Kory Grow
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David Bowie, 1965. Alisdair MacDonald/Mirrorpix/Getty Images A new compilation collects recordings David Bowie made in 1965, before he was famous with the already-famous producer Shel Talmy. Talmy had made a name for himself a couple of years earlier producing hits for the Kinks (“You Really Got Me,” “Tired of Waiting for You”), the Who (“I Can’t Explain”), and Chad and Jeremy (“A Summer Song”), so it made sense that Bowie (still using his real name, Davie Jones) would want to record his bands (variously known as the Lower Third and the Mannish Boys) with Talmy. The comp, The Shel Talmy Recordings, due Sept. 18, collects what Bowie was known to have recorded with the producer, sessions that occasionally featured Jimmy Page on guitar and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
The collection includes 10 songs that have never officially been released, stating with “I Want Your Love,” out today. The song is an interesting listen since it lacks the singular artiness Bowie would approach by the end the decade. It’s a lurching R&B number filled with fuzzy guitar noise and drums playing on an upbeat, and it ends with a Who-like guitar apocalypse. Bowie belts it like he’s trying to sound like Van Morrison (circa Them) doing a Mick Jagger impression (at least the way the Stones sounded on songs like “Tell Me”). Bowie wanted to record a hit, clearly, but he hadn’t found his voice yet.
“The sounds here should not be judged by the standards of his later career, but by the standards of what was happening in Britain at that precise point in time,” music historian Alec Palao wrote in the liner notes. “In which case, they speak as loudly of the excitement of London and its music scene in that pivotal year of 1965 as they do for the launch of its brightest future star.” Davie Jones changed his name to David Bowie by September 1965.
“I thought he absolutely was going to make it,” Talmy, who died in 2024, said in 2017. “The only unfortunate thing is that he and I were about six years ahead of the market”
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Th collection includes “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” and “Baby Loves That Way,” two singles Bowie revisited later in his career when he re-recorded them for his ultimately posthumously released album, Toy.
The Shel Talmy Recordings track list:
