Live Transcription
AYLESBURY
Friars
Borough Assembly Hall
25th September 1971
SET LIST:
01. Fill Your Heart (2:36)
02. Buzz The Fuzz (3:01)
03. Space Oddity (4:18)
04. Amsterdam (3:08)
05. The Supermen (2:44)
06. Oh! You Pretty Things (3:12)
07. Eight Line Poem (2:47)
08. Changes (3:43)
09. Song For Bob Dylan (3:53)
10. Andy Warhol (2:47)
11. Queen Bitch (3:01)
12. Looking For A Friend (3:15)
13. Round And Round (3:23)
14. Waiting For The Man (3:53)
TRANSCRIPTION:
MC's Introduction: "If we could all move back, just a little bit, you know get closer. Alright, OK. Well let's have a very warm Friars Aylesbury reception for a very rare appearance of David Bowie."
David Bowie: "Thank you. Thank you Peter, good evening, hello. Er, this is Michael Ronson, who's a guitarist that works with me, a lot. Get yourself sat down. (tunes guitar).
"We may have er, a band on a bit later with us, but er we'll do some solo things first if we can, slowly... Er. This is... anybody that's seen me before er knows that I don't do many gigs and this is (laughs) one of the few exceptions. So we're gonna start slowly till we get the hang of it again cos we're not used to it. The first song is er called Fill Your Heart and it's by an American gentleman er called Biff Rose. Can I have something to drink? Thank you. OK? Are you gonna get a bit nearer? (talking to Ronson laughing). To the mike (sarcastically). Um good."
Mick Ronson: "Hello."
David Bowie: "Yeah, that's better. As you all know it's a long way down, anyway we're back again."
(Plays 'Fill Your Heart').
David Bowie: "Thank you. Thanks very much. Er we didn't know what kind of songs to do tonight, so we just decided to endeavour to sing the kind of songs that we hope you'll enjoy. This is what we call entertainment, we want to entertain you. Entertain you, it's an old word, er we want you to enjoy the songs, we want to make you happy because we want to be happy doing them. Er, the next one to follow that is also an... another Biff Rose number. Er I'm a bit keen on his songs I think they are very good, very funny. He's very overrated (laughs) underrated erm songwriter, sorry Biff, erm and he's been working in America for about five years and nobody over here's buying his records and not many people in America seem to be either and the album this came from is called The Thorn In Mrs Rose's Side and it's a good album to buy it's called Buzz The Fuzz and it's a Los Angeles song."
(Plays 'Buzz The Fuzz').
David Bowie: "Ta (intro to Space Oddity). This is one of er my own that we get over with as soon as possible."
(Plays 'Space Oddity').
David Bowie: "Thank you. That's very good of you, thank you. This is a... a... I want to go to another mmm?, Port Of Amsterdam. This is a number by another songwriter yet again. It's er by a French composer called Jacques Brel, who was writing a long time ago and he wrote this song about fifteen years ago er and it was called Port Of Amsterdam, it was true then, it's not untrue now, meaning probably insufficient. Er if we're slow I haven't been up very long you see, I'm very bad at getting up, always been bad at getting up haven't you? Terrible. When I was at school my mother could never get me up. She got over it. She... she found out the trick of getting me up, she would put on a black dress and sit on the bed and cry. (laughs) I'd be up like a shot. Enough of this frivolity. This is the Jacques Brel number anyway it's called Port Of Amsterdam."
Plays 'Port Of Amsterdam'.
David Bowie: "Thank you very much indeed. Er, we thought it'd be nice to bring the boys on er to do this gig with us before we go off to America in a few months. Er we're going to America, land of subways. Underground stations, the subways are rather like the Underground, y'know you still get lots of people who wait for hours for the train, they all have that thing of going to the edge of the platform and looking down into the tunnel. God... I don't know what they expect to come out? Do they expect something other than a train to come out of it? All kinda leaning looking over, but you have to be a sadist or a masochist to take the subway in America, er cos if you go on in a crowd within five or ten minutes somebody's got a good grip on you (laughs) and er (in an American accent) 'Stay on three more stops and I'll give you fifty cents', (laughs) it's really quite grim and they've got a Miss Subway contest, see, and I think the only condition for entry is you have to look as though you've been hit by one from some of the entries we saw when we were out there. Anyway that's where we're going America. Land of the living, land of the dead. Land of the dead, they've got lots murders and killings as you've probably read about in the papers that crime wave and if... it's kind of inbred in them to murder and kill and like a family man will get in a car and drive at ninety, bumper to bumper y'know long stretches of motorway, (makes car noise) like that they come up with original ways of killing people, you read reports of er old man battered to death weapon believed to have been Durex filled with ball bearings (laughing). And y'know (laughing) it's really... and that's not the only problem you see you've got the apartments problem as well, because you just can't get an apartment. I stayed in quite a nice one whilst I was there, all couples, no women (ha) and I wouldn't say... I wouldn't say which pire island, I don't know whether any of you know America at all, no... it was not exactly quiet but I took thirteen showers for excitement (laughs) one evening. Erm. Like somebody comes... 'I'm really sorry I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you, your grandmother has died.' 'Oh that's awful, has her apartment gone yet?', 'Did she die with central heating?'... really terrible. Anyway we're going there later. They should be on by now, are you on, erm this is Supermen. I'm gonna do that one later... Pretty Things yeah we'll do that later. (coughs). This is one from an album that we did last year, which sold like hot cakes in Beckenham and no where else. It's called The Man Who Sold The World that's the name of the album and a song... one of the numbers off it was called Supermen."
Plays 'The Supermen'.
David Bowie: "Thank you. That is Woody Woodmansey, that is Trevor Bolder, they play with me. We're gonna have a pianist on in a few moments. I'll just get this up 'cos I don't sit down again, hang on. (??? wappy dupper) (Put it up your bum) Right (laughs). I'm going over to the piano. Probably need keys. (sings: do do do). This is a number I wrote for myself and for the album and somebody else did it, I won't say no more, but er say no more. I'll say no more. We'll do it anyway. Do what? Are you in tune by the way? Did you know? Did you know?"
Plays 'Oh! You Pretty Things'.
Plays 'Eight Line Poem'.
David Bowie: "Thank you. Er this is where we get Thomas on stage. Thomas Parker. Mr Tom Parker ex Animal. (audience applaud) Tom will take over the piano and play it properly for the rest of the evening (laughs). The first thing we're gonna do with Tom is one in which I don't know the guitar chords so I'll stand here like a twit, not used to singing without one. There called Changes, er... it's another one from the album."
Plays 'Changes'.
David Bowie: "Presumptuousness of the er songwriter is that he feels he can pick on anybody and write about anybody, I'm no exception, but this is not a picking song it's just about someone, er it's called Song For Bob Dylan."
Plays 'Song For Bob Dylan'.
David Bowie: "Thank you, thanks thanks very much. Er that was written during a spate of people songs. I got hung up on writing about people, er just kind of well known figures and what they stood for. I believe very much in... in er er the media of the streets, street messages and one of the leaders in that field is a man called Andy Warhol and this is, this is about him this is called Song... what? Do you want to do something else? What do you wanna do. Raymond's getting... gone to get you something. (to audience) Got nothing else much to tell ya. What's happening your side? (Go on David). It's very good Tom. Needn't know you had it in ya. Yes this is called Andy War.. Warhol. I won't give you a ??)."
Plays 'Andy Warhol'.
David Bowie: "This one is er, (um?) with the band again. It's the third in a series of people songs I did. Er this one is about a friend of mine in America called Lou Reed, who's the singer er with a band out there in New York called The Velvet Underground who aren't that well known (audience cheer) yes they are sorry, sorry very well known band over here called Velvet Underground, they don't know about them in Beckenham I tell ya (laughs). Er anyway er Lou is very funny, er outrageously funny and er this is a song for Lou and it's called Queen Bitch."
Plays 'Queen Bitch'.
Plays 'Looking For A Friend'.
David Bowie: "Thank you this is our last number now. Thank you very much."
Plays 'Round And Round'.
David Bowie: "We've loved you very much thank you."
(Audience cheer for encore)
Announcer: "David Bowie, come on let's"
David Bowie: "This is er one that thank God you'll probably appreciate not being in Beckenham, it's er... are you ready Mick? It's a Velvet Underground number, it's called Waiting For The Man."
Plays 'Waiting For The Man'.
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