Minimalist by the standards of David Bowie, “Come and Buy My Toys” is just Bowie and a 12-string guitar. “Toys” is in the same vein as “There is a Happy Land” but lacks the latter’s sense of mystery and ominousness, in part because the cod-medieval imagery Bowie’s stuffed the lyric with (“you’ve watched your father plow the fields with a ram’s horn” and so on).
It passes its brief span pleasantly enough, though. “Come and Buy My Toys” best serves as an advertisement for the whole record—Bowie as a purveyor of assorted sweets, sours, tapestry tales, jewels and baubles.
Recorded on 12 December 1966; on David Bowie. The guitar line that runs through the verses reminds me a bit of the one in Madonna’s “Don’t Tell Me“: they have close to the same chord sequence, I think (D/Am/C/G for Madonna, D/Am/C/G6 for Bowie).
Top: Patrick Troughton, the new star of Doctor Who, in “The Power of the Daleks,” November 1966.
My wife played me “Don’t Tell Me” on iTunes after she heard my blasting “Come And Buy My Toys” and damned if she didn’t nick it! The Dame should sue her……….