In 1965, David Bowie Was Still "Davie Jones" — But This Demo Already Sounds Like Him
"Today" is a heartbreak ballad David Bowie recorded before he changed his name, now surfacing as part of the "1965 Shel Talmy Recordings" album. The chord progressions and melodic direction already hint at the David Bowie he would become.
"Nothing can I give, only one sad song" — in 1965, at Central Sound Studios on Denmark Street in London, a young man still going by Davie Jones sang these lyrics into a microphone, with no one yet knowing he would become David Bowie. This demo, titled "Today," is a tightly wound breakup folk song, and its opening chords and melodic direction already carry a flavor that the future David Bowie would return to again and again — not as a deliberate homage in the arrangement, but as the same person's blueprint, written more than a decade early.
"Today" is the second track to be released from "David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings," an album set for release via Parlophone on September 18. The previous release was the also-previously-unreleased "I Want Your Love." All tracks on the album were recorded in 1965, produced by Shel Talmy — the man behind several classic singles by The Who and The Kinks. The lineup of musicians involved is no small matter either: Jimmy Page (before he joined Led Zeppelin), members of The Yardbirds, and Nicky Hopkins, who later played keyboards for The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, all appear on the recordings.
The album contains 21 tracks across CD and vinyl editions. Alongside 10 previously unreleased studio demos and replay versions, it also includes "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" and "Baby Loves That Way," two tracks originally released as Parlophone singles at the time — both later reworked by David Bowie and included on his 2021 album "TOY," recorded with his Glastonbury-era band. In effect, the same set of lyrics spans half a century, reworked once more by Bowie himself. The track listings also clearly distinguish performance credits: some are billed as Davie Jones & The Lower Third, some as The Manish Boys, and a few demos are credited solely to Davie Jones.
The album's liner notes, written by Alec Palao, describe these recordings as something that "shouldn't be judged by the standards of his later career, but rather placed back into the London music scene of that moment in 1965." This statement, in a way, explains why "Today" is worth hearing: it's not meant to prove how early a young genius wrote a masterpiece, but to preserve a recorded trace of a voice still finding its tone, not yet set in stone.
Moving forward alongside this album is the restoration project for 4 Plaistow Grove, the childhood home where David Bowie wrote many of his early works, slated to open to the public in 2027. Pre-order and pre-save links for the album are already live on Parlophone's official page, though pricing and physical edition details have not yet been fully disclosed in public materials.
