David Bowie Webdream

Silly Boy Blue

Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound

I was introduced to Bowie during Diamond Dogs/Young Americans. Living in the country made trying to figure his career out initially quite confusing. We didn’t have MTV, VH1, or for that matter, FM radio. You did it by reading Rolling Stone and other rock mags. So, what you wound up doing was seeing someone on something like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert or the Midnight Special, and then just blindly buying albums until you figured whether you liked them or not. When Young Americans and Fame became hits, RCA rushed out a bunch of albums cashing in on their investment. One of those was “David Bowie“, recorded and released in 1967. Bowie would release “Rubber Band”, “The Laughing Gnome”, and “Love You Till Tuesday”. IMO, it was at that moment Bowie began his knack of not releasing the best songs on any album. Hidden away, never released, and since the album flopped, pretty much totally forgotten was “Silly Boy Blue”. Ever since I found my original copy of “David Bowie” way back whenever, this has been one of my favorites as well. It was recorded raw, as Bowie didn’t have much instrumentation to work with in 1967, but I could tell that with just a little nurturing, this could be a beautiful song. Some time ago, the Bowie midi-maestro Lunamgagic, redid Silly Boy Blue in midi. No one does Bowie midi’s better than lunamagic. I then took it and played with it in Cakewalk. This is my version, I like it a lot:

The lyrics to this very early Bowie effort were outstanding:
Mountains of Lhasa are feeling the rain
People are walking the Botella lanes
Preacher takes the school
One boy breaks a rule
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue

Yak butter statues that melt in the sun
Cannot dissolve all the work you’ve not done
A chela likes to feel
That his overself pays the bill
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue

You wish and wish, and wish again
You’ve tried so hard to fly
You’ll never leave your body now
You’ve got to wait to die

La la la la la la la la la la (x2)
La la la la la (x2)
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue

Child of Tibet, you’re a gift from the sun
Reincarnation of one better man
The homeward road is long
You’ve left your prayers and song
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue
Silly Boy Blue, silly Boy Blue.