Oh! You Pretty Things

"Oh! You Pretty Things"
Song by David Bowie from the album Hunky Dory
Released 17 December 1971
Recorded Trident Studios, London, early summer 1971
Genre Glam rock
Length 3:12
Label RCA
Writer(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) Ken Scott, David Bowie
Hunky Dory track listing

"Changes"
(1)
"Oh! You Pretty Things"
(2)
"Eight Line Poem"
(3)
David Bowie "Oh! You Pretty Things" (1971)
19 second sample from David Bowie's "Oh! You Pretty Things".

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"Oh You Pretty Thing"
Single by Peter Noone
B-side "Together Forever"
Released 1971
Format 7" single
Genre Pop
Length 3:04
Label RAK
Writer(s) David Bowie
Producer(s) Mickie Most

Oh! You Pretty Things is a song written by David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory. It opens with only piano and Bowie's vocal, before entering the catchy refrain. The simple piano style is often compared to The Beatles' "Martha My Dear".[1][2] Thematically, the song has been seen as reflecting the influence of occultist Aleister Crowley,[1] philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,[3] and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's hollow earth novel 'The Coming Race,[4] and heralding "the impending obsolescence of the human race in favour of an alliance between arriving aliens and the youth of the present society".[2]

The song was first released by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, in a single on which Bowie played piano. It became a #12 hit in mid-1971. Noone replaced Bowie's line "The Earth is a bitch" with "The Earth is a beast", in a performance that NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray opined to be "one of rock and roll's most outstanding examples of a singer failing to achieve any degree of empathy whatsoever with the mood and content of a lyric".[5]

Personnel

Live versions

Other releases

Cover versions

References

  1. 1 2 David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.115
  2. 1 2 Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.40-41
  3. David Sheppard (2007), MOJO 60 Years of Bowie: p.24
  4. Pegg, Nicholas (27 Sep 2011). The Complete David Bowie. California: Titan Books. ISBN 9780857682901. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  5. Carr & Murray (1981): p.117
  6. "Bowie At The Beeb vinyl box out now". davidbowie.com. 2016-02-26. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. Harvey, Michael (2007-01-19). "The Old Gray Whistle Test - 8 February 1972". The Ziggy Stardust Companion. Retrieved 2011-01-29.

External links

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