Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" is a song written by David Bowie, first recorded in June 1969 and released as a B-side to his single "Space Oddity". Bowie then rerecorded the song for his second eponymous album.
The single version has sparse instrumentation: guitar and arco bass. 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.
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".
Other releases
- The single version was released as the B-side to "Space Oddity" and "Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola", prior to the album version. It later appeared on the Sound + Vision box set in 1989, on a 2-CD special edition of Bowie's second self-titled album in 2009, and, in its original UK mono version, on Re:Call 1, part of the Five Years compilation released in 2015.
- Bowie played this song on Sound of the 70s, a BBC Radio Session with Andy Ferris on 25 March 1970. This recording, broadcast in April 1970, was released in 2000 on Bowie at the Beeb.
- A live version recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 3 July 1973 was released on Ziggy Stardust: [The Motion Picture]. The song was played as a part of a medley with "All the Young Dudes" and "Oh! You Pretty Things".
- The track appeared on the Japanese compilation The Best of David Bowie in 1974.
- A piano, orchestra and choir version of the track appears on the Rick Wakeman album Piano Odyssey, released on Sony Music in 2018.
Personnel
Single version
- David Bowie – lead vocal, 12-string acoustic guitar, handclaps
- Paul Buckmaster – arco bass
- Gus Dudgeon – producer
- David Bowie – lead vocal, 12-string acoustic guitar, arranger
- Tony Visconti – bass, arranger, producer
- John Cambridge – drums, percussion
- Unknown musicians – orchestra