Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud

"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud"
Song by David Bowie
from the album David Bowie (Space Oddity)
A-side"Space Oddity"
Released11 July 1969 (1969-07-11)
Genre
Length
LabelPhilips
Songwriter(s)David Bowie
Producer(s)Gus Dudgeon
David Bowie (Space Oddity) track listing
10 tracks
Side one
  1. "Space Oddity"
  2. "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed"
  3. "Don't Sit Down"
  4. "Letter to Hermione"
  5. "Cygnet Committee"
Side two
  1. "Janine"
  2. "An Occasional Dream"
  3. "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud"
  4. "God Knows I'm Good"
  5. "Memory of a Free Festival"

"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" is a song written by David Bowie, first recorded in June 1969[1] and released as a B-side to his single "Space Oddity". Bowie then rerecorded the song for his second eponymous album (released in the U.S. as Man of Words, Man of Music by Mercury and reissued by RCA in 1972 as Space Oddity).

The single version has sparse instrumentation: guitar (played by Bowie) and arco bass (by Paul Buckmaster). The album version, recorded in July/August 1969, features a full orchestral arrangement by Tony Visconti and is said to be the debut on a Bowie record of Mick Ronson, contributing uncredited lead guitar and handclaps midway through the track.[2]

Bowie himself said of the song: "It was about the disassociated, the ones who feel as though they're left outside, which was how I felt about me. I always felt I was on the edge of events, the fringe of things, and left out. A lot of my characters in those early years seem to revolve around that feeling. It must have come from my own interior puzzlement at where I was".[3]

  1. ^ Cann 2010, p. 154.
  2. ^ David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.79
  3. ^ Chris Welch (1999). We Could be Heroes