Written in pain, written in awe, buy a puzzled man who questioned what we were here for…
The June issue (363) of
It’s a thorough piece that collects together the recollections of the majority of the key players of the time, including DB, utilising what seems to be mainly archive material though some of the interviews may be new for all I know.
Anyway, it’s a fascinating read making chronological sense of the album’s creation up to it’s release in December 1971.
Here’s a list of contributors in the order they appear in the feature…
Bob Grace (general manager and founder of Chrysalis Music, 1969-72)
Woody Woodmansey (drums, Hunky Dory)
Tony Visconti (longtime Bowie producer)
Trevor Bolder (bass, Hunky Dory)
Mick Ronson (guitar, orchestration, Hunky Dory)
Kevin Cann (author, David Bowie: A Chronology)
Dave Thompson (author, Moonage Daydream and Hallo Spaceboy)
Charles Shaar Murray (author, David Bowie: An lllustrated Record)
Peter Noone (Herman?s Hermits singer)
Ken Scott (producer, Hunky Dory and engineer on Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold The World)
Laurence Myers ((CEO, Gem, Bowie?s music and production company)
Rodney Bingenheimer (Los Angeles DJ and scenester)
Angela Bowie (David?s first wife)
Suzi Ronson (Mick?s wife)
Maggi Ronson (Mick?s sister)
Rick Wakeman (piano, Hunky Dory)
Richard Robinson (A&R, RCA, USA)
Bob Ringe (A&R, RCA, USA)
Dennis Katz (VP OF A&R, RCA, USA)
Terry Pastor (album designer and illustrator)
Mick Rock (photographer, music writer and director of the Life On Mars? promo film)
Ken Pitt (Bowie?s former manager)
You really need to buy a copy of the mag to appreciate this item, but I’ll leave you with a quotation from Rick Wakeman who always has something pretty cool to say about DB…
Rick Wakeman: “David called me up to his house in Beckenham, Kent, as he wanted to play me some songs. It is one of the most vivid musical experiences in my life. I arrived at his house and sat at his beautiful grand piano while his played all the songs that were to appear on the Hunky Dory album, on his battered 12-string guitar.
He always said to me he wrote so much on this old 12-string because if the songs sounded good on this old instrument then they could only improve when quality instruments were added. I was truly gobsmacked as one simply fantastic song would follow another.
I can vividly recall driving back home afterwards and saying to my wife that I had just heard some of the greatest songs ever, and that this album was destined to be an absolute classic. I had never said anything like this before and have never said anything like this since.”