The classic David Bowie song he intended to give away
David Bowie wrote at such a prolific pace that he often gave his creations away. Most famously, his song ‘All the Young Dudes’ was used to get Mott The Hoople’s career back on track, and Bowie also intended to give away ‘Andy Warhol’ before changing his mind.
Warhol was a figure of fascination for Bowie, who later portrayed the pioneering artist in the 1996 film Basquiat. When he penned ‘Andy Warhol’, Bowie was yet to meet the honcho of The Factory. However, the singer-songwriter did have the opportunity to play it to him before its release, and Warhol wasn’t best pleased with the track.
Bowie later recalled: “I took the song to The Factory when I first came to America and played it to him, and he hated it. Loathed it. He went [imitates Warhol’s blasé manner] ‘Oh, uh-huh, OK…’ then just walked away (laughs). I was left there. Somebody came over and said, ‘Gee, Andy hated it.’ I said, ‘Sorry, it was meant to be a compliment.’ ‘Yeah, but you said things about him looking weird. Don’t you know that Andy has such a thing about how he looks? He’s got a skin disease, and he really thinks that people kind of see that’.”
He added: “I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ It didn’t go down very well, but I got to know him after that. It was my shoes that got him. That’s where we found something to talk about. They were these little yellow things with a strap across them, like girls’ shoes. He absolutely adored them. Then I found out that he used to do a lot of shoe designing when he was younger. He had a bit of a shoe fetishism. That kind of broke the ice. He was an odd guy.”
Originally, Bowie wasn’t planning to record the track himself and place it on Hunky Dory. Instead, the performer hoped to give it to Dana Gillespie, whom he’d known since he was 17. They had been sporadically romantically involved for many years but were never officially a couple.
Gillespie was also a musician, and Bowie enlisted her to provide backing vocals on ‘It Ain’t Easy’. During this session, he reportedly suggested she record ‘Andy Warhol’ for her forthcoming album, but for unknown reasons, the LP was delayed, and Weren’t Born A Man wouldn’t arrive until 1973.
In the meantime, Bowie included his take on the track on Hunky Dory, and it would be another two years before Gillespie got to share her version on her record.
During an interview with Mojo, she later recalled how Bowie was a mentor to her during the mid-1960s. Gillespie said: “I was already in a band – I was the drummer – and he was very encouraging of my songwriting. He’d show me guitar licks and he took me down to Ready Steady Go!, where I met the producer. A bit later, I had a spot after Donovan, and it was David who suggested I do ‘Love Is Strange,’ the old Mickey & Sylvia hit from the ’50s. He showed me the bassline, and everything. We had a bit of a fling but we were all really young -me especially.”
However, in a later interview with The Guardian, Gillespie revealed Bowie ended their friendship following his divorce from Angie. She recalled: “I got a call that went: ‘You’re still friends with Angie? Bye bye.’ And that was it, I never heard from him again. Obviously, it hurt a bit but I felt more sorry for the likes of Ronno [Mick Ronson] who were devastated when Bowie dispensed with them. David could be ruthless in the way he treated people. But to me, he was always the same David Jones I first got to know, and I remember him very fondly.”
Listen to Gillespie’s version of ‘Andy Warhol’ below.
