I'm listening to the Astronettes album (I like to do that sometimes) and just wondering about some of the songs. There are a couple that have been credited either as 'unknown' or to Bowie, which has always seemed a bit fishy to me.

This is what we have

I Am Divine (Bowie, definitely)
I Am a Laser (Bowie, definitely)
Seven Days (Annette Peacock)
God Only Knows (Wilson/Asher)
Having a Good Time (Bowie???)
People from Bad Homes (Bowie???)
Highway Blues (Roy Harper)
Only Me (Bowie???)
Things You Do (Bowie???)
How Could I Be such a Fool (Zappa)
I'm in the Mood for Love (Macintosh/Fields)
Spirits in the Night (Springsteen)

So there are 4 songs here with a Bowie credit where I personally can't hear much of his usual writing styles.

Having a Good Time sounds like a mid-late 60s cover, there's something in the melody that feels like one of those British Invasion US bands, like The Turtles or something.

People from Bad Homes is maybe the most Bowie-ish, which is to say not much - but not a million miles away from poppy throwaways like Rupert the Riley. And there's the title of course.

Only Me is a pretty straight early 70s soul tune, but not really in the vein of anything else he wrote in that direction - especially lyrically, it's very straight and American sounding ("hey little girl now I hear you on the phone..."), and it sounds like the vocalist is aping an American soul singer.

Things to Do again is a jazzy soul thing, not Bowie's style of melody at all really, with that salsa-y feel. And "if the lord is my shepherd" etc really doesn't feel like him.

I know Bowie was a versatile writer to say the least, but I'm really not hearing much in any of this stuff (People from Bad Homes excepted, maybe) that sounds like anything else he did in 73/74. On the other hand, Googling the lyrics doesn't give any indication of these songs being done by anyone else.

Was it just that he was making his first attempts at writing in a soul style, but hadn't yet managed to find a way to merge that with his own style as he did on the Young Americans? Songs that he gave away precisely *because* they didn't really sound like him? Or are these all just covers of VERY deep cuts from somewhere? I think either is plausible.

The other thing that strikes me is how few of these songs actually have Ava Cherry singing lead. Who's the other main vocalist? Jason Guess or Geoff McCormack?

The Hollies recorded 'Having A Good Time' - which ticks two of those boxes: 60's, British Invasion - but sadly, a different song.

Another possibility, and perhaps the most obvious one even though I hadn't considered it till now - could some of these tunes be Astronettes (Cherry / Guess / Peace) originals? Geoff MacCormack co-wrote Rock and Roll with Me and Turn Blue, after all. Has he ever spoken of the Astronettes project?