There is no denying that David Bowie was one of the most creative and unique artists to have ever excited. His vision was singular and sharp as he moved through different characters and stages like a chameleon, morphing from form to form, sound to sound. That ranged from anthemic rock songs to experimental, left-field sounds. But on one track, Bowie put artistry aside and went in with one goal: hit-making.
Even on his most commercially successful songs, no one would ever dare to suggest that Bowie wasn’t an artist. However, there were moments when the man himself doubted that. After the release of ‘Let’s Dance’, when he’d leaned heavily into more commercial, mainstream sounds, he remarked, “I was something I never wanted to be.” But even still, Bowie’s most broadly beloved pop songs still have an edge to them as the interesting nature of him as a musician seems to make it impossible for his songs not to be interesting too.
Largely, he liked pushing the boundaries. Bowie wasn’t interested in doing what people wanted, what people expected or even what people thought he should do. As he moved through characters like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke and beyond, he was routinely shrugging off any level of predictability surrounding his career and defying what people thought might come next to turn in a different direction. As he sang in one of his early tracks, writing a kind of anthem for himself, he always followed the mantra, “turn and face the strange”, existing as an artist who got a lot out of the “ch-ch-changes.”
But if he wanted to, he could write a typical pop song. He was more than capable of creating chart fodder that the masses would like, and in 1967, he decided to prove that point.
“One evening David was sitting watching television when suddenly he took his eyes from the screen and said to me ‘I’m going to write some top ten rubbish’”, Kenneth Pitt, Bowie’s manager, remembered him saying at the time. Knowing the kind of contrarian, creative artist that Bowie already was, Pitt laughed and replied, “I don’t think you could ever knowingly write rubbish of any kind.”
It was a challenge, as Bowie responded, “Wanna bet? You’ve seen nothing yet.” The story goes that he went off for a little while then came back with ‘Let Me Sleep Beside You’ all finished.
As far as classic pop songs go, the track doesn’t bear much resemblance to that. It’s still unique, capturing Bowie’s folkish twang of the time but with sweet, loving lyrics that merge innuendo with genuine sentiment like the radio hits of the moment. So, really, he failed the challenge as Pitt said the track was “neither rubbish nor top ten material, but another very good song.”
Furthering the fact that Bowie failed his challenge, Decca rejected the track as a single. However, this quickly-written attempt at creating radio fodder proved to be an important milestone in his career as ‘Let Me Sleep Beside You’ became the first song that he made with Tony Visconti. So, ironically, his attempt at writing rubbish would open the doors to an era where the duo would create some of the world’s most beloved and most interesting rock songs.
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