Side One
1 Rosalyn, 2:22
2 Here Comes The Night, 3:09
3 I Wish You Would, 2:48
4 See Emily Play, 4:12
5 Everything’s Alright, 2:28
6 I Can’t Explain, 2:11
Side Two
7 Friday On My Mind, 2:56
8 Sorrow, 2:53
9 Don’t Bring Me Down, 2:06
10 Shapes Of Things, 2:53
11 Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, 3:08
12 Where Have All The Good Times Gone,
2:43
Bonus Tracks
(on RYKO/EMI
re-release 1990, RALP 0136-2 - LP)
13 Growin’ Up
(Previously Unreleased from Pin Ups Sessions), 3:26
14 Amsterdam (1973
B Side Of Sorrow), 3:20
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Recorded: Chateau d’Herouville Studios,
George Sand Studio),
Pontoise, France
(July 1973 – August 1973)
Musicians: David Bowie, vocals, guitar,
saxophone
Mick Ronson, guitar, piano, vocals
Trevor Bolder, bass
Aynsley Dunbar, drums
Mike Garson, piano
Ken Fordham, saxophone
G A MacCormack, backing vocals
Producers: Ken Scott, David Bowie
Released: 19 October 1973
Label: RCA Victor RS 1003
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Brilliant Bowie
DAVID BOWIE: "PIN UPS"
(RCA). It's one of those ripe coincidences that within a few weeks of each
other both David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, arch arbiters of current British
fashion, should put out albums composed wholly of nostalgic tributes to
previously fashionable eras in music - Ferry's essentially American and
orientated to the singer-songwriter tradition of the early Sixties, Bowie's
concentrated entirely on the years of mod British pop from '64 to around
'67.
There's the parallels end,
because whereas Ferry set about it with his tongue stuck firmly out and
wound up looking exposed. Bowie keeps his well and truly lodged in his
cheek and scores points for wit and style.
Possibly because that period
of the early Who, the Mersey's and the Pretty Things seems not so long
distant, it takes a certain amount of daring to revive the kind of music
that went with Lambrettas, Parkas, Carnaby Street and pill-poping. Bowie
returns to the age innocence and comes up with a pastiche that's as funny
as it's marvelously insightful. If Ferry tended to be po-faced, Bowie moves
towards irreverence, balancing on an acute knife-edge his enormous relish
for the songs per se and his desire to re-invent them. This album, in fact,
is a natural for him because it affords him the chance of his favourite
pastime: role-playing. His approach is to impersonate, and he's masterful,
not so much in his absolute fidelity to the originals as in his grasp of
phrasing, nuance and style. This is at its most overt in his treatment of
the famous Syd Barret opus "See Emily Play," where he employs
deliberately screwy use of electronics in a fond pisstake of the Pink
Floyd; and on part of the vocal he has a gruff, Cockney chorus, reminiscent
of "The Bewlay Brothers," but this time conjuring up the picture
of singing pugs down at the Thomas a' Beckett gym. I had to bust out
laughing at that. His ear is as sharp as his memory, and his taste is
impeccable on both counts. He judges exactly that rough, punk sneer of Phil
May's on the Pretties' "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me
Down" - as good as any of the Stones early cuts - and he's best of all
on the Who ("I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow,
Anywhere"), where he very subtly slows down his voice in a great
approximation of Daltry ("Anyway" has an even finer absurdist
quality in Ansley Dunbar's attempt to parody Moon's breaks). Then again,
there's all the fun of Mick Ronson trying to ape Jeff Beck on "Shapes
Of Things," which I suspect he urged Bowie to include. The laughter is
that of recognition at the accuracy of it all, and the humor is gentle.
Though his production has used every advantage he can think of, he's still
got such an affection for the songs that, with the possible exception of
the Floyd number, they remain virgo intacta in spirit. There's not one
version that usurps the original - maybe "Sorrow," the single -
but interpretation is valid. I suppose "Pin Ups," in the context
of his other work, will be seen as a triffle. I think it clearly emphasizes
his brilliance as a stylist and innovator of modes, which is where his true
originality lies. Oh, and it was a nice stroke to get Twiggy on the cover.
M.W
Melody
Maker 20 October 1973
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