In the spring of 1969, David Bowie had been in exile from pop music for over a year. After splitting with his label, Deram, as they kept rejecting prospective singles, he’d formed a folk trio with his girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale, and John Hutchinson, a guitarist from his former band. Bowie auditioned for plays, crafted a cabaret act, joined a UFO spotting group, performed mime, got bit parts in films and commercials—a typical late-1960s creative experience. But his primary goal was another record deal, and he was running out of options. Philips/Mercury was one of his last shots—most other major UK labels of the ’60s had already released music by him, with no chart success. Befriending a Mercury A&R rep, Bowie had an inside connection, so he and Hutchinson auditioned via a Revox reel-to-reel.
The ‘Mercury’ Demos are simply that: 10 demos for Mercury by the folk duo of Bowie and Hutch (Bowie and Farthingale had broken up some months before). Bootlegged for decades, they finally get an official release as part of Parlophone’s ongoing reissue series. Happily, it’s a single LP here and not a cumbersome box set of 7" singles, as with the Clareville Grove Demos and Spying Through a Keyhole. Unhappily, it’s a single LP of demos whose retail price is more in line with that of a multiple-CD reissue set.
The packaging mimics a promo kit from 1969: photo contact sheets and headshots of Bowie and Hutch, a few stapled pages of “typewritten” liner notes. But as with the other Bowie demo sets, it can’t shake looking like a cynical bid for the fan wallet. Perhaps the final touch will be a “master” box set collecting all previous box sets. (Unlike Keyhole, at least, it didn’t wait months to appear on streaming services.)
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The David Bowie (with John 'Hutch' Hutchinson) - Clareville Grove Demos features the following six demo tracks recorded early in 1969, four of which are previously unreleased. These recordings are not to be confused with The ‘Mercury’ Demos.
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