"Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" is a song written by

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, first recorded in June 1969 and released as a B-side to his single "

Space Oddity "Space Oddity" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album '' David Bowie''. After the commercial ...

". Bowie then rerecorded the song for his second

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous album (released in the U.S. as ''Man of Words, Man of Music'' by Mercury and reissued by

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in 1972 as ''

''). The single version has sparse instrumentation: guitar (played by Bowie) and arco bass (by

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a Grammy Award-winning British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Sha ...

). The album version, recorded in July/August 1969, features a full orchestral arrangement by

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

and is said to be the debut on a Bowie record of

Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...

, contributing uncredited

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the fe ...

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".Chris Welch (1999). ''We Could be Heroes''

Other releases

*The single version was released as the B-side to "

" and " Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola", prior to the album version. (One release of "Space Oddity" mistakenly rendered the B-side's title as "Wild Eyed Boy from Freedom".) 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 (1969–1973)'' 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'' (1983). 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

According to Chris O'Leary: Single version *

– lead vocal, 12-string acoustic guitar, handclaps *Paul Buckmaster – arco bass *

Gus Dudgeon Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, " Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US N ...

– producer Album version *David Bowie – lead vocal, 12-string acoustic guitar, arranger *

– bass, arranger, producer *John Cambridge – drums, percussion *Unknown musicians – orchestra

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud David Bowie songs 1969 songs Songs written by David Bowie Song recordings produced by Gus Dudgeon