Bowie Cover In The Word's Fifteen All Time Best

“Don’t that man look pretty”

The latest issue of The Word (February 2011) has a feature on the fifteen most inspired cover versions of all time. Paul Du Noyer chose David Bowie’s reworking of Bruce Springsteen‘s It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City, originally released on Greetings From Asbury Park.

I’m sure you all know the history behind the track and the story of Springsteen’s visit to Sigma Sound when Bowie was working on the Young Americans album…if you don’t, check it out in this BowieNet item: 03.01.2005 NEWS: TV TALKS ABOUT 30TH ANNIVERSARY YA 5.1 MIX

The image that the magazine uses of Bowie and Ava Cherry watching Rod Stewart and The Faces backstage at MSG is a little off the relevant time period. The show took place on February 25th 1975, despite the picture caption saying 1974. The other picture, taken during Springsteen’s visit, was snapped on November 25th, 1974.

It’s clear that Greetings From Asbury Park made a big impact on Bowie. Aside from It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City, he also covered Growin’ Up and recorded Spirits In The Night with The Astronettes…all three tracks originally from this one Springsteen album.

Elsewhere in the magazine there’s a full-page-and-a-bit of pictures of the young Bowie family with new arrival and future world-famous film director, Zowie Bowie, being pushed around in a perambulator. They are great pictures, but despite the mag’s claims that they are unpublished, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all of them before.