Bowie plays selector

David Bowie’s endorsement of the likes of Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio has hit the headlines in recent years but throughout his career he’s remained a cheerleader for cutting-edge new music.

This week on Music Recommenders he ponders 25 of his earliest favourites from The Velvet Underground to The Fugs, Toots & The Maytals to Robert Wyatt. Writing first person for the Music Recommenders blog, it’s a fascinating insight into the soundtrack of one of popular music’s most creative minds. Below are extracts, for the complete article visit www.musicrecommeders.com:

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground - 1967 Verve?

Brought back from New York by a former manager, Ken Pitt. Pitt had done some kind of work as a PR man that had brought him into contact with the Factory. Warhol had given him this coverless test pressing (I still have it, no label, just a small sticker with Warhol's signature on it) and said, "you like weird stuff, see what you think of this". What I 'thought of this' was that here was the best band in the world. In December of that year, my band Buzz broke up but not without my demanding we play 'Waiting for the Man' as one of the encore songs at our last gig. Amusingly, not only was I to cover Velvet's song before anyone else in the world, I actually did it before the album came out. Now that's the essence of Mod.

James Brown - Live At the Apollo - KING 1963

My schoolmate Geoff MacCormack brought this around to my house one afternoon, breathless and overexcited. 'You have never, in your life, heard anything like this" he said. I made a trip to see Jane Greene that very afternoon. Two of the songs on this album 'Try Me' and 'Lost Someone', became loose inspirations for Ziggy's 'Rock and Roll Suicide'. Brown's Apollo performance still stands for me as one of the most exciting live albums ever. Soul music now had an undisputed king.

The Fugs - The Fugs - ESP 1966

The sleeve notes were written by Allen Ginsberg and contain these prescient lines:- 'Who's on the other side? People who think we are bad. Other side? No, let's not make it a war, we'll all be destroyed, we'll go on suffering 'till we die if we take the War Door'. I found on the internet a newsprint ad for the Fugs who, coupled with the Velvet Underground, played the 'April Fools Dance and Models Ball' at the Village Gate in 1966. The FBI had them on their books as 'The Fags'. This was surely one of the most lyrically explosive Underground bands ever. Not the greatest musicians in the world but how 'Punk' was all that? Tuli Kupferberg, Fugs co-writer and performer, in collaboration with Ed Saunders, has just finished the new Fugs album as I write. Tuli is 84 years old.