything to anyone.
David Bowie has a new name, a mime teacher, and zero hits. His label drops him, his singles go nowhere, and his next move is a novelty record about a gnome.
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