David Bowie : Good Morning Girl

Well, well, well. Originally I thought this would be a stumper, since I thought this tune had been issued under Bowie's real name, David Jones. Turns out I was wrong. A couple of early singles were issued under variations of his birthname, but by the time this one arrived, he was officially David Bowie, and so began his stellar career.

"Good Morning Girl" finds Bowie at his swingin'est. Brian Eno once called him a musical chameleon, in that he could sing in any style you please. Here, he seems to be channeling Georgie Fame, another Brit swinger from the mid-to-late sixties, or maybe one of the more frenetic Dolenz-penned-and-sung Monkees singles, like "Randy Scouse Git", although they didn't really crest until '67.

The song pops along with an upbeat rock swing and a great hook. Bowie's delivery is quick, almost manic (for him anyway), but the best part is when Bowie drops in some passages of groovy scat. It's a gas, baby!

"Good Morning Girl" is the B-side of the 1966 Pye single "Do Anything You Say", which I've never had the pleasure of hearing, and is available on several Early Bowie packages.

[You can listen to David Bowie's "Good Morning Girl" by navigating to the post "Song013" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Pink Floyd : Paint Box

The goal for Topeka is to expose the reader to new music. Not new in the sense of "just came out last week", but new in the sense of "Hey, you may not have ever heard this before." In order to do this, I'm certainly going to pull some "just came out last week" stuff that I like, but I'm also going back into the creates to explore stuff that maybe you heard but forgot. I especially like the idea of pulling non-single album tracks or B sides from more popular groups, hopefully to shake up your preconceived ideas about what they represent.

Also, the music should just be really good. Or, at least interesting.


To that end, here is the first entry. It's a well-known band, but a lesser-known song. I think. I wasn't really around at the time. The song is Paint Box, by Pink Floyd, the flipside to Apples and Oranges (which is also a great song).

This one sounds a bit like a Syd Barrett penned song, but it turns out it was written by Richard Wright. It's a simple enough little ditty, kind of melancholy riff on the mundane perils of going out on the town with your mates. But it's a bit hazy. There's forgetting and confusion. Someone's calling him on the phone, but she's unnamed. He's late, she's mad, and he ... trips out.

This is all backed by a hazy, psychedelic swirl of production. Not so thick that it becomes a parody (like the Lemon Pipers) but just enough to contribute to the whole sense of oddness, disjointedness and anxiety that pervades the track.

The whole song feels like it really captures the befuddled stupor, the fog of a high one might find oneself in after a long night of imbibing alcohol and ingesting narcotics.

This version came off the awesome Early Singles compilation from 1992.

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