Killer Opening Songs (David Bowie - Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed)

What happens when a Killer Opening Song is not a Killer Opening Song? No, no, K.O.S. is not trying to confuse you my dear reader, but recently K.O.S. felt at a loss after listening to a particular record: David Bowie's 1969 'Space Oddity'. Our Weekly Section on Great Introductory Album Tracks was already familiar with the record from its days in uni, yet its attention had always been captured, not by the title track with its famous 'Ground control to Major Tom' line, but by the second tune 'Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed', a raw rock'n'roll affair that threw K.O.S. off its stride the first time it heard it. K.O.S. has already blogged about this particular song before (you can read the article here) but in essence it can be summed up as terrestrial bedlam of the good kind.

This conundrum put K.O.S. to think of all those tracks that deserve to be in pole position in a record and yet end up being number five, eight or last. K.O.S. is aware that this opinion is completely subjective. After all its own definition of a Killer Opening Song is 'Composition at the beginning of an album whose aim is to make a strong and vivid impression on the listener, thus encouraging him/her to continue to listen to the record until the end'. So, is giving priority to musical numbers whose authors deemed not worthy enough to be placed at the beginning of their record contradictory? Yes, but by now you should be used to K.O.S.'s occasionally wilful and capricious ways. That's why, for the next few weeks it will be uploading tracks that it believes should have been Killer Opening Songs but never made the cut. Think of it as a way to redress the balance and right a wrong. You could also (unfairly, K.O.S. hastens to add) think of it as a way of K.O.S. uploading clips of songs that are very dear to it and whose position in an album disqualifies them from being included in a weekly section that it is all about Killer Opening Songs. For the time being, here's David Bowie with 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed'. And also for good measure, K.O.S. included the video of 'Space Oddity', too.

Note: The link below will take you to last.fm. It's a fantastic website and I can't recommend it highly enough. Download your own scrobbler, sit back and enjoy the lovely surprises last.fm will throw at you. Thanks.

'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed'



Copyright 2008

I've got a song in my head

I've got a song in my head and I can't stop. I've got a song in my head and I continue to bop. I've got a slender song in my head that can lift its body a third off the ground and look down onto me . I've got a song in my head that can flatten its neck sheltering me in the hood of its larynx. I've got a song in my head that slithers along, nestles in the crook of my arm and stays in, warm and uninvited. I've got a song in my head that is solitary and territorial; it prefers deep forests, but can also range in open areas. I've got a song in my head that, from the first time I heard it, has overpowered me from any angle, using its puny size to knock me off my balance.

It's a mad song, it is, my song. It talks about a phallus in pigtails and blood in my nose. It describes how my tissue is rotting/where the rats chew my bones. I love my song, because it is mine, you see. I know, I know, it was written by one David Bowie but I've appropriated it now, just like IT has got a hold on me. When I first got 'Space Oddity' years ago, it was the title track I was familiar with. But it was the second song, 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed' that got me hooked to the album. It starts with a simple acoustic arrangement and Bowie singing in a nonchalant manner Spy, spy, pretty girl/I see you see me through your window/Don't turn your nose up/Well, you can if you need to, you won't be the first or last/It must strain you to look down so far from your father's house/And I know what a louse like me in his house could do for you and suddenly... pandemonium.

The guitar grows muscled forelimbs with which to render the listener powerless, there's a harmonica that lets rip right into your soul, and doesn't let go until you lie on the floor, motionless, still, immobile, from having exhausted yourself through pure musical ecstasy.

I've got a song in my head, I've got a song in my head that makes me hop and bop, and I won't stop till I drop... I've got a song in my head...

Copyright 2007