The Gospel According to Tony Day.
I wish Bowie had made “Over the Wall We Go” the b-side to “Laughing Gnome” and doubled down on novelty, but I suppose “The Gospel According to Tony Day” is odd enough to fit.
It’s a draggy 10-bar (or 8-bar plus 2) blues in which a bass and guitar share quarters with an oboe and bassoon, and it has the sort of dunder-headed lyric that you hope was inspired by drugs but probably wasn’t. There’s an inertia to it—everyone trudging back and forth between two chords, thudding bass countered by wagging oboe—and the whole thing smacks of a botched attempt at hipness (especially by the wind players).
Inspirational moment: “Your mind—BLOW IT.” Followed by a bassoon solo.
Recorded 26 January 1967, b-side of Deram DM 123. Covered (pretty reverently, with a flute subbing for the oboe) by Edwyn Collins in 2003.
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A definite great read..Jim Bean
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RobD–if you hit “Feed Reader” or “Entries RSS” on the right-hand column, you should be able to do it, I think.
Is it me or does Bowie sing towards the end of the track “Waste of *ucking time, take a look at my life and you’ll see…”. It certainly sounds like he drops the “F” bomb!
It’s “Waste of flippin’ time“?
Snoball’s right. I listened to “Tony Day” way too many times to determine if DB was, indeed, dropping the “f” bomb in 1967; sadly, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t.
Well at least I wasn’t the only one who misheard it!