Signing you in

London enthusiastically claims David Bowie as one of its own. But the global rock icon wasn’t too dewy-eyed about the relationship. The city he grew up in may have given him his earliest artistic ideas, even some cherished club neighbourhoods, but he found its box-like homes and high crime rate stifling. Bowie left for Berlin, Switzerland and then New York, where he spent the last 40 years of his life. This was before the anthemic ‘Space Oddity’, Ziggy Stardust and Major Tom made their appearance.

Almost a decade after his death and more than 60 years after they were recorded, some of Bowie’s unreleased recordings from his London days will be released in September in a compilation, David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings. These 1965 recordings give listeners a peek into the life of an artiste searching for his voice in a space occupied by The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

One of the already released tracks, ‘I want your love’, captures Bowie in a blues-rock mode. There is no obvious sign of greatness and no theatrical ambition. But that doesn’t diminish the significance of the music — it provides a glimpse into David Robert Jones trying to assemble the creative pieces that helped him become Bowie. Then there are collaborations with guitarist Jimmy Page, before he was part of Led Zeppelin, as well as The Beatles pianist Nicky Hopkins. Enough to have the listener riveted.