“And let me kiss you like you’ve never been kissed before” *
The May 2019 issue of MOJO has a full-page, 4 star review by Mark Paytress of the Spying Through A Keyhole (STAK) 7” box set.
Headlined ‘Ignition Time’ the review is introduced thus: Space Oddity’s anniversary year lifts off with a candid peek into the difficult months before that first flush of fame, writes Mark Paytress.
Here are the first three paragraphs:
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DAVID BOWIE spent the months between 1967 and ‘69 cast in a role that now seems unthinkable: he was deeply unfashionable. It was a time of endless auditions, blind alleys and doubt. His record label dropped him. No agent would touch his one-man cabaret show. The Laughing Gnome had become a Threepenny Pierrot.
Still Bowie persevered. Early in 1969, with a love affair crumbling, he reached for his 12-string to strum out his despair. It was his salvation. In Space Oddity, melancholy folkpop enriched with futuristic Stylophone and flyaway brothers Gibb vocal, Bowie flipped hopelessness into 'Pop’s Brightest Hope'.
Two newly unearthed versions of the song feature on this nine-track, four-vinyl 45s set, comprising demos from 1968 and thereabouts. The first, a persuasive, 90-second segment, consists of two verses split by the 'tin can' chorus, fading out with “Can you hear me, Major Tom?” Boasting provisional lyrics (“Can I please get back inside/If I may”, “my time on Earth is nearly, through”), it’s Bowie committing it to tape before the moment goes.
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If you want to read the remaining eight paragraphs, you can find MOJO digitally online or in stores right about now.
Go here for more information on Spying Through A Keyhole and pre-order links.
*Today’s lyric quotation is from Love All Around
#BowieSTAK #BowieMOJO