Arnold Corns was a band formed by David Bowie in 1971. The name was inspired by the Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne. This was one of Bowie’s side projects and something of a dry run for Ziggy Stardust. The band was formed in Dulwich College and Bowie agreed to write for them. At the same time he also agreed to write for the 19 year old dress designer Freddie Burretti (aka Rudi Valentino). Bowie came up with the idea of combining Burretti and Arnold Corns, and with the help of Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder, a revised version of Arnold Corns was created during the spring of 1971. Bowie was writing material that would later become Hunky Dory, as well as songs earmarked for Burretti. Burretti as the frontman was a total fabrication, and his contributions were simply lost alongside Bowie's.
The band’s first single Moonage Daydream"/"Hang on to Yourself, released on B&C Records on 7 May 1971 was a stunning flop. Both these songs later reappeared on Ziggy Stardust in new versions.
Cheers! Buon fina settimana!
3 comments:
I never heard that one -- and it kind of sucks, IMHO, but now that you mention I think I had a bootleg back in the day with the version of "Hang On to Yourself" and it was better than the Ziggy version. Cool acoustic twelve string guitar -- sounded very rockabilly, or even Monkee-ish. IIRC....
Wow!
Amazing! Always cool to hear earlier versions of really good songs. I do think the Ziggy take is a big step forward from this though. By dropping some fraction of an octave the vocal loses its whine, & i think adding the descending oooh-oooh-oooh-ooohs on the backing vocals that come in right at the “Keep Your Electric Eye on Me Babe” point was a good move that added a lot to the spooky Ziggy vibe.
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