GNOME THOUGHTS

This is a guide to a series of posts speculating about influences on the young David Bowie; Anthony Newley, Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks, and Ray Davies, amongst others, are discussed along the way. Some posts provide overviews of fifties Britain and the impact of rock'n'roll and radio comedy on British teenagers generally. 

Songwriter Alan Klein, a fellow client of Bowie's manager Ken Pitt, features prominently. His 1964 album Well At Least It's British and his musical What a Crazy World (a Theatre Workshop production then a film) are examined in detail. Damon Albarn has talked about "an embryo of cynicism" in Klein's work, and Klein himself has made clear his conscious intention to avoid American cliches in his writing. He is certain that Bowie would have been aware of his work through the Ken Pitt connection.

This series has been cited in Chris O'Leary's song-by-song Bowie book Rebel Rebel.


1: Gnome Thoughts From a Foreign Country: the Vintage David Bowie
Deram songs, irony, distancing, and Anthony Newley.


2: Anthony Newley, Alan Klein
More about Newley and initial thoughts about the writer of stage/film musical What a Crazy World who shared a manager with Bowie.

3: Three Hats for Lisa
Candyfloss-light with a speck of grit: strangely appealing film musical which, like What a Crazy World, stars Joe Brown. 

4: What a Crazy World
A more detailed account of the film's roots in social reality and its portrayal of an unbridgeable generation gap.


5: What a Crazy, Violent Playground
Changes made for the 1975 stage revival of What a Crazy World at Stratford East plus Basil Dearden's film Violent Playground and the comic songs of Paddy Roberts (who also wrote the music for that film).


6: Music Hall to Rock
The demise of Theatre Workshop musicals (and Jake Thackray).

7: Bowie and the Kinks
Bowie's comic vignettes compared with Ray Davies'.


8: Waterloo Sunset
"It may not be a confessional song but it does feels intimate, unprotected." A close analysis.


9: Ray is in the details
In which the lyrics to Panic in Detroit prompt further thoughts about the influence of one Raymond Douglas Davies.


10: Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp
A story in song by Dallas Frazier, whose work has been referenced by Bowie and Bolan.


11: Well At Least It's British
A detailed account of Alan Klein's solo album, cited by Damon Albarn as an influence on Bowie and Ray Davies. (Warning: this post may also contain traces of Vivian Stanshall and Benny Hill.)


12: Damon Albarn on Alan Klein
What Albarn actually said about Well At Least It's British.


13: Alan Klein interview
An overview of Alan Klein's career based on an interview by Spencer Leigh and some PR writing by Ken Pitt.

14: Alan Klein: corrections and clarifications
More information about Klein's career.


15: Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks alert
The lost art of "larky" songs - see also the link for post 18 below.


16: JP Long and My Old Man's a Dustman
The 1922 song later reworked as Lonnie Donegan's My Old Man's a Dustman.


17: More songs by JP Long
More comedy songs by the composer of the above.


18: Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks programme
More about the "larky" songs of Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks (Right Said Fred, Hole in the Ground) and the role of producer George Martin, drawn from a radio programme about the pair.


19: Reasons to Be Cheerful, Lipstick on Your Collar, Joe Brown
A ragbag of a post including: a review of Paul Sirett's Ian Dury musical Reasons to be Cheerful (produced at Stratford East, like What A Crazy World); the change-anticipating mood in Dennis Potter's fifties-set TV series Lipstick on Your Collar; the experience of recently seeing Joe Brown live (... and if you're wondering where Bowie is in all this, well, I explain that too - to my own satisfaction, at least).


20: Stop Dreamin' at Guildford
Review of an early tryout of Ray Cooney's Chas and Dave musical. I don't know whether it got any further.


21: 1950-53 UK charts, Hoagland concedes
Not too much discussion in the next few posts, more lists of fifties UK hits from a CD series with youtube links to most songs. This post covers 1950-1953 and has some notes about Hoagy Carmichael.


22: 1954 charts, Goon Rock
1954 UK hits and the Goons' take on My September Love.


23: 1955 charts
Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock is the portent of change to come.

24: 1956 charts, Hullensian overtaken
1956 UK hits and Ronnie Hilton momentarily withstanding the onslaught of rock'n'roll.

25: 1957 charts, Lipstick, Macca plays The Fool
1957 hits, more on Dennis Potter's Lipstick on Your Collar and Paul McCartney's version of Stanford Clark's The Fool.


26: Private Hopper, public Craddock
The Gene Vincent sequence from Lipstick on Your Collar.


27: The Atomic Mr Haley and others
" Instead of existing in the past, it was time to live in the moment": nuclear terror and rock'n'roll.


28: Ringo forever?
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse imagine an evergreen Beatles. (Appropriately enough the embedded links are dead).

29: 1958 charts, Humph & Big Joe, 50s Lennon
1958 UK hits followed by a discussion of Big Joe Turner and John Lennon.


30: 1959 charts and early Britrock
1959 UK hits plus a review of a 1956-1964 British rock'n'roll compilation.


31: The Man from Mendips
Continuing the theme of the influence of rock'n'roll on British teenagers, an interview with Colin Hall, the curator of John Lennon's childhood home (transcribed from raw interview audio for the documentary LENNONYC).


32: That Was Fifties Britain That Was
An overview of 50s Britain (based on Humphrey Carpenter's introduction to That Was Satire That Was).


33: Fifties radio comedy
"Writing comedy prose for radio shows": an overview of 50s radio comedy in Britain, drawing on interviews in David Nathan's The Laughtermakers. Plus John Lennon's review of The Goon Show Scripts.


34: The first rock'n'roll record?
Bowie and Lennon's first experience of rock'n'roll and a list of fifty records in contention for the title of "first rock'n'roll record." (There are youtube links for most of these titles but be warned that I haven't checked them recently.)


35: If John had stayed with Mimi ...
A John Lennon competition. (There were no entrants so I won by default.)


36: My memories of John Lennon's death
Page of a letter to Stuart Sutcliffe.


37: Over the Wall We Go
This final post ties things together more neatly than might be expected as the Bowie-penned Over the Wall We Go clearly borrows from a Spike Milligan song produced by George Martin. 

38: Toll the Bell for Minnie Dyer
A late addition to the series (technically making the previous post the penultimate one unless there are more to come), this was prompted by the discovery that Bowie was a fan of the Kenneth Williams song above, recorded for Decca the same year as Bowie's Deram debut.