The London Boys

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For the Eurodisco band, see London Boys.
"The London Boys"
File:Thelondonboys.png
Song by David Bowie
A-side "Rubber Band"
Released 2 December 1966 [B-side]
2 May 1975 [A-side]
Recorded 18 October 1966
Studio R G Jones, London
Genre Baroque pop, Psychedelic pop, Music Hall
Length 3:20
Label Deram
Songwriter(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) David Bowie and Dek Fearnley
"The London Boys"
Song by David Bowie
from the album Toy
Released unreleased
Recorded July & October 2000
Studio Sear Sound [July], Looking Glass [October]
Genre Baroque pop, Psychedelic pop, Music Hall
Length 3:47
Songwriter(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) David Bowie, Mark Plati

"The London Boys" is a song written and performed by the English pop musician David Bowie. It was first released as the B-side of the single "Rubber Band" in the UK in December 1966. While the A-side of the single began the artist's baroque pop phase, "The London Boys" retained the Mod feel of his previous few singles. Nicholas Pegg writes: '"The London Boys" is among Bowie's most sophisticated recordings of the period, demonstrating a mature grasp of pace and dynamics'.[1] In 1975, the track was re-released as the A-side of a single by Bowie's record company at the time of "The London Boys" first issue. Bowie later rerecorded the song in 2000 for his unreleased and abandoned album Toy.

Recording and release

"The London Boys" was originally recorded in November 1965 when Bowie was still working with his band The Lower Third.[2] Bowie had joined The Lower Third in May of 1965 when still going by the name of Davy Jones, and the band had released their first single - "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" - in August of the same year. On 16 September, Jones changed his official stage name to Bowie (to avoid confusion with another Davy Jones, of The Monkees), and the band signed a new record contract with Pye that November. The recording, according to Chris O'Leary, was rejected as a single 'whether due to risque lyrics' (Bowie's claim) 'or its dragginess' (according to the producer, Tony Hatch).[3] Instead the band released "Can't Help Thinking About Me" as their second single in early 1966. Pegg continues: 'In an interview for Melody Maker in February 1966, ostensibly to publicise "Can't Help Thinking About Me", Bowie referred to the number by its original title: "Its called "Now You've Met The London Boys", and mentions pills, and generally belittles the London night-life scene [...] it goes down very well in the stage act and lots of fans said I should have released it'.[4] The drummer of The Lower Third, Phil Lancaster, remembered: 'I was choked, and David was as well'.[5] This version of the song is now considered lost.[6]

The song continued to be played live and the arrangement and lyrics tweaked over the next few months during live performances.[7] However, Bowie had already quit The Lower Third in January 1966 (before the Melody Maker interview and before the release of "Can't Help Thinking About Me") and formed The Buzz in February of the same year. Two singles were released with Pye ("Do Anything You Say" and "I Dig Everything") before Bowie signed a new contract with Deram which would allow him not only to release singles, but also make his first album, what would become David Bowie (1967). It is the signing to Deram that naugurates Bowie's baroque pop phase. Bowie secured the Deram contract by way of a recording session at R G Jones Studios (London) on 18 October 1966 financed by Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt.[8] And one of the songs recorded at that session was the reworked "The London Boys", the other two tracks being "Rubber Band" and an early and very different version of "Please Mr Gravedigger", what would go on to be the closing track of Bowie's David Bowie (1967) album.[9]

"Rubber Band" was designated the A-side of Bowie's first single from Deram, and the B-side became "The London Boys". The single was released on 2 December 1966 in the UK. The American version of the single, issued in June 1967 and with the re-recorded album version of the song "Rubber Band" had another song on the B-side.[10] "There Is a Happy Land" (taken from David Bowie [1967]) replaced "The London Boys" as Deram's parent company Decca 'baulked at the drug references'.[11]

Response

Despite good notices in the music press, the "Rubber Band" single once more failed to break into the UK charts as with all Bowie's previous singles. Indeed, reviewers tended to prefer the B-side. Of the single, Disc, a British music magazine, wrote at the time: 'Listen to this record then turn it over and listen to "The London Boys", which I think would have been a much more impressive topside'.[12]

Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray - writing in 1981 - concur: 'The B-side is a far more serious affair, and probably the most moving and pertinent work that Bowie produced prior to "Space Oddity". Sung in the second person to a young provincial would be Mod trying to keep up with the ace faces in the Big Smoke, the "London Boys" is a slow agonising portrayal of the inevitable comedown from the amphetamine exhilaration of "My Generation"' by the Who.[13]

Bowie considered re-recording the song for Pin Ups in 1973, 'interspacing verses between covers of old Mod anthems'.[14] The song was rereleased by Deram as an A-side in 1975.[15][16]

Single track listing

All songs written by David Bowie.

Region Date Title Label Format
UK 2 December 1966 "Rubber Band" [single version] [2:05] / "The London Boys" [3:20] Deram 7" single
UK/Europe 2 May 1975 "The London Boys" [3:20] / "Love You Till Tuesday" [album version] Deram 7" single

Production credits (1965/1966)

Other releases

Toy version

The song was rerecorded in 2000 for the unreleased album Toy that leaked in 2011. Two excerpts appeared on BowieNet in 2002, one in July that was 1'26" long and the other in August that was 1'30" long; however, both clips did not cover the entire song. It was performed for a special BowieNetter gig in 2000.[17][18]

Production credits (2000)

"The London Boys" [Toy version]:

  • Producers:
  • Engineer
    • Pete Keppler
  • Arrangement
  • Musicians:
    • David Bowie: Vocals
    • Earl Slick: Guitar
    • Gerry Leonard: Guitar
    • Mark Plati: Guitar
    • Mike Garson: organ
    • Gail Ann Dorsey: Bass, Backing vocals
    • Stirling Campbell: drums
    • Holly Palmer, Emm Gryner: backing vocals
    • Unknown musicians: oboe, trumpet, vilin, viola, cello

Cover versions

References

General

  • Carr, Roy and Charles Shaar Murray, Bowie: An Illustrated Record, Avon Books, 1981 - ISBN 0380779668
  • O'Leary, Chris, Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from '64 to '76, Zero Books, 2015 - ISBN 9781780992440
  • Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie: Expanded and Updated Seventh Edition, Titan Books, 2016 - ISBN 9781785653650

Specific

  1. ↑ Pegg, p. 168
  2. ↑ O'Leary, p. 44
  3. ↑ O'Leary, p. 44
  4. ↑ Pegg, p. 167
  5. ↑ Pegg, p. 167
  6. ↑ Pegg, p. 167
  7. ↑ O'Leary, p. 44
  8. ↑ O'Leary, p. 43
  9. ↑ Pegg, p. 211-212
  10. ↑ Pegg, p. 330
  11. ↑ Pegg, p. 168
  12. ↑ Pegg, p. 230
  13. ↑ Carr and Murray, p. 21
  14. ↑ O'Leary, p. 43
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ O'Leary, p. 45
  18. ↑ Pegg, p. 168

External links

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