Today (January 8th) would have been David Bowie's 72nd birthday. Here's one of his earliest releases, a mod-styled effort from all the way back in 1965. Bowie's earliest, pre-fame work is often overlooked. But it’s usually overlooked for a reason: the man hadn’t yet discovered his own voice, and the quality of his pre-‘Space Oddity’ material mostly paled compared to his later work. 1964′s ‘Liza Jane’ marked Bowie’s first ever appearance on record, under the name Davie Jones with the King Bees. A year later, and after releasing a flop single with The Manish Boys, he returns as Davy Jones And The Lower Third with a Who-esque single ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’, which also reflects a heavy Kinks influence. Its highlight comes in the form of the raucous guitars that burst in after the choruses. While Bowie was on Vocals, Alto & Tenor Saxophone, and harmonica, the rest of the group consisted of Denis 'T-Cup' Taylor on lead guitar, Graham 'Death' Rivens on bass, while Phil Lancaster played drums.
The musician born as David Robert Jones would release another single with The Lower Third the following year in 1966, this time adopting the name David Bowie for the first time. Like his previous singles, it failed to chart.
Decades later, Bowie recorded a new version of the song, nearly twice as long, in 2000 for the unreleased Toy album. This appeared on the European release of the single "Slow Burn", the two-disc deluxe edition of 'Heathen' and the UK release of the single "Everyone Says 'Hi'"
Listen to an epic 6 part compilation featuring selections from Bowie's extraordinary musical career HERE.
