Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" | |
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Song by David Bowie | |
from the album David Bowie (Space Oddity) | |
A-side | "Space Oddity" |
Released | 11 July 1969 |
Genre | |
Length |
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Label | Philips |
Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
Producer(s) | Gus Dudgeon |
David Bowie (Space Oddity) track listing | |
10 tracks
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"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" is a song written by
The single version has sparse instrumentation: guitar (played by Bowie) and arco bass (by Paul Buckmaster). The album version, recorded in July/August 1969, features a full orchestral arrangement by Tony Visconti and is said to be the debut on a Bowie record of Mick Ronson, contributing uncredited lead guitar and handclaps midway through the track.[2]
Bowie himself said of the song: "It was about the disassociated, the ones who feel as though they're left outside, which was how I felt about me. I always felt I was on the edge of events, the fringe of things, and left out. A lot of my characters in those early years seem to revolve around that feeling. It must have come from my own interior puzzlement at where I was".[3]
Other releases
- The single version was released as the B-side to "Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola", prior to the album version. (One release of "Space Oddity" mistakenly rendered the B-side's title as "Wild Eyed Boy from Freedom".[4]) It later appeared on the Sound + Vision box set in 1989, on a 2-CD special edition of Bowie's second self-titled album in 2009, and, in its original UK mono version, on Re:Call 1, part of the Five Years (1969–1973)compilation released in 2015.
- Bowie played this song on Sound of the 70s, a BBC Radio Session with Andy Ferris on 25 March 1970. This recording, broadcast in April 1970, was released in 2000 on Bowie at the Beeb.
- A live version recorded at the All the Young Dudes" and "Oh! You Pretty Things".
- The track appeared on the Japanese compilation The Best of David Bowie in 1974.
- A piano, orchestra and choir version of the track appears on the Rick Wakeman album Piano Odyssey, released on Sony Music in 2018.
Personnel
According to Chris O'Leary:[5]
Single version
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Album version
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References
- ^ Cann 2010, p. 154.
- ^ David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.79
- ^ Chris Welch (1999). We Could be Heroes
- ^ Carr & Murray 1981, p. 27.
- ^ O'Leary 2015, chap. 3.
Sources
- Cann, Kevin (2010). Any Day Now – David Bowie: The London Years: 1947–1974. Croydon, Surrey: Adelita. ISBN 978-0-95520-177-6.
- ISBN 978-0-38077-966-6.
- O'Leary, Chris (2015). Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from '64 to '76. Winchester: ISBN 978-1-78099-244-0.