- Music
- 21 Jan 16
Producer Mark Saunders shares incredible recordings of David Bowie impersonating Neil Young, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and lots more after a 1985 recording session in London
Mark Saunders shared the incredible recordings via Youtube of Bowie impersonating other artists during a 1985 recording session in Westside Studios, London. Bowie was in the studio recording the theme track for the 1986 film Absolute Beginners.
During the six-minute clip Bowie can be heard impersonating a number of his contemporaries such as Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and Tom Waits. As the recording was finishing up Bowie decided to have some fun with the backing track and mimic other artists.
Mark Saunders who was an engineer in the studio at the time recalls, “The impersonations on this YouTube posting were recorded in August '85, when Bowie came in to do the lead vocal. At the end of the session, he broke into the impersonations and I realised that these might get erased at some point, so I quickly put a cassette in and hit ‘record.’'
Talking on thetalkhouse.com Saunders also remembers that day becoming even more surreal as they were only informed late in the day that Mick Jagger would be turning up. Saunders recalls; "Around 6 p.m., I think, David announced that we were to stop working on 'Absolute Beginners' because at 7 p.m. Mick Jagger was coming to the studio and they were going to record the Martha and the Vandellas hit song Dancing in the Street for Live Aid — and they would only have three hours to finish it".
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Over the last ten days there has been plenty of interesting stories and anecdotes coming out about Bowie but this would appear to be one of the most incredible ones yet.
You can listen to the incredible six-minute clip below: