What’s your favourite song from David Bowie’s album Tragic Moments? What about his earlier work on 1971’s Metrobolist? Are these album titles not ringing any bells? Oh no love, you’re not alone: they are scrapped working titles for some of Bowie’s most popular works. In celebration of what would have been his 73rd birthday today, here are 20 Bowie song and album names left on the cutting room floor.
1. Borderline
During a break in recording Iggy Pop’s The Idiot in France, Bowie and Pop had a few evening wines and then worked up a new riff. Initially titled “Borderline”, it would soon morph into “China Girl”. Bowie recorded his own hit version for 1983’s Let’s Dance, with Nile Rodgers adding his guitar and production magic to proceedings.
2. People Are Turning To Gold
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) producer Tony Visconti has said “People Are Turning To Gold” began with little more than ‘la la la la’ placeholder lyrics when work began on the track in February 1980, but by April the track had morphed into the more familiar hit single “Ashes To Ashes”.
3. Jamaica
Another track from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) sessions, “Jamaica” was initially put aside as Bowie got no further than singing the title as the song’s hook. After Visconti recommended he give it another shot just as the album was being mixed, it was reworked as the hit single “Fashion”.
4. Bussin’
Written on the road in the US in 1972, an early sketch of “The Jean Genie” was named after the mundane refrain which acted as the initial lyric: ‘Bus, bus, bus. We’re goin’ bussin’…’
5. Shilling The Rubes
An early working title for Bowie’s 1975 plastic soul album, Young Americans (see also Dancin’ and One Damn Song) was Shilling The Rubes, a slang term referring to conning a mark. To add further intrigue, “Shilling The Rubes” is also a Bowie song from the era which has never been officially released.
6. Sons Of The Silent Age
Cited by Bowie as being the title of his forthcoming album when interviewed by NME in 1977, the LP was renamed “Heroes” when released in October. “Sons Of The Silent Age” remains one of the song titles on the collection.
7. Revenge, Or The Best Haircut I Ever Had
UK weekly music magazine Record Mirror initially suggested “Diamond Dogs” would be known as Revenge, or The Best Haircut I Ever Had. At various times ahead of its 1974 release, working titles also included We Are The Dead and Tragic Moments.
8. New Music: Night And Day
New Music: Night And Day ended up being called Low. When paired with the 1977 album’s cover photograph lifted from a scene in The Man Who Fell To Earth, the title and picture created a dire visual pun on ‘Low profile’. Bowie got so far as creating art mock-ups of the album featuring the New Music: Night And Day title.
9. Metrobolist
Just as “Space Oddity”’s title was a pun on Stanley Kubrick’s filming of Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, proposed album title Metrobolist was a play on the Fritz Lang’s famed silent film Metropolis. When his US label jumped the gun and released the album in November 1970 as The Man Who Sold The World, David was understandably riled at the move. Nonetheless, the title remained (even if the original cowboy cover artwork didn’t) when the album was subsequently released in the UK in April 1971.
10. It Happens Every Day
A Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) track better known for its perceived lyrical smackdown of Bowie acolyte Gary Numan, “Teenage Wildlife” was initially known as “It Happens Every Day”.
11. People On Streets
Bowie’s most popular collaboration began life with a far less beguiling title. A hastily assembled collaboration with Queen while they were recording near Bowie’s house in Switzerland, “Under Pressure” retains a number of lyrical references to the hard-knock life of the ‘people on streets’. Interestingly, Queen drummer Roger Taylor later released his own song called “People On Streets” on his 1998 solo album Electric Fire.
12. Vampires And Human Flesh
Vampires And Human Flesh feels like a perfect follow-up title to Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), but Bowie instead opted for the anodyne Let’s Dance for the title of his massively successful 1983 album. Released the same month as Tony Scott’s film The Hunger, where Bowie starred as a vampire alongside one-time lover Susan Sarandon, the alternate title seems neatly apposite.
13. Cameras In Brooklyn
Another Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) track which exists on bootlegs under a different name, “Up The Hill Backwards” was originally known as “Cameras In Brooklyn”. In its original form, the lyrics refer to the falling Skylab, a US space station which burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere the year before the song’s 1980 release.
14. How We War
A track re-recorded both during Bowie’s lifetime (as heard on the MM Mix released on the iSelect compilation) and posthumously (the sublime “Never Let Me Down 2019” mix), the 1987 single “Time Will Crawl” was originally known as “How We War”. While the title changed, the lyrics remain hung up on Cold War paranoias relating to a nuclear holocaust.
15. Isolation
The title track to 1987’s Never Let Me Down album was originally called “Isolation”, a song title already utilised by Bowie’s one-time collaborator John Lennon and Bowie fans, Joy Division. With guitarist Carlos Alomar injecting elements of his own song sketch “I’m Tired”, “Isolation” morphed into the collaborative “Never Let Me Down”.
16. Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma’am
The original intention was to use a cheeky line from the glam Ziggy Stardust stomper “Suffragette City” as the title of Bowie’s first official live album, but when it was released in 1974 it instead went by the mundane title David Live.
17. Round And Round
Speaking of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, the breakthrough 1972 album was originally intended to be titled Round and Round. A Chuck Berry song previously known as “Around And Around”, Bowie’s recording of the track was ousted from the final Ziggy Stardust tracklisting in favour of fresh cut “Suffragette City”.
18. Planned Accidents
Sounding for all intents and purposes like one of colleague Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards used to stimulate new processes in the studio,Bowie's 1979 album Lodger was originally set to be called Planned Accidents. The Lodger artwork featuring Bowie looking splayed and broken on bathroom tiling suggests the artist retained a soft spot for the former title.
19. Despite Straight Lines
Another Lodger title proposed to Melody Maker in 1979, Despite Straight Lines ended up being used by Boy George affiliate Marilyn for his debut album in 1985. Two decades later Marilyn revealed his affair with singer Gavin Rossdale from Bush, a band who coincidentally toured with Bowie in the mid-1990s. All roads lead back to Bowie.
20. The Gouster
A slang term for a streetwise cat, The Gouster was originally mooted as a title for 1975’s sleek and funky Young Americans. While never fully realised in Bowie’s lifetime, the album was reimagined in 2016 on the Who Can I Be Now? compilation, recreating The Gouster’s original tracklisting with some new album mixes.
To celebrate what would have been David Bowie’s 73rd birthday, listen to a selection of his greatest songs on Spotify or Apple here:
