The London Boys

"The London Boys"
Song by David Bowie
A-side	"Rubber Band"
Released	2 December 1966 [B-side] 2 May 1975 [A-side]
Recorded	18 October 1966
Studio	R G Jones, London
Genre	Baroque pop, Psychedelic pop, Music Hall
Length	3:20
Label	Deram
Songwriter(s)	David Bowie
Producer(s)	David Bowie and Dek Fearnley
Alternative cover
Cover of the 1975 single

"The London Boys" is a song written and performed by the English pop musician David Bowie. It was first released as the B-side of the single "Rubber Band" in the UK in December 1966. While the A-side of the single began the artist's baroque pop phase, "The London Boys" retained the Mod feel of his previous few singles. Nicholas Pegg writes: '"The London Boys" is among Bowie's most sophisticated recordings of the period, demonstrating a mature grasp of pace and dynamics'.^[1] In 1975, the track was re-released as the A-side of a single by Bowie's record company at the time of "The London Boys" first issue. Bowie later rerecorded the song in 2000 for his unreleased and abandoned album Toy.

Recording and release[]

"The London Boys" was originally recorded in November 1965 when Bowie was still working with his band The Lower Third.^[2] Bowie had joined The Lower Third in May of 1965 when still going by the name of Davy Jones, and the band had released their first single - "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" - in August of the same year. On 16 September, Jones changed his official stage name to Bowie (to avoid confusion with another Davy Jones, of The Monkees), and the band signed a new record contract with Pye that November. The recording, according to Chris O'Leary, was rejected as a single 'whether due to risque lyrics' (Bowie's claim) 'or its dragginess' (according to the producer, Tony Hatch).^[3] Instead the band released "Can't Help Thinking About Me" as their second single in early 1966. Pegg continues: 'In an interview for Melody Maker in February 1966, ostensibly to publicise "Can't Help Thinking About Me", Bowie referred to the number by its original title: "Its called "Now You've Met The London Boys", and mentions pills, and generally belittles the London night-life scene [...] it goes down very well in the stage act and lots of fans said I should have released it'.^[4] The drummer of The Lower Third, Phil Lancaster, remembered: 'I was choked, and David was as well'.^[5] This version of the song is now considered lost.^[6]

The song continued to be played live and the arrangement and lyrics tweaked over the next few months during live performances.^[7] However, Bowie had already quit The Lower Third in January 1966 (before the Melody Maker interview and before the release of "Can't Help Thinking About Me") and formed The Buzz in February of the same year. Two singles were released with Pye ("Do Anything You Say" and "I Dig Everything") before Bowie signed a new contract with Deram which would allow him not only to release singles, but also make his first album, what would become David Bowie (1967). It is the signing to Deram that inaugurates Bowie's baroque pop phase. Bowie secured the Deram contract by way of a recording session at R G Jones Studios (London) on 18 October 1966 financed by Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt.^[8] And one of the songs recorded at that session was the reworked "The London Boys", the other two tracks being "Rubber Band" and an early and very different version of "Please Mr Gravedigger", what would go on to be the closing track of Bowie's David Bowie (1967) album.^[9]

"Rubber Band" was designated the A-side of Bowie's first single from Deram, and the B-side became "The London Boys". The single was released on 2 December 1966 in the UK. The American version of the single, issued in June 1967 and with the re-recorded album version of the song "Rubber Band" had another song on the B-side.^[10] "There Is a Happy Land" (taken from David Bowie [1967]) replaced "The London Boys" as Deram's parent company Decca 'baulked at the drug references'.^[11]

Response[]

Despite good notices in the music press, the "Rubber Band" single once more failed to break into the UK charts as with all Bowie's previous singles. Indeed, reviewers tended to prefer the B-side. Of the single, Disc, a British music magazine, wrote at the time: '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'.^[12]

Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray - writing in 1981 - concur: 'The B-side is a far more serious affair, and probably the most moving and pertinent work that Bowie produced prior to "Space Oddity". Sung in the second person to a young provincial would be Mod trying to keep up with the ace faces in the Big Smoke, the "London Boys" is a slow agonising portrayal of the inevitable comedown from the amphetamine exhilaration of "My Generation"' by the Who.^[13]

Bowie considered re-recording the song for Pin Ups in 1973, 'interspacing verses between covers of old Mod anthems'.^[14] The song was rereleased by Deram as an A-side in 1975.^[15][16]

Single track listing[]

All songs written by David Bowie.

Production credits (1965/1966)[]

Other releases[]

• "London Boys" [1966 single version] also appeared on the following compilations:
  • The World of David Bowie (1970)
  • Images 1966-1967 (1973)
  • Another Face (album)|Another Face (1981)
  • Love You Till Tuesday (1984/1992)
  • The Collection (1985)
  • The Gospel According to David Bowie (Germany 1993)
  • London Boy (1996)
  • The Deram Anthology 1966–1968 (1997)

Toy version[]

The song was rerecorded in 2000 for the unreleased album Toy that leaked in 2011. Two excerpts appeared on BowieNet in 2002, one in July that was 1'26" long and the other in August that was 1'30" long; however, both clips did not cover the entire song. It was performed for a special BowieNetter gig in 2000.^[17][18]

Production credits (2000)[]

"The London Boys" [Toy version]:

• Producers:
  • David Bowie and Mark Plati
• Engineer
  • Pete Keppler
• Arrangement
  • Tony Visconti
• Musicians:
  • David Bowie: Vocals
  • Earl Slick: Guitar
  • Gerry Leonard: Guitar
  • Mark Plati: Guitar
  • Mike Garson: organ
  • Gail Ann Dorsey: Bass, Backing vocals
  • Stirling Campbell: drums
  • Holly Palmer, Emm Gryner: backing vocals
  • Unknown musicians: oboe, trumpet, vilin, viola, cello

Cover versions[]

• "London Boys" has been covered by:
  • The Times on 1983 on their album I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape
  • Marc Almond in 2007 on his album Stardom Road

References[]

General

Specific

External links[]

• "The London Boys" [1966 version] (YouTube)
• "The London Boys" [Toy version] (YouTube)