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| "Memory of a Free Festival" | |
|---|---|
| Song by David Bowie | |
| from the album David Bowie (Space Oddity) | |
| Released | 14 November 1969 |
| Recorded | Late August – 16 September 1969[1] |
| Studio | Trident, London |
| Length | 6:13 |
| Label | Philips |
| Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
| Producer(s) | Tony Visconti |
| David Bowie (Space Oddity) track listing | |
10 tracks
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| "Memory of a Free Festival" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by David Bowie | ||||
| A-side | "Memory of a Free Festival Part 1" | |||
| B-side | "Memory of a Free Festival Part 2" | |||
| Released | 12 June 1970 | |||
| Recorded | ||||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Mercury | |||
| Songwriter(s) | David Bowie | |||
| Producer(s) | Tony Visconti | |||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
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"Memory of a Free Festival" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. Originally recorded in September 1969[2] as a seven-minute opus for Bowie's second self-titled album, it was reworked in March–April 1970[3] at the behest of Mercury Records, the label believing that the track had a better chance of success as a single than "The Prettiest Star", released earlier in the year. Bowie and Tony Visconti roughly split the track in half, re-recording it so both halves could function as individual songs. A more rock-oriented version than the earlier album cut,[4] this rendition featured guitarist Mick Ronson.
Biographer David Buckley described "Memory of a Free Festival" as "a sort of trippy retake of the Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' but with a smiley lyric".[5] The track was written as a homage to the Free Festival, organised by the Beckenham Arts Lab, which was held at Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham on 16 August 1969.[6]
Released in America in June 1970, the single was commercially unsuccessful; only a few hundred copies sold. It was also issued in the UK, but was similarly unsuccessful there.
The two-part single version was subsequently released on CD on the EMI/Rykodisc reissue of Bowie's 1969 self-titled album (in 1990), on a 2-CD special edition of that album (in 2009), and on Re:Call 1, part of the Five Years (1969–1973) compilation (in 2015).
- ^ O'Leary 2015, chap. 3.
- ^ a b Cann 2010, p. 159.
- ^ a b Cann 2010, pp. 188–190.
- ^ Carr & Murray 1981, p. 33.
- ^ Buckley 1999, p. 98.
- ^ The Free Festival which inspired the song: BowieWonderworld.com website. Retrieved on 22 September 2007.