Rubber Band (song)

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"Rubber Band"
Rubberbandbowie.png
Single by David Bowie
from the album David Bowie
B-side
Released2 December 1966 [UK single]
1 June 1967 [UK album]
June 1967 [USA single]
August 1967 [USA album]
Recorded18 October 1966 [single]
25 February 1967 [album]
StudioR G Jones, London [single]
Decca, London [album]
GenreBaroque pop, psychedelic pop, music hall
Length2:05 [single]
2:17 [album]
LabelDeram
Songwriter(s)David Bowie
Producer(s)David Bowie and Dek Fearnley [single]
Mike Vernon [album]
David Bowie singles chronology
"I Dig Everything"
(1966) 		"Rubber Band"
(1966) 		"The Laughing Gnome"
(1967)

"Rubber Band" is a song written and performed by the English popular music artist David Bowie. The song was first recorded in late 1966 and released as a single in the UK in December of the same year. This release marked the beginning of Bowie's recording contract with Deram and the artist's baroque pop phase. The song was re-recorded in February of the following year and it is this version that appears on Bowie's first album, David Bowie (1967).[1] Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray see the song as an 'early manifestation of the Edwardian fixation that affected the more whimsical areas of mid-60's Britpop'.[2]

Recording and release[]

Bowie recorded the first version of "Rubber Band" with The Buzz, his backing band for his two previous 1966 singles "Do Anything You Say" and "I Dig Everything". Joining them for the session were trumpter Chick Norton and, for the tuba and oboe, two now unknown musicians.[3][4] The recording took place at R G Jones Studios (London) on 18 October 1966, and was one of three songs recorded that day. The other tracks were "The London Boys", which would go on to be the B-side to "Rubber Band" when it was released as a single in the UK; and "The Gravedigger", an early and very different version of "Please Mr Gravedigger", the closing track of Bowie's David Bowie (1967) album.[5] At the time Bowie was without a record contract, and the three songs were used by Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt to secure the signing by Deram.[6] O'Leary writes: 'Financed by Pitt, the "Rubber Band" single landed Bowie an album deal with Deram, a newly founded Decca subsidiary label. As Decca chairman Sir Edward Lewis regarded rock as one would a permanent rash, Deram aimed to give rock a pedigree, offering "exotic" pop singles and "conceptual" albums'.[7]

Originally mixed only in mono for the UK single, the song was re-recorded the following February for Bowie's debut album, which was issued in both mono and stereo versions.[8]

Style[]

The track itself shows Bowie's new found infatuation with Anthony Newley.[9] However, the Edwardian vibe was also something being explored by other English bands at the time. Carr and Murray write 'the Kinks' Arthur Or The Rise And Fall Of The British Empire and the Beatles' Sgt Pepper were its fullest flowering'.[10]

The album version is slower in tempo, so despite having exactly the same number of bars lasts almost 20 seconds longer than the single. However, accordingly to O'Leary, the arrangement by Arthur Greenslade is superior, 'the brass more smoothly intoned their notes and John Eager's drums were a more eager participant'.[11] It was this second version that was used for the American single in June 1967.[12]

Response[]

Of the single, Disc, a British music magazine, wrote at the time: 'I do not think "Rubber Band" is a hit. What it is is an example of how David Bowie has progressed himself into being a name to reckon with, certainly as far as songwriting is concerned. He is not the David Bowie we once knew. Even a different voice – distinctly reminiscent of a young Tony Newley – has emerged. Listen to this record then turn it over and listen to "The London Boys", which I think would have been a much more impressive topside. But both are worth thinking about'.[13] Despite such good notices in the music press, the single - as the writer at Disc foretold, was a flop once more failing to break into the UK charts.

Responses to Bowie's change in musical direction inaugurated with "Rubber Band" have been divisive. 'The faintly ludicrous melodrama of Bowie's vocal delivery is counterpointed by the elephantine caperings of the tuba and cornet' write Carr and Murray of the single version.[14] Chris O'Leary says of the song that it is 'a private joke indulged, a parody of a soured novelty song'.[15] Nicholas Pegg, however, claims that by 'comparison with Bowie's earlier 1966 material, "Rubber Band" reveals enormous leaps in the sophistication of his songwriting'.[16]

Single track listing[]

All songs written by David Bowie.

Region Date Title Label Format
UK 2 December 1966 "Rubber Band" [single version] [2:05] / "The London Boys" [3:20] Deram 7" single
USA June 1967 "Rubber Band" [album version] [2:17] / "There Is a Happy Land" [3:11] Deram 7" single

Album track listing[]

"Rubber Band" [album version] appeared on David Bowie (1967) on Side One as Track Three. Two versions of the LP were released in the UK and USA: mono and stereo. Thus the song appears in slightly different mixes on both releases.[17] All three versions of the song - the original single in mono, and the album version in stereo and mono - are available on the remastered 2010 deluxe edition of David Bowie issued in 2010. These appear on CD1 Track 3 (album version stereo), CD1 Track 17 (album version mono), and CD2 Track 1 (single version mono).

Production credits[]

Music video[]

The album version of the song also went on to feature in Bowie's music video film Love You till Tuesday (1969), with the artist moustachioed up and dressed in a blazer and boater at an imaginary bandstand concert.[18]

Other releases[]

  • "Rubber Band" [stereo album version] was also released as the B-side of the Spanish reissue of "The Laughing Gnome" in 1973.[19]
  • "Rubber Band" also appears on a number of compilations, including:
    • The World of David Bowie (1970) - stereo album version
    • Images 1966-1967 (1973) - stereo album version
    • Another Face (1981) - single version
    • Love You Till Tuesday LP (1984) - single version
    • The Collection (1985) - single version
    • Love You Till Tuesday CD (1992) - stereo album version
    • The Deram Anthology 1966–1968 (1997) - single and stereo album versions

References[]

General

  • Carr, Roy and Charles Shaar Murray, Bowie: An Illustrated Record, Avon Books, 1981 - ISBN 0380779668
  • O'Leary, Chris, Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from '64 to '76, Zero Books, 2015 - ISBN 9781780992440
  • Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie: Expanded and Updated Seventh Edition, Titan Books, 2016 - ISBN 9781785653650

Specific

  1. ^ Pegg, p. 229-230
  2. ^ Carr and Murray, p. 21
  3. ^ Pegg, p. 229
  4. ^ O'Leary, p. 40
  5. ^ Pegg, p. 211-212
  6. ^ Pegg, p. 230
  7. ^ O'Leary, p. 43
  8. ^ Pegg, p. 330
  9. ^ O'Leary, p. 40
  10. ^ Carr and Murray, p. 21
  11. ^ O'Leary, p. 43
  12. ^ Pegg, p. 230
  13. ^ Pegg, p. 230
  14. ^ Carr and Murray, p. 21
  15. ^ O'Leary, p. 43
  16. ^ Pegg, p. 250
  17. ^ Pegg, p. 2330
  18. ^ Pegg, p. 230
  19. ^ "David Bowie - Just Another Collection". www.bowie-collection.de. Retrieved 6 November 2020.

External links[]

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