David Bowie was a person of innumerable skills, however one in every of his best talents was to cherry-pick good, typically unknown musicians who would assist realise his musical imaginative and prescient at any given time.
The Skinny White Duke had an particularly nice observe report with guitarists. Bowie’s early partnership with Mick Ronson helped propel the singer to stardom after a number of false begins, and he went on to fruitful artistic relationships with a stellar array of six-stringers from Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick and Stevie Ray Vaughan to King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Stylish’s Nile Rodgers and Reeves Gabrels.
Not everybody who entered Bowie’s orbit stayed there lengthy. Often, the singer want the assistance of a musician on the final minute and if his common collaborator on the time wasn’t out there, he put in a name to whoever he may.
Considered one of these folks was Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson. The Scottish guitarist had spent the second half of the Nineteen Seventies as a member of Skinny Lizzy, however by 1979 his time within the band was coming to finish because of his more and more fractious relationship with Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
However Robbo had an admirer in Tony Visconti, who had produced Lizzy’s 1977 album Unhealthy Popularity in addition to lots of Bowie’s greatest data. And when the singer wanted a guitarist to re-record a solo for a 1979 TV look, it was Robbo that Visconti urged.
In a 2012 interview with Traditional Rock, Robbo recalled his very transient time in Bowie’s firm.
“Bowie was showing on [British TV comedy programme] The Kenny Everett Present, and that concerned him having to report a brand new model of [1979 single] Boys Preserve Swinging,” recalled Robbo.
“I used to be in the course of a Lizzy tour, however I bought the decision from Tony Visconti asking if I may play the guitar solo, I wasn’t going to overlook that. I’d been a giant Bowie and Mick Ronson fan since I used to be a child.”
Robbo instructed Visconti that he’d do it. “Tony despatched me a cassette of the unique Boys Preserve Swinging and it had this loopy lead guitar stuff by [then-Bowie collaborator] Adrian Belew, all these bizarre noises. I believed, ‘Fuck! I can’t do this.’
“However I went right down to Good Earth studios with a Strat and a bottle of Courvoisier. David and Tony have been sat behind the blending desk.
“I used to be simply getting my sound when David shouted: ‘Okay, completed!” I used to be like: ‘However I haven’t truly began but…’”
Pleased with Robertson’s ad-hoc however unintentionally excellent contribution, Visconti fleshed out the ultimate recording. Keyboards got here from Sean Mayes, whose band Fumble had supported Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour.
Former Hawkwind man Simon Home added violin, session musos Andy Duncan and Ricky Hitchcock offered drums and guitar, and the producer himself performed the bass.
A video was filmed the next day, Bowie dragging on a cigarette all through, and the completed phase was broadcast on April 23.
Robertson’s non-solo-solo was formally launched in 2019, when the Kenny Everett model of Boys Preserve Swinging was launched as a 7″ image disc to have a good time its fortieth anniversary.