On hearing a new LP called 'David Bowie'. someone remarked: 'Well it's very nice, but do you think he's a lasting talent?'

...The answer is Yes. Not just on the strength of his album but merely because 'Space Oddity' is not the be all and end all of his talents, and because David Bowie has been around writing some very good songs for the past four years. Unheralded, and to a great extent, unnoticed, except by the Bowie believers and devotes.

...This album then is David Bowie NOW. As he has always been. David is a very social writer. Ho does not exactly make blatant social comments, but rather frightening atmosphere we all live in as a back-drop to his songs.

...'David Bowie' took six months to write. 'This has been a good writing period for me and I'm very pleased with the outcome. I just hope everyone else is too' says Bowie.

...The album is out at the beginning of next month. On it David has arranged all the tracks, and is helped along in some almost semi-classical sounds by Juniors' Eyes.

...The atmosphere of the album IS rather doomy and un-nerving, but Bowie's point comes across like a latter-day Dylan. It is an album a lot of people are going to except a lot from. I don't think they'll be disappointed.

Here David goes through the tracks: Space Oddity: 'This is slightly longer than the single. The sad thing about the record was that not all the copies were in stereo. This is definitely a stereo sound and you lost a lot of impact on the single. This is how it,s supposed to sound.'

Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed: 'This is a rather weird little song I wrote because one day when I was very scruffy I got a lot of funny stares from people in the street. The lyrics are what you hear - about a boy whose girlfriend thinks he is socially inferior. I thought it was rather funny really.'

Letter To Hermione: 'I once wrote a letter I never sent to Hermoine, who was a dancer with the Lindsay Kemp mime company. I thought I'd record it instead and send her the record. I think she's in Greenwich Village now.'

Cygnet Committee : (9 minutes 30 seconds). 'I wanted this track out as a single but nobody else thought it was a good idea. Well it is a bit long I suppose. It's basically three separate points of view about the more militant section of the hippie movement. The movement was a great ideal but something's gone wrong with it now. I'm not really attacking it but pointing out that the militants have still got to be helped as people-human beings - even if they are going about things all the wrong way.

Janine: 'Mmmm. This is a bit hard to explain without sounding nasty. It was written about my old mate George and is about a girl he used to go out with. It's how I thought he should see her.'

An Occasional Dream: 'This is another reflection of Hermoine who I was very hung up about.'

The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud : 'I must say I seem to say most things the long way round - I suppose that's why a lot of my numbers are very involved and long. The Wild Eyed Boy lives on a mountain and has developed a beautiful way of life. He loves the mountain and the mountain love him. I suppose in a way he's rather a prophet figure. 'The villagers disapprove of the things he has to say and they decide to hang him. He gives up to his fate, but the mountain tries to help him by killing the village. 'So in fact everything the boy says is taken the wrong way - both by those who fear him AND those who love him, and try to assist.'

God Knows I'm Good : 'Communication has taken away so much from our lives that now it's almost totally involved in machines rather than ordinary human beings, There's nobody to talk your troubles over with these days, so this track is about a woman who steals a can of stew, which she desperately needs but can't afford, from a supermarket and gets caught. 'The machines look on ''Shrieking on the counter'' and ''spitting by my shoulder''.'

Memory Of A Free Festival : 'Well we go out on an air of optimism, which I believe in. Things WILL get better. I wrote this after the Beckenham festival when I was very happy.'