“You’re playing with the spider, who possesses the sky”
No, it’s not Brian Jones and Keith Relf. It’s Davie Jones and Davie Jones.
In the week that we celebrate the 55th anniversary of Davie Jones and The Manish Boys on BBC 2’s Gadzooks! It's All Happening (8th March, 1965), and the release of their one and only single, I Pity The Fool (5th March, 1965), we thought it would be nice to mark the occasion with a couple of pictures from around the same time.
The promo shots were taken in EMI’s boardroom at the Manchester Square offices in London.
I Pity The Fool was the follow up to the previous year's debut by Davie Jones with The King Bees, Liza Jane, and was notable for having the first ever released Bowie composition in Take My Tip on the B-side. Good to see a spider reference in his first ever published song, see today’s lyric quotation.
The A-side has an urgency that still cuts through today, no doubt helped somewhat by a lead guitar played by the young Jimmy Page and a brass section that included Davie Jones himself.
Within two months, Jones had left the group and joined The Lower Third, but that’s another story
As you would expect, I Pity The Fool is far more sought after now than it was fifty five years ago, with an acetate selling for £3,833 GBP three months ago and a stock copy fetching £2,500 GBP in 2018.
And, despite the record’s age, it’s travelled extremely well as you can hear for yourself here.
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