Guardian Review Finds Little Musical Distinction in Newly Unearthed David Bowie 1960s Recordings

A new compilation of David Bowie's mid-1960s recordings, titled 'The Shel Talmy Recordings' and released on Parlophone, has been reviewed by The Guardian, which described the previously unreleased material as failing to distinguish Bowie from contemporaries of the period.

According to the review, the songs date from Bowie's early career under the name Davie Jones, before he adopted the stage name that would define his later fame. The recordings were produced by Shel Talmy, known for his work with British bands of the 1960s.

The Guardian's review situates the material in the context of Bowie's complicated relationship with his pre-fame work. It notes that in 1973, Bowie released 'Pin Ups,' an album of covers paying tribute to mid-1960s British pop and its shift away from Merseybeat and blues revival toward what the review calls "something noticeably weirder, noisier and more expansive." The review references a promotional interview from that period in which Bowie discussed watching bands including the Pretty Things, the Who, the Creation and an early incarnation of Pink Floyd, without mentioning that he had also attempted to record his own material inspired by those acts during the same era.

The review states that for much of his career, Bowie largely avoided discussing or promoting this early material, even as former record labels continued to reissue it, at times in packaging the review suggests was intended to make the material appear more current than it was.

The review also notes a shift later in Bowie's career, pointing to 'Toy,' a 2001 album revisiting his 1960s-era songs that was rejected by his label at the time, EMI. The review characterizes this rejection as difficult to reconcile with narratives crediting Bowie's 2000 Glastonbury Festival performance with substantially reviving his career and public standing.

Overall, the Guardian review assesses 'The Shel Talmy Recordings' as demonstrating that Bowie's early singles did not set him apart musically from other bands of the mid-1960s period, describing the material as comparatively insubstantial.