Classic Rock Icon + French Horns = Burt Bacharach!

I read somewhere that David Bowie listened to a lot of Neil Young around that time, so maybe he's imitating Neil-imitating-Burt-Bacharach. I'm also interested in hearing about any other songs that might fit into this group...I'm having a hard time coming up with any.

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Um...I'm sensing a photo finish here.

always found this Bowie song annoying, sorry (esp the line about "not being much cop at punching other people's dads"). Neil, no contest.

That is a strange line--I always heard it slightly differently ("I'm not much cop at..."), and thought it was some Britishcism I didn't understand. I think it's a brilliant song, though. But I have a slight preference for Neil.

oh yeah I'm sure my quote isn't precise there. line always stuck out as trying just a little too hard to be obnoxiously fey and twee in this peculiarly British way (there are tons of instances of this early on in Bowie's career, to be fair)

Neil song is great, although obviously still a bit of a throwaway. Only anecdote I can recall about it is something about the horn player having to walk all the way to Neil's farm/studio cuz his car broke down or something so he was all out of breath, which impacted his performance.

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