WEBVTT - Chapter Two: The London Boy (1962-1966) 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.480 Off the Record was a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.320 They say there's no such thing as bad publicity. Seventeen 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.840 year old David Bowie knew that distinctively. That's why he 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:15.680 ended up on television talking passionately about his hair. It 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.319 was nineteen sixty four, a time when long locks on 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.200 men seemed to signal a total breakdown of law and order, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.959 the end of Western civilization as we know it. The 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.720 Beatles on the Rolling Stones had caused a cultural uproar 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.080 with their shaggy mop tops. But David Bowie was not 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.760 a Beatle or a Stone, not even close. Hell, he 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.000 wasn't even David Bowie. He was stuck living life as 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.960 Davy Jones, frontman for an endless string of doomed R 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.000 and B outfits. David had met Paul McCartney once in 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.720 the mid sixties, but definitely not as a peer. He 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.479 camped outside Maca's London pad with the other group He's 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.519 hoping to catch a glimpse. Amazingly, this earned David and 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.080 audience with the cute one, who invited him to come inside. 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.280 Paul politely listened to some of David's demos before wishing 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.040 him well and sending him on his way. That was 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:05.000 about the extent of David's fastness. The incident was fitting. 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.480 If Swinging London was a party, David hadn't been invited. Instead, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.280 he was outside in the cold, nose pressed against the glass, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.319 watching all the fund go down without him. Betrailing. The 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.160 pack of pop stars did have an advantage. It allowed 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.200 David to study them intently, reverse engineering the image and 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.440 affectations that came to them so naturally. So if the 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.000 Beatles and the Stones had long hair, he'd simply grow 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.160 his longer. Some slick talk led to an appearance on 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.080 a BBC Current affairs program called Tonight, where David heralded 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.160 the rebellion of the long hairs. The grainy black and 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.200 white footage, among the earliest filmed appearances of David known 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.920 to exist, shows him poised, stern and unsmiling, with his 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.880 mismatched dies peering out from underneath his flaxen fringe. He's 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.840 promoting not his band, but his club, the Society for 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.560 the Prevention of Cruelty to Long Haired Men. David somehow 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:57.840 managed to keep a straight face as he railed against 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.160 the injustices faced by both himself and this hairsuit brethren. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.440 We're all fairly tolerant, he deadpans, but for the last 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.880 two years we've had comments like darling and can I 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.720 carry your handbag? Thrown at us. It has to stop. 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.560 The bemused host asks if David modeled his hair after 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:19.680 the Rolling Stones. David's strenuous denial comes a little too quickly. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.640 The clip is hilarious, and the funniest part, the Club's 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:27.119 not even real. At age seventeen, David had already learned 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:29.520 how to cultivate an image and use it to manipulate 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:33.280 the national media. You can't help but be impressed. His 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.480 day job at an advertising agency left him particularly well 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.600 suited to sell this most important of products himself. He'd 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:44.040 perfect the technique and used to come viewed today. The 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.320 Tonight clip is a kind the watching an early rocket 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.960 test for a mission that would ultimately launch David out 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.239 of the stratosphere. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.959 to Long Haired Man Sham is admittedly very, very silly, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.640 but hey, David had finagle himself a spot on the 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.560 Tube that alone gave him at least a shred of cred. 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.240 But the other show biz wannabes yet When it came 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.440 to David's music, no one wanted to know he'd returned 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.520 to the BBC within a year with his band. While 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.760 auditioned for a performance spot on the radio, the judge's 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.560 responses were unanimous. I don't think the group will get 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.359 better with rehearsal. The singer's not particularly exciting, the routines 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.600 dull and inoffensive, pleasant, nothing. There's no entertainment value in 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.080 anything they do. It's just a group, and a very 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:35.000 ordinary one too, backing a singer devoid of personality. Vicious absolutely, 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.760 But in a way the stuffed suits at the network 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.200 weren't wrong. David was so successful at mimicking successful people 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.400 that he muted all the things that made him unique. 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.880 He was all bluff but no heart, all image but 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.640 no substance. Not yet. At least it was a learning 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.920 period to the future star. Before he's Supernova and the 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.560 David Bowie, he was David Jones, a follower and a fan, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:07.520 just another one of the London boys. Hello and welcome 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.840 to Off the Record, the show that goes beyond the 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.000 songs and into the hearts and minds of rocks, grateus Legends. 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.480 I'm your host, Jordan run Talk. This season explores the 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:22.599 life or should we say lives of David Bowen. In 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.320 this episode, We're gonna talk about David the Maud, the 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.400 relentlessly ambitious team struggling to find his place in the 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:37.520 pop pecking order of sixties London, August, a major day 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.640 in the history of popular music. Today, the future David 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.080 Bowie has his first recording session. Think of all the 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.280 incredible albums to come, Hunky Dorry, Ziggy, Start Us Station, 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.320 The Station, Low Heroes, Young Americans, it can all be 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:58.000 traced to the single day. Unfortunately, the day in question 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:03.599 was an unmitigated catastrophe. It all started off so promising, too, 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.800 like something out of a movie. The assistant for a 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.520 big time agent happened to catch David's high school band, 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.840 the Conrads, performing at a youth fair and liked what 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.120 he heard. This guy had recently signed another local band 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.480 called the Rolling Stones, and he thought, maybe, just maybe, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.600 the Conrads might be the next big thing, so he 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:23.839 invited the group to audition at Decca, one of the 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.880 biggest record labels in the country. It all seemed too 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.760 good to be true, and it kind of was. David 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:33.719 may have had nerves of steel, but the rest of 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.560 the band were nervous wrecks. Studios at the time, we're 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.920 not the zan candlelit music haven's that we know today. 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.159 Back then they were more like top secret laboratories, cold 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.000 and clinical, complete with engineers clad an ominous white coats, 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.640 not exactly conducive to making rock and roll. The Conrads 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.919 recorded just one track, an original called I Never Dreamed. 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.360 The results were so shambolic that the engineers didn't even 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.320 bother playing it back. David Bowie's first studio recording was 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.680 unceremoniously erased, but a copy did miraculously turned up half 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:20.960 a century later, found in an old bread bin. By 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.080 the time Decade formally rejected the Conrads, David had quit 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.479 the band and a spectacular huff. His bandmates must have 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:32.560 seen it coming. David wasn't really a group gay. It's 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.279 true the Condras fan base had grown since David made 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.800 his onstage debut with them a year earlier, rocking a 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.440 PTA event with this classy white saxophone and sky high pompadour, 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.080 But it was obvious to David that this was strictly 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.520 a suburban venture destined only for church halls, pubs and 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.279 the odd birthday gig near their hometown of Bromley, England. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.120 This realization was hammered home after they suffered a humiliating 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.039 defeat on a TV talent contest, losing out to a 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:01.000 younger former classmate named Peter Frampton. Of all people. Musical 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.080 differences added the David's frustrations. He wanted to push the 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.600 Contrads towards the R and B sounds of Marvin Gay, 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:08.640 but the others wanted to stay with the same tried 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.560 and true Top forty covers. He tried to get them 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.360 to cover an old folk song called House of the 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.160 Rising Sun, but the band refused. David was royally peeved 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.160 when it became a global hit for the Animals within 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.280 the year. David was about to walk when the band 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.840 got their DECA audition. After that one up and smoked, 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:31.480 he had no reason to stick around. Now sixteen, he'd 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.160 finished school with very little a show for it. One 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.280 report card described them as a pleasant idler. By the 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.920 time he left Bromley Tech that June, he'd failed every 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.720 single one of his final tests except for art. Not 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.200 that he cared for David. His future was obvious when 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.240 a school guidance counselor asked him what he wanted to 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.040 do for a living. David's response was immediate, be a 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.160 sax player in a modern jazz quartet. The well meaning 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.440 counselor found him a job in a local harp factory, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:58.640 but that wasn't exactly the kind of career of music 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.880 David had in mind. His father, always willing to pull 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.600 some strings, got him a job as an electricians assistant, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.160 but it wasn't long before he quit. He didn't resign, 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.239 and as much as he just stopped going. David's parents 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:15.120 were understandably worried. Mother Peggy was openly critical about her 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.600 son's musical ambitions. She was frustrated by his inability to 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.800 find a real job to entangle himself from the family finances. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.720 The Jones is small Bromley home felt even more cramped 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.920 with her overgrown boy living there too. These musical shenanigans 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.200 were just a passing fad. She thought David needed some 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.439 stable grounding to fall back on. This was, after all, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.760 the sixties, a time when job security was inconceivably strong, 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.560 and then he worked at the same company from graduation 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.200 to retirement. David's father John, however, was more encouraging of 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.400 his ambitions. John was cut from the same showbiz cloth 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.640 as David, and even tried to launch a cabaret act 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.280 of his own as a young man. He followed David's 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.680 music career closely, like a dutiful stage dad, offering advice 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.080 when he could. Needless to say, this created some tension 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:08.360 with his less indulgent wife. Eventually, David secured a job 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:12.080 at an advertising agency in central London. It wasn't as 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.200 glamorous as the rather lofty title of junior visualizer made 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.320 it seem. David spent his days sketching ads and commercial 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.280 story boards for things like raincoats and a dietary cookie 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.640 with a deeply unfortunate name, Aids. The nine to five 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.240 slog kept his parents happy, but David hated it and 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.600 moaned about his bloom and job constantly. There was only 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.520 one upside. The offices were a short walk from Doubles, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.760 the best record shop in London. David's lunch hour would 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.240 stretch into two as he scoured the shelves. It was 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.319 there that he first bought records by Bob Dylan and 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.760 Johnny Lee Hooker, two artists who would have a huge 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:49.240 impact on the young musician. David was definitely in need 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.120 of some fresh inspiration. By nine three, the first wave 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.000 of rock and roll with crested and many of the 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.080 biggest stars were sidelined. Little Richard to become a born 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.000 again Christian and swore off the Devil's mu for a time. 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.840 At least. Buddy Holly had been killed in the Midwest 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.160 plane wreck that also claimed the lives of Richie Vallence 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.520 and the Big Bopper. Jerry Lee Lewis's career floundered after 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.560 news leaked of his big amous marriage to his thirteen 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.400 year old cousin, and Chuck Berry was similarly shunned for 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.040 transporting a fourteen year old girl across state lines. And 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.800 then there was Elvis. He'd been drafted into the army, 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.280 and after two years stationed abroad, the King of Rock 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.480 emerged and neutered and lobotomized peddler of terrible films and 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.679 schlocky pop. Within the space of just a few years, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.760 the airwaves have been scrubbed with the rough and ready 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.400 sounds of the American South and the inner cities in 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.520 their place for syrupy confections cranked out by hit making 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.839 factories with the help of any half whit with a 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.360 hip haircut who could carry a tune. These teen idols 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.760 ruled the charts, but for serious music fans, pop was passe. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.400 Rhythm and blues now that was where it was at. 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:53.760 R and B was the truth. Rock and roll in 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.960 his most pure form. Blues artists like Sonny Boy, Williamson, 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.319 Muddy Waters and Freddie King were the new heroes for 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.160 the switched on cool kids. You know who they were. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.400 Instantly David seethed with envy as he sat next to 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.080 them on the train from Bromley to London. They were 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.840 the ones dressed in the tight three button mohair jackets 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.320 with slim ties and even slimmer pants, haircut short and neat, 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.240 often in a meticulously groomed fringe. Everything about them was crisp, 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.680 clean and cool. Who needed rock of cessed teddy boys 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.400 with their feeble attempts to mimic American grease or styles. 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:26.800 They were stuck in the fifties. It was a new 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.280 decade and this emerging subculture embraced its newness along with 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.839 anything cutting edge, different and above all modern. That's why 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.600 they called themselves mods. Unlike the beats who were beelled 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.960 against the materialism of middle class America. Mods were shameless consumers, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.320 gleefully sampling the fruits of postwar prosperity that had finally 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.120 come their way. Like proud, pilled up peacocks, they were 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.160 eager to one up their friends and rivals with the 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.240 latest looks and records. Unlike the rockers who rigidly divided 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.400 the sexes into casts and chicks, Mods flirted with androgyny. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.439 Men used makeup and eyeshadow to sharpen the top lines 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.679 of their bones structure to match the sharp lines of 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.200 their tailored Italian suits. Zipping around on tricked out Lambretta scooters. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.600 These kids lived for the weekend, when they packed in 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.599 the sweaty basement clubs and jive to jazz ska on 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.679 R and B. They're all night raves were helped along 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.240 by a kaleidoscope of pills, French blues, black bombers, and 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.680 purple hearts. SOHO grew jammed with image conscious, gender bending, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.760 nonconformist kids who worshiped American black music and continental fashion. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.040 Needless to say, this was David's crowd. He was a mod. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.920 Before mods existence, the term seemed to sum up as 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.480 boundless creativity and restless pursuit of the new. He joined 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:41.840 the throngs of ace faces and high numbers who turned 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.079 out on the weekends to hear homegrown bands try their 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.800 hand at R and B the soundtrack to their exceedingly 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:51.080 well dressed rebellion. The scene was crammed with musical upstarts 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.800 fine for attention from labels who were tossing out recording 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.240 contracts left right and center. The British music industry was 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.800 generating the modern equivalent of nearly two and a half 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.880 billion dollars annually. With that kind of payoff, record companies 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.320 were more than happy to comb through the twenty thousand 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.040 British beat groups that had formed by nineteen sixty three. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.240 The deceptively simple blues riffs proved just as alluring as 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.760 the d i y friendly sounds of skiffle years prior. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.320 It didn't take much this trauma one, four or five 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.800 pattern or hanker harmonica, but capturing the emotional complexities of 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:23.840 the blues proved a little more elusive to these British 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.720 white boys. As Seinster in Future Yardbirds manager Simon Napier 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.920 Bell later observed when a down trodden black Southerner saying 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.360 I'm a man. He meant I'm a human being when 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.679 Mick Jaggers sang and he meant I've got a heart on. 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.600 David sold the Rolling Stones in action when they opened 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.640 for a Little Richard in nineteen sixty three. That same night, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.160 Mick gave David a crucial lesson in Front Man One 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.800 on one. Now, the Stones had yet to be crowned 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:49.839 the world's greatest rock and roll band. At this point, 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.120 by David's estimation, their fan base could be counted on 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.720 one hand. One particularly square spectator wasn't picking up with 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.480 the band. Were laying down. Hey you, he shouted to 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.440 make from his seat, get your haircut mixed air the 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.840 heckler down and oh so coolly replied what and looked 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:08.760 like you. The line with forever rank among David's all 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.760 time favorite putdowns. David decided to get in on the 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.920 British beet Binanza, a venerable gold rush for young rock 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.240 hope calls. All he needed now was his own Rolling 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:32.040 Stones to have his back. Seventeen year old David Jones 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.640 probably wondered how he wound up singing got my mojo 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.480 working to a bunch of tuxedo sixty somethings at a 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.280 posh London nightclub. It was a fair question. Hell the 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.720 tuxedo sixties somethings were wondering the same thing. This was 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.720 definitely not the ideal audience for the king Bes. David's 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.200 new R and B group, the T shirt and denim 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.160 clad Quintet, made it through just two numbers before David 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.520 received the tap on the shoulder and was politely but 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.600 firmly asked to leave the stage. Usually he was pretty 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.000 skilled at weathering these set back, but this time the 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.800 young singer's confidence deserted him. As soon as he was 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.720 out of view, he promptly burst into tears. It was 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.520 the prime example of David's mile wide ambitious streak biting 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.240 him in the ass. He and his school friend George 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.280 Underwood had formed the king Bees in the spring of 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.840 nineteen sixty four to try and ride the R and 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.760 B wave of sweeping London. The success of bands like 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.360 The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Animals and The Kings 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.160 had sparked the record labeled gold Rush, prompting groups from 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.640 across the country to grab a harmonica and stake their claim. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.480 The Rolling Stones influence, and the king Be's was clear. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.720 They got their name from a slim harpo song that 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.080 Mix sang on their debut LP, and much of the 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:37.920 king Best set was made up of the same Muddy 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.440 Waters and Elmore James songs the Stones frequently covered. David 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.360 took his self appointed roles the group's leader, very seriously 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.840 and set about trying to secure management for the king Bees. 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.560 In typical style, he aimed high. Egged on by his father, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.200 David wrote a letter to John Bloom, a flamboy and 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.000 entrepreneur whose washing machine empire made him one of Britain's 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.960 wealthiest men. David really laid it on thick. The complete 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.840 at or has tragically been lost to history, but it 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.320 did include this gem, Brian Epstein's got the Beatles You 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.080 need Us? Big talk for a kid who's who lived 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.000 at home with his parents. Now. John Bloom had no 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:12.840 interest in becoming a rock and psario, but he was 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:14.880 amused by the kids spunk and passed the note along 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.720 with his friend Leslie Kahn. Leslie actually did know a 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.960 thing or two about music. By day, he managed Doris 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.680 Day's song publishing and boasted relationships with a host of 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.520 hot young producers. He could make things happen to. One 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.200 client described Khan as a man who could set fire 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.240 to a bucket of sand. Les wanted to get a 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:34.640 look at the band and booked them to play a 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.720 set at John Bloom's anniversary party, which is how David 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:39.800 Jones wound up singing got my Mojo work into a 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.600 bunch of tuxedoed sixty somethings at a posh London nightclub. 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.200 The performance was a disaster from beginning to premature end. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.840 Most of the money glitterati covered their ears in a 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.920 desperate attempt to block out the deafening noise, so loud 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.400 that the band didn't hear John Bloom shouting get him off. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.280 They're ruining my party. In fact, the only person that 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.000 the gig was impressed by the King Bees was Lesliekhn himself, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.200 who agreed to take them on as full time clients. 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.280 David left his dreaded junior visualizer day job and threw 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.400 himself into the group full time. Unfortunately, there was next 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.160 to no demand for the band, so he spent most 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.200 of his days hanging out aimlessly at Kahn's headquarters. Les 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.600 put him to work painting his office, along with another 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.680 of his young, slightly hopeless clients, a South London boy 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.560 named Mark Feld, who soon changed his name to Mark Bowland, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.680 later to front t Rex. In ten years, Bowling and 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.920 David will be dukes of the British glam rock scene. 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:30.480 But for now, they went up to each other while 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.400 they whitewashed their manager's office. Where'd you get those shoes? Man? 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:35.879 Who'd you get your shirt? I'm gonna be a singer 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.040 and I'm gonna be so big you're not gonna believe it. Man. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:40.919 All right, well, I'll probably write a musical for you 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.960 one day, because I'm gonna be the greatest writer ever. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.399 David was just as good at hyping himself and the 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.000 press releases he wrote for Lez. Here's one sample from 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.159 the summer of sixty four. David just likes Adam's apples 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.720 and lists his interest as baseball, American football, and collecting boots. 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.719 A handsome six foot or with a warm and engaging personality, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:01.879 Davy Jones as all it takes to get to the 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:07.760 show business heights, including talent. Unfortunately, this talent was not 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.520 on display when the kingbes entered Decca Studios that summer 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.119 to record their debut single, Liza Jane. David and George 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:16.960 had written the song in fifteen minutes, and it shows 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.840 the B side a cover of Paul Revere in The Raiders. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.040 Louis Louis Go Home was exactly a great piece of 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.240 work either. The rest of the band suffered from nervous jitters, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.959 but David was undaunted. You'd better get used to this, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.119 he teased the others as he approached the mike to 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.280 Unlesha Cockney John Lennon impression. Liza Jane was a totally 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.399 derivative rush job, a transparent attempt to cash in on 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:42.199 the R and B boom. But it had attitude. But 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.280 attitude alone doesn't sell records. Leslie Cohen had to call 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.080 in some serious favors just to get it released in June. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.959 It marked an inauspicious beginning for the future David Bowie's 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.600 recording career. Appearances on early rock TV shows like Jukebox, 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.000 Jury Ready, Steady Go in the beat Room couldn't lift 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.560 Liza Jane out than other regions of the charts. David's father, 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.119 John delivered perhaps the most astute assessment of his boy's achievement. 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.399 I think he sounds terrible, but he must be some 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.880 good because he's made a record. The failure sour David 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:12.720 on the Kingbyes once and for all, And in July 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.480 n six four he dramatically informed his bandmates he was 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.040 quitting The other Kingbs couldn't have been too surprised. David 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.399 had always been rather shamelessly out for self nothink personal. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.240 You understand. He had a favorite expression which summed up 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.480 his cheerful selfishness perfectly. Numero Uno mate, That's who he 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:34.679 was looking out for. Leslie Khen quickly found him a 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.000 new bandy he could beat Numero Uno. They were the 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.040 Manished Boys, another acting is stable on the surface. It 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.200 was a good fit, with their name borrowed from a 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.000 muddy Waters to The Managed Boys shared David's passion for 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.440 four and the floor horn driven R and B. But 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.359 the group had been together for years and they weren't 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.359 thrilled about letting some young interloper into their midst les 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.920 Kohen had to do some fast talking. He's been on TV, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.880 he's got a record, big news in the mid sixties. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:00.840 But when David walked into rehearsal flat on a buckskin 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.400 fringe jacket and thigh high boots. The man Wished boys 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.960 knew they had their man. Who cares what he sounded like? 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.359 He looked like a rock star. Any lingering doubts vanished 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:11.520 when David pulled had his cream colored sacks and blew 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.439 them away with King Curtis riffs. Needless to say, he 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:19.400 got the gig. David spent much of the next year 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.359 crammed in the back of a beat up Bedford band 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.159 bound for pubs, clubs, and US Air Force bases across 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.879 southern Britain. It was the first serious touring that he 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.399 had ever done, and his skills as a frontman improved greatly. 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.000 David learned to use the microphone like a pro and 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.639 smashed moroccas like a man possessed as usual. He quickly 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.400 assumed creative control of the band, pushing for covers from 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.800 his beloved copy of James Brown Live with the Apollo, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.480 as well as songs by Ray Charles, Solomon Burke and 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.040 Conway Twitty. He also gave the Mannished Boys a style makeover, 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.080 stealing clothes from the trash bins outside the trendy boutiques 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.640 on Carnebi Street. The billowing Russian peasant shirts knee length 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.280 suede boots, leather vests and longer than long hair certainly 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.879 caught people's attention, especially women. David's skills at seduction were 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.679 also honed on the road. His pursuit of women bordered 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.200 on the obsessive. As soon as gigs ended, he made 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:08.840 a bee line to the dance floor to chat up 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:10.919 the girls before his bandmates had a chance to move in. 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:13.679 On one occasion, he brought a lady up to the 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.720 bed and breakfast room they all shared. No one slept 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.720 much that night. During the Manished Boys debut performance at 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.439 Soho's Marquee Club in November of nineteen sixty four, David 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.320 caught the eye of an aspiring singer named Dana Gillespie. 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.600