The Deram Anthology 1966 - 1968

Tracks like Maid Of Bond Street, London Boys and Join The Gang deal with Bowie's youth in swinging London, whilst She's Got My Medals examines gender roles. The ominous We Are Hungry Men depicts a totalitarian nightmare where population control is carried out by cannibalism, amongst other things. Then there's Please Mr Gravedigger, about infanticide, and Little Bombardier, about child abuse. Bowie also explores the innocence of childhood in songs like This Is A Happy Land, Uncle Arthur and Come And Buy My Toys. Let Me Sleep Beside You and When Live My Dream are songs of yearning, quiet moving and memorable.

In a way, Bowie returned to this style of song on 1973's futuristic cabaret Aladdin Sane, albeit with more contemporary instruments and arrangements. That was also the year in which the re-released Laughing Gnome made the top ten in the UK. The music is remarkable and unusual but could find no audience in the psychedelic late sixties when rock legends were made. Those Bowie fans that have assimilated all his transformations down the years might find this an interesting collection, but it often still sounds weird. How great that Bowie persevered to make some of the most compelling music of the 1970s and 1980s. The roots of his genius are certainly evident here.


Music hall nightmare   June 18, 2004
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Recorded in 1966, this strange album displays Bowie's seeds of genius. The dark subject matter is presented in a type of music hall feel that is unconventional even now, three decades later. The wide variety of themes are often set to noteworthy tunes, whilst the inclusion of an early version of Space Oddity and the charming song The Laughing Gnome make the album a must for Bowie completists.
Tracks like Maid Of Bond Street, London Boys and Join The Gang deal with Bowie's youth in swinging London, whilst She's Got My Medals examines gender roles. The ominous We Are Hungry Men depicts a totalitarian nightmare where population control is carried out by cannibalism, amongst other things. Then there's Please Mr Gravedigger, about infanticide, and Little Bombardier, about child abuse. Bowie also explores the innocence of childhood in songs like This Is A Happy Land, Uncle Arthur and Come And Buy My Toys. Let Me Sleep Beside You and When Live My Dream are songs of yearning, quiet moving and memorable.
In a way, Bowie returned to this style of song on 1973's futuristic cabaret Aladdinsane, albeit with more contemporary instruments and arrangements. That was also the year in which the re-released Laughing Gnome made the top ten in the UK. The music is remarkable and unusual but could find no audience in the psychedelic late sixties when rock legends were made. Those Bowie fans who have assimilated all his transformations down the years might find this an interesting collection, but it often still sounds weird. How great that Bowie persevered to make some of the most compelling music of the 1970s and 1980s. The roots of his genius are certainly evident here.


Essential early Dave!   July 27, 2002
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

...This ain't rock'n'roll! This is...well, what exactly? This is a definitive collection of Bowie's releases for Deram in 1966 and 1967. DB was listening to the Velvet Underground, Scott Walker, and The Mothers of Invention at this time but these songs seem more influenced by music hall and big bands of the '20s and '30s, with waltz tempos aplenty and lots of oompah-ing brass arrangements! There's some twee psychedelia on "Sell Me A Coat" and "Ching A Ling", ultra-fey teen pop on "Love You Till Tuesday" and some semi-autobiographical cynical vignettes of Swinging London "Join The Gang", "Maid Of Bond Street" and "London Boys".

For the most part, however, it's like Listen With Mother hosted by Edgar Allen Poe. Beneath the rinky-dink arrangements are songs about a lonely bombardier who befriends two children and is run out of town as a suspected paedophile; a woman who drags up as a man to join the army; and a future in which the government has enforced mass abortion, suicide and sterilisation to stop the population explosion!

There's also some poignant songs that yearn for an idyllic childhood that never was - "Come And Buy My Toys" and the brilliant "There Is A Happy Land" (a forerunner of "After All" on MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD).

Bowie's continual interest in Buddhism ("Quicksand", "Seven Years In Tibet") makes its first appearance here with "Silly Boy Blue".

The stand out song is "Please Mr Gravedigger",a spoken word monologue about a gravedigger who is digging a grave for the child-murderer he is contemplating killing! The only backing is a FX tape of a storm, DB stomping on a tray full of gravel, and a very convincing 'fake sneeze' ("Scuse me"). Outstanding, wierd and his first 'acting' role.

You can have fun spotting ideas and themes that Bowie has recycled on later occasions. Never one to waste an idea, the bass riff in the middle of "Join The Gang" (itself ripped off from "Gimme Some Lovin'") reappeared on "Strangers When We Meet", thirty years later; and "Ching A Ling"s melody was reworked as the synthesiser part on "Saviour Machine" from THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD.

Oh, and "The Laughing Gnome" is on there too. The Bowie song no one will admit to liking, but we all secretly know all the words!

This album will make you wonder where David would be know if he had never discovered The Velvet Underground, Neitzsche and the influences that shaped his 1970s work. One thing's for sure, I'd rather listen to this CD than "Tonight" any day!


It's Bowie. But it's not Bowie.   July 16, 2000
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Well yeah, it's Bowie, and if you wanna know what he was up to before Space Oddity than this is a good way to find out. Definitely, considering it includes every track on his first album "David Bowie" and more. In it's own right the material here is very good, but it's still kind of hard to believe that this is David Bowie! Kind of like hearing The Beatles' She Loves You (yeah, yeah, yeah) after having listened to Across The Universe and other later masterpieces. But hey, it's still worth it.