I'm going to start this argument again having just listened to the bedroom tapes again.
They are generally accepted to be recorded at Claireville Grove in London. Kevin Cann puts them in Lou Reisner's London office.
I emailed Hutch a while back and got this reply:
"The ‘Swedish Room’ bedroom where we did that Revox demo tape was in David and Hermione’s top floor flat after Hermione had left for Norway – I never knew who Mrs Fahrenheit referred to, and anyway there was no ‘upstairs’ from that little flat.
And I believe it was January 1969 – but February is not impossible! But nothing to do with Lou Riesner’s place or Mary Finnegan’s unless Mrs Fahrenheit lived upstairs from either of them."
It seemed odd to me the Bowie would refer to someone upstairs when he knew there was no upstairs. Listening to the tape today, I noticed something i'd not really heard before. When he is saying this, prior to An Occasional Dream, he starts pretending who is walking past the window, again something odd to imagine from a top floor flat. And then i'm pretty convinced he says "this is Beckenham you know." Three strange things to say supposedly from a top floor flat in Kensington.
I think most people are sick of this debate but it's still bothering me clearly.
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ivorjulianjones
Posted: 27th May 2017, 9:45 am
Posts: 112Joined: 9th Jul, 2013
I think I’ve listened to all the variants of this recording. It comes in as many shapes and sizes as there are variations in sound quality. The first I had the privilege to listen to was ‘The Beckenham Oddity’ CD. This, as it turned out, is possibly the worst. It seemed to have been transferred from a vinyl album with its playing speed anomalies and track editing.
In my humble opinion the best would appear to be ‘Lover To The Dawn’ CD. The sound quality is relatively consistent for the first nine tracks only taking a turn for the worst with the tenth and final track, ‘Lover To The Dawn’. This could be because the recording is taken from a different source altogether - a lacquer perhaps?
Some debate as to where the recording took place. This, however, seems to have been resolved thanks to Mary Finnegan’s book, ‘Psychedelic Suburbia’. During the recording, after ‘Life’s A Circus’, Bowie says, “Mrs Farenheit upstairs came along with Tchaikovsky...”. In the book Mary talks about an aged piano teacher who lives upstairs - one and the same? There’s also talk of starting an Arts Laboratory which places the recording at around April 1969.
As you can hear from the dialogue the originally intended target audience for this collection of songs was Bob. Bob it seems resided in New York and was a colleague of Simon (Hayes). Simon was instrumental in Bowie signing to Mercury in the US.
The ‘Space Oddity’ demo that first appeared on the Ryko ‘Sound & Vision’ box set was taken from this session. Does that mean that the entire session exists in much better quality somewhere.
I contacted John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson about this particular recording and he was good enough to get back to me.
“All those demo songs were recorded on a borrowed Revox in David’s flat and I thought that it was at Clareville Grove – but ok maybe it was elsewhere though I’m fairly sure that I never went to Mary Finnegan’s place and I don’t remember meeting her. ‘’Mrs Fahrenheit’’ may have lived upstairs from Mary, certainly not at Clareville Grove, that was a top floor bedsit. I’m sorry I cant tell you any more about recording those songs, except we did sing and play sitting ‘on a corner of the bed’. It was a small room.
I never knew who the tape was going to – and there may not have been a Bob. I know now that it went to Ahmet Ertegun and that he had apparently ‘liked the duo’.
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ivorjulianjones
Posted: 27th May 2017, 9:47 am
Posts: 112Joined: 9th Jul, 2013
DB: “You probably wanted a tape of the numbers that we do now. This is a very bad tape recorder and microphone but we’re going to do what we can with the material that we now do and er. Some of it is being considered as single material but we’ll leave that up to you to sort out. Anyway, the first one’s called ‘Space Oddity’.” “Sorry about that.” JH: “Feedback.” DB: “Go.”
‘Space Oddity’
DB: “Erm, this is named after a girl that I met once and was the girlfriend of a guy called George who does very nice album covers. Thank you, George. It’s called ‘Janine’.”
‘Janine’
DB: “Erm, the sounds of the piano are coming from Mrs Fahrenheit who lives upstairs and is a piano teacher but she doesn’t play on our this next number which is called ‘Occasional Dream’ - ‘An Occasional dream’. When we get it right. Right.” JH: ‘Occasionally we get it right.” DB: “Obviously, obviously you know that all these clicks mean that we’ve got it wrong and we’re like doing it again, you see.” JH: “Looks like Roy Harper.” DB: “Oh, Roy Harper has just passed by the window. And there goes Tyrannosaurus Rex and I believe that’s John Peel just appearing round the corner. This is definitely right - ‘Occasional Dream’.”
‘An Occasional Dream’
DB: “Yeah, that’s it. ‘Conversation Piece’? Shall we do ‘Conversation Piece’? Er, yeah, this is called ‘Conversation Piece’.” JH: “A new one.” DB: “A new one. Ok, are you ready? G, d, g. One, two, one, two, three, four. (Playing stops.) Want to start that again?” JH: “Yeah.” DB: “Three, four.”
‘Conversation Piece’
DB: “A bit rough but there you are. This is one that I believe you heard when you were over here, Bob. It’s called ‘Ching-A-Ling’. As there is no girl with us any more - Hermione. Oh, Hermione is coming to New York. I think she’s going to join one of the ballet companies out there. But er more news about that later. Anyway this one was called ‘Ching-A-Ling’ and I think you liked it. This is a duo version.”
‘Ching-A-Ling’
DB: “That was ‘Ching-A-Ling’. Yup. This one is called ‘I’m Not Quite’.
‘Letter To Hermione’
DB: “And is very good. And it’s called ‘Love Song’ JH: “Sings with Dusty.” DB: “She sings behind Dusty.” JH: “Springfield.” DB: “Springfield, you see. Hey, we’re starting an arts laboratory - isn’t that a gas? Go on. ‘Love Song’.”
‘Love Song’
DB: “Nice song - that’s called ‘Love Song’” JH: “I had a sick g-string, I’m awfully sorry.” DB: “This is…I’ll just do it.”
‘When I’m Five’
DB: “Aahh. Did you see the mime? Bob.” JH: “Bob.” DB: “What about ‘Life Is A Circus’?” JH: “Yeah.” DB: “Yeah. It’s called ‘Life Is A Circus’. I’m going to have a cigarette actually.” JH: “David is going to have a cigarette, Bob. He’s just got off the bed.” DB: “Okay, Hutch. That was Hutch talking. Er, ‘Life Is…” JH: “Yeah.”
‘Life Is A Circus’
DB: “Mrs Fahrenheit upstairs came along with Tchaikovsky’s…” JH: “Somebody’s having a bath.” DB: “Yeah, Somebody’s having bath.” JH: “A bath.” (Affected American accent.) DB: “A bath.” (Affected American accent.) Er, well, I think, yeah, I think really thats about the lot Bob, that I want to play you.” JH: “Goofs an all.” DB: “Goofs an all. Erm, all we can say is that we’re not opposed to having other instruments on the LP. Now as you can see we’re not the strict folk group but a contemporary scene. And I think you kind of like the kind of mellotron sound type instruments - on a lot of things. What else do we like Hutch?” JH: “Not too much.” DB: “Not too much, yeah. Just that you know an easy sound - except of course for singles.” JH: “And a good bass player.” DB: “And a good bass player. Really hot bass player.” JH: “Not too much happening after that.” DB: “Not too much happening. Erm yeah, I think thats all really. Can you think of anything else?” JH: “No.” DB: “Regards to your friends. Regards to Simon if he’s still with you when this tape gets to you and we hope to see you - very shortly - bye.”
DB: “Hello, Bob. It’s us again.” JH: “It’s the b-side. Did you say which one it was?” DB: “What? Yeah. That ‘Lover To The Dawn’ - in case you forgot. JH: “Lover?” DB: “Lover.” JH: “Not love her?” DB: “No, ‘Lover To The Dawn’.” JH: “Oh. Three, four…”
In the book, Mary remembers Bowie having a tape machine and mikes among his other music gear cluttering up her flat.
She remembers first meeting Hutch when he stayed a couple of days right at the start of May but by the 4th (Sunday)he does not appear with Bowie at Art Labs so assume he was home by then.
With children off school it would have been difficult to record so possibly 1st or 2nd May. (If Mary remembers well, She was often out of her head on cannabis).
If she is mistaken ,and not start of May, it would be right at end of April if it is to tie in with her accounts and others.
Offline
mark1978
Posted: 30th May 2017, 2:29 pm
Posts: 169Joined: 24th Feb, 2009
ivorjulianjones wrote:
I think I’ve listened to all the variants of this recording. It comes in as many shapes and sizes as there are variations in sound quality. The first I had the privilege to listen to was ‘The Beckenham Oddity’ CD. This, as it turned out, is possibly the worst. It seemed to have been transferred from a vinyl album with its playing speed anomalies and track editing.
In my humble opinion the best would appear to be ‘Lover To The Dawn’ CD. The sound quality is relatively consistent for the first nine tracks only taking a turn for the worst with the tenth and final track, ‘Lover To The Dawn’. This could be because the recording is taken from a different source altogether - a lacquer perhaps?
My understanding was that the original vinyl Beckenham Oddity was the source for all subsequent releases of this material (except for the track Lover to the Dawn).
_________________ Just looking for a good friendly behind
