40 Year Itch : Irene Good Night

James Booker : Good Night Irene

Ry Cooder : Goodnight Irene

Sensational Alex Harvey Band : Goodnight Irene

   There were three major recordings of the Leadbelly classic, "Goodnight Irene", in 1976. Made famous by The Weavers, who hit #1 in 1950 with a sanitized version, the song is full of suicidal fantasies like"sometimes I take a great notion/ to jump in the river and drown". Leadbelly performed the original version while incarcerated at Angola ( Louisiana State Prison). 

   The first version is from James Booker's classic Junco Partner, which is mostly recorded by Booker alone in a New Orleans studio with the legendary Joe Boyd producing.

  On his terrific 1976 album, Chicken Skin Music, Ry Cooder delivers  "Goodnight Irene" in the more traditional 3/4 time with San Antonio's Flaco Jimenez on accordion. 

   Our final version comes from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's Penthouse Tapes, a collection of hard partying covers ( including The Osmonds' "Crazy Horses") performed mostly tongue-in-cheek. Harvey scratched out some thoughts on each song for the liner notes. 

     Of "Goodnight Irene" he wrote "written by the immortal Huddy Ledbetter--wrote it he did in jail for the Governor's daughter- gave him an immediate pardon-don't believe me ask your history teacher- if he don't know find another school".

*BONUS BIT*

Keith Moon in rare form on this date in 1976.

40 Year Itch : Just One Crack at Life

Candi Staton : Young Hearts Run Free

[Purchase]

   Can anything beat an upbeat tune with downbeat lyrics? Right there with Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", we should celebrate Candi Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free". Sure the music sounds like top of the line disco fodder, but the lyrics are sung from the point of view of a "lost and lonely wife" stuck at home with babies while her husband is out "loving every woman he can". 

   

 Songwriter David Crawford came up with the lyrics after a conversation with Staton who said later "I [noticed] that [Crawford] was taking notes, and he said, 'You know, I’m gonna write you a song. I’m gonna write you a song that's gonna last forever.'"

    Was Staton's real life ex- husband, Clarence Carter, the Jay-Z to Candi's Beyonce? 

    Released in May of 1976, the #1 R and B single peaked at #20 on the US pop charts and UK #2.

Oh My We're Getting Violent

Iggy and the Stooges : Cock in My Pocket

[Purchase]

   Released in May of 1976, Metallic K.O.--or at least the original second side of the album -- is the sound of a band at war with its audience. It's a recording of the Stooges' final show at Detroit's Michigan Palace in 1974, in which Iggy baited the audience into pelting the band with ice, eggs, jelly beans, and beer bottles. For its noisy, confrontational approach alone, Metallic K.O. is one of big influences on the up and coming punk rock scene

   

The stage had been set the night before when Iggy and the Stooges played in front of a crowd made up of mean looking bikers. Rock critic Lester Bangs was there and filed this report in a column entitled "Iggy Pop: Blowtorch in Bondage":

  The audience, which consisted largely of bikers, was unusually hostile, and Iggy, as usual, fed on that hostility, soaked it up and gave it back and absorbed it all over again in an eerie, frightening symbiosis. "All right," he finally said, stopping a song in the middle, "you assholes wanta hear 'Louie, Louie,' we'll give you 'Louie, Louie.'" So the Stooges played a forty-five-minute version of "Louie Louie," including new lyrics improvised by the Pop on the spot consisting of "You can suck my ass / You biker faggot sissies," etc.

    By now the hatred in the room is one huge livid wave, and Iggy singles out one heckler who has been particularly abusive: "Listen, asshole, you heckle me one more time and I'm gonna come down there and kick your ass." "Fuck you, you little punk," responds the biker. So Iggy jumps off the stage, runs through the middle of the crowd, and the guy beats the shit out of him, ending the evening's musical festivities by sending the lead singer back to his motel room and a doctor. I walk into the dressing room, where I encounter the manager of the club offering to punch out anybody in the band who will take him on. The next day the bike gang, who call themselves the Scorpions, will phone WABX-FM and promise to kill Iggy and the Stooges if they play the Michigan Palace on Thursday night. They do (play, that is), and nobody gets killed, but Metallic K.O. is the only rock album I know where you can actually hear hurled beer bottles breaking against guitar strings

A few days later Iggy called up Ron Asheton and busted up the band.They would not play together again until 2003.

40 Year Itch : She's Gonna Get You

Cliff Richard : Devil Woman

[Purchase]

    Originally billed as England's answer to Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard managed to stat on the UK charts for decade after decade. But it wasn't until 1976 that he made his first serious foray into the US charts. "Devil Woman", written by Terry Britten and Christine Holmes, was released in May of 1976 and peaked for three weeks at #6 in October of 1976. In the UK, it topped out at #9.

Richard was reluctant to record the song because of its subject matter. He would later tell the story of an Australian fan who had become interested in witchcraft until this song convinced her to convert to Christianity.

   What isn't clear is whether Cliff Richard recorded the song before its co-author who sang ( flatly but with exuberance) under the pseudonym Kristine Sparkle.

40 Year Itch : Samba of the Hills

Cartola : Preciso Me Encontrar

[Purchase]

   Angenor de Oliveir had vanished. This major figure in Samba, nicknamed Cartola ("Top Hat"), had composed songs heard all over the radio in Brazil in the 1930s and 1940s but following the death of his wife and his descent into alcoholism he was nowhere to be found until a journalist named Sergio Porto discovered the old man washing cars for a living.

  Championed by Porto, he recorded his comeback albums. Cartola II is an end to end masterpiece , ranked as the 8th greatest Brazilian album by Rolling Stone.

   "Preciso Me Encontrar", featuring a bassoon  as its lead instrument, can be translated to mean "I Need to Find Myself". 

Its lyrics:

Let me go I need to walk 

I am going there to search 

To laugh not to cry 

I want to see the sun's rising 

To see the water of rivers running 

To hear the birds singing 

I want to be born, I want to live...

40 Year Itch: There's No Scam Like The Royal Scam

"Turn up the Eagles/The neighbors are listening."

-"Everything You Did"

   In May of 1976, Steely Dan released its fifth album, the smart and cynical Royal Scam. The title suggests a theme that is interwoven through the album: as desperate characters come face to face with being cheated in one way or another: the immigrants of the title cut, the star abused by his druggie friends ("Kid Charlemagne"), the sniper holed up with a box of dynamite in "Don't Take Me Alive".

   This is a classic transition album. You can hear traces of Katy Lied and what would become, with more breathing space, the classic sound of Aja.

   As usual, this is a Steely Dan album so complex you can listen to it for years and still make new discoveries. Take a moment, if you haven't yet, just to listen to Larry Carlton's guitar solos on "Kid Charlemagne." Yes, theres gas in the car! 

40 Year Itch : A Knife, A Fork

Dillinger : Cokane in My Brain

[Purchase]

  I was born in New York and I can promise you "a knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork / that's the way we spell New York" is not actually true. But it's a great rhyme and if we accept the premise that the toaster is blitzed out of his mind and rambling, then it makes plenty of sense.

40 Year Itch : Howzat

Sherbet : Howzat

[Purchase]

  Released in May of 1976, this pop confection from Australia's top band of the 1970's hit #4 in the UK and #61 in the United States, where listeners had no idea "Howzat" is a cricket phrase yelled by the fielding team to appeal to an umpire.

40 Year Itch : New to the US Charts May 22, 1976

Wet Willie : Everything That Cha' Do ( Will Come Back To You)

[Purchase]

A mixed bag of singles debuted in the Hot 100 this week in 1976.

USA Hot 100 Debuts May 22, 1976

77 Santana "Let It Shine" --a funky but forgettable number from the Santana comeback album Amigos peaked at US #77.

78 Queen "You're My Best Friend" -John Deacon's love song to his wife would peak at US #16.

79 David Bowie "TVC 15" - Bowie sped up the Station to Station single for his Live Aid performance below. As a single it peaked at US #64 and UK #33.

80 Lee Garrett "You're My Everything" - a UK#15 hit, "You're My Everything" for American Lee Garrett who is blind.

81 Wet Willie "Everything That 'Cha Do (Will Come Back To You)" - This is one of the songs Wet Willie's live audience's ate up. It peaked at US #66. 

82 Narvel Felts "Lonely Teardrops"-this countrypolitan artist covered everyone from the Bee Gees to Jackie Wilson in order to repeat the success of 1975's "Reconsider Me". This was a Top 5 country hit but only peaked at #62 on the US Hot 100.

83 ABBA "Mamma Mia" - #1 on the UK Charts, this ABBA single peaked at #32 on the Billboard pop charts despite the schlocky video below.

86 Carole King "High Out of Time" - Peaking at US #74 despite vocals from David Crosby and Graham Nash.

89 The Crown Heights Affair "Foxy Lady" - This US R and B Top 20 hit peaked at #49 in the pop charts.

40 Year Itch : Things Ain't What They're Supposed To Be

Blue Oyster Cult : This Ain't the Summer of Love

[Purchase]

  On May 21, 1976 Blue Oyster Cult released their best-selling and best known album Agents Of Fortune. Credit goes to Buck Dharma's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", a US #12 hit mistaken by some as pro-suicide thanks to the line "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity".

   "I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something," says Dharma " That was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of it (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."

   The song may be better known these days for a Saturday Night Live skit than for its classic rock success.

   Recorded at The Record Plant at the same time Aerosmith was making Rocks and Kiss was making Destroyer, Agents of Fortune may be more radio friendly than past efforts ( and it does feature guest vocals from Allen Lanier's then girlfriend, Patti Smith on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini") but that doesn't mean it's better.  Secret Treaties, from 1974, is the place to start for this "thinking man's hard rock band".

40 Year Itch : THE California album of the 1970's

Warren Zevon : Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

[Purchase]

  Warren Zevon was already cool even before he released his debut album in May of 1976. He wrote The Turtles most rocking hit,( 1967's "Outside Chance" ) and toured as bandleader with the Everly Brothers, before sharing a house with future Fleetwood Mac stars Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

  His debut album was produced by his buddy Jackson Browne and became a star-studded affair featuring Nicks, Buckingham, Phil Everly as well as The Eagles, Carl Wilson, and Bonnie Raitt. 

  So much star power and yet they're all outshone by the quality of the songs and by the truly human voice that sings them. 

  Let the Beach Boys sing about the sunshine and surf and the Eagle about life in the fast lane. Zevon's California songs are about people who aren't having such a good time : the junkies ("Carmelita") , the failed actresses ("The French Inhaler") , the disillusioned desperadoes under the eaves who are counting out their last dimes (And if California slides into the ocean/ Like the mystics and statistics say it will/ I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill).

  Such tunes are balanced out by rockers that offer humor, if not hope. "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" might be a humorous swipe at Jackson Browne's penchant for sad songs but in 1978 it went Top 40 for Linda Ronstadt who would also record Zevons "Carmelita", "Mohammed's Radio" and "Hasten Down the Wind".

For most, the great California album of the 1970's will be Hotel California or Rumours. But if you ever meet someone who argues it's Warren Zevon's debut, buy them a drink. You'll have a lot to talk about.

40 Year Itch : Ferris Wheel in the River

Debris' : One Way Spit

Debris' : Flight Taken

[Purchase]

  When Debris' entered an Oklahoma City Battle of the Bands, in which they competed against fifty other bands for a new sound system, they finished dead last. A cover band took top honors. And that --right there--may be the reason you have probably never heard of this proto-punk band or their 1976 debut album. Oklahoma City wasn't ready for a band that sang about spit...and neither was the rest of the USA.

  It's pretty far out there. Like Richard Hell and the Voidoids --if the Voidoids were made up of Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart and somebody borrowed from Pere Ubu. The band raised the $1600 it cost to record the album and press one thousand copies. By the time clubs like CBGBs were interested in them, Debris' had long broken up, leaving behind one imperfect yet revolutionary album.

40 Year Itch : Gimme Yo Luvin' !!

James Brown : Hot ( I Need to be Loved)

[Purchase]

In which James Brown cops the "Fame" guitar riff from a former member of his band, Carlos Alomar. In Brown's mind this was perfectly OK. Everyone borrowed from the Godfather of Soul so why shouldn't he borrow back? 

40 Year Itch : Mean What I Say

Gallagher and Lyle : Heart On My Sleeve

Bryan Ferry : Heart on My Sleeve

  I've decided to listen to my 1976 playlist in alphabetical order and it's helped me realize --across the 2500 tunes or so--that sometimes the same songs were recorded by different artists in the same year. One of the most obvious examples is "Heart On My Sleeve", a UK Top 10 hit in May for its composers Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. The mellow duo had written Art Garfunkel's smooth pop hit "Breakaway" and were founding members of McGuinness Flint.

  Bryan Ferry also released "Heart On My Sleeve" as the fourth single from his covers only album "Let's Stick Together" released in September of 1976.  The first Bryan Ferry single to chart in the US ( peaking at just #86), it's got a nice Chris Spedding guitar solo.

40 Year Itch : Ohhh, Ohhh Dear

Talking Heads : I Feel It In My Heart (live)

[Purchase]

  “As a young man I think I was mildly autistic, really. I probably had an undiagnosed case of Asperger’s Syndrome, but I grew out of it.”
-David Byrne

  David Byrne has admitted his early songs were forms of catharsis, attempts to deal with the isolation he felt in a world where every one else seemed comfortable expressing their feelings. This rare live track and the studio version can both be found on the extended version of Talking Heads '77, an album I can't live without.

40 Year Itch : Kiss Rocks England

     In 1976 Kiss invaded England, much to the amusement of the British press who found little to admire about any American rock band outside of the Ramones and, months later, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. There is an a bit of a sarcastic edge to this report from "So It Goes", backstage at the Manchester show that kicked off the tour on May 13, 1976

Gene Simmons remembers the UK Tour this way:

 "On the way over to our first English tour, I was struck by the notion that this was the Land Of The Beatles. To me, the English Kings and Queens never meant anything. I have always looked at it as an archaic and rather silly posturing about past glories. But as cultural oddities, I suppose it had its own innocence.

  Still, I was nervous to set foot on Holy Ground. We got off the jet in full makeup and the fotogs were waiting for us. We came through customs and jumped on street cars at the airport for photo ops. I was aware it was drizzly and grey. I was hoping that would change in the next few days to sunshine. It didn't.

    We had a female chaperone/record company person with us. And, she showed us the sites. I thought the least I could do was return the favor. I did.

    We visited the Palace and posed with street Bobbies (the English police) and were soon to hit the stage in front of an English audience. Would they like us? Truth was, we never thought much about it. We had a job to do and that was to punish the audience. They had, for too long, stood still for sub par live bands.

    It was our job to show them that there was at least one band who had the balls to introduce themselves with: YOU WANTED THE BEST, YOU GOT THE BEST...THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE LAND, KISS."

    The setlist for the Manchester show was as follows: "Deuce" "Strutter" "Flaming Youth" "Hotter Than Hell" "Firehouse" "She" "Nothin' To Lose" "Shout It Out Loud" "100,000 Years" "Black Diamond" "Detroit Rock City" "Rock And Roll All Nite" "Let Me Go, Rock And Roll"

40 Year Itch : A Dog Name of Grotski

Wigwam : Eddie and the Boys

[Purchase]

   Wigwam were Finnish Prog Rockers with a sarcastic UK vocalist named Jim Pembroke. The band followed up Nuclear Nightclub, one of my favorite discoveries as writer of the 1001Songs blog, with Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose, another album that deliciously blended pop and funk influences. It wasn't the break out album fans and critics were expecting so it is my honor to introduce Wigwam to those who haven't heard them.

40 Year Itch : Tarnished By Our Greed

The Isley Brothers : Harvest for the World

[Purchase]

   Here, in three minutes of multi-tracked acoustic guitar strumming, hand claps, and Ronald Isley's vocals, is one of 1976's most transcendent singles - a call for peace and brotherhood in a world at war:

All babies together, everyone a seed 

Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need 

Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed 

When will there be a harvest for the world 

A nation planted, so concerned with gain 

As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain 

And far too many feelin' the strain 

When will there be a harvest for the world 

Gather every man, gather every woman 

Celebrate your lives, give thanks for your children 

Gather everyone, gather all together 

Overlooking none, hopin' life gets better for the world 

Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace 

Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least 

Nation after nation, turning into beast 

When will there be a harvest for the world 

   The Isleys were in the same pocket that made 3 + 3 , Live It Up and The Heat is On so great. Of course there were ballads on Harvest for the World, but one deep cut of note is the ultra funky "People of Today", recorded with the T.O.N.T.O. super synthesizer and a talk box.

40 Year Itch : Burning Burning Burning

U-Roy : Babylon Burning

[Purchase]

   Not to be confused with the 1979 Ruts single, toasting pioneer U-Roy's "Babylon Burning" borrows the "big wheel keep on turning " imagery from Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" on the opening track of his 1976 album Natty Rebel. A smart follow-up to "Runaway Girl"

40 Year Itch : Serenade From The Stars

Steve Miller Band : Serenade

[Purchase]

    What Fly Like an Eagle lacks in originality, it makes up for in state of the art studio wizardry. I mean, sure, the title cut borrows its guitar hook from a seven year old song Steve Miller recorded with Paul McCartney called " My Dark Hour". ( Just go 14 seconds deep into the video below)

   Also you can actually sing the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama" to "Take the Money and Run". And -point taken- those lyrics are clunky.("Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas /You know he knows just exactly what the facts is")

  And even Miller had acknowledged that the #1 US hit from the album, "Rock'n Me", owes a tip of the hat to Free's "All Right Now".

  That said, Fly Like An Eagle just sounded damn good on the stereo in 1976. One of my dad's friends, an architect, cranked it up for us at his house and the "Space Intro" filled the great room in a way that made us feel we were about to lift off ! When it flows into "Fly Like an Eagle" you can understand why four million people bought the album.

    Three years in the making and inspired by Pink Floyd, Miller and engineer Jim Gaines spent 14 to 20 hour days at Kaye Smith Studios in Seattle experimenting with synthesizers, vocal effects and transitions. Then they recorded the rest of the album at CBS Studios in San Francisco, Miller's old stomping grounds. His band had actually come up with enough songs for a double album,  but Miller held back the rest of the tunes ( including "Jet Airliner" and "Jungle Love") for 1977's Book of Dreams. That worked in Miller's favor financially. Both album sold four million copies. But artistically, Fly Like an Eagle peters out two tracks into the B side, leaving a poor aftertaste. 

    Still, Fly Like an Eagle provided "lift off" for the Steve Miller Band, who became one of the biggest rock acts in the world.

40 Year Itch : New to the UK Charts

Mud : Shake It Down

[Purchase]

   With ABBA's "Fernando" reigning at the top of the charts for four straight weeks, I've decided to take a look at the newest songs to make the UK Top 40.

29. Wings : Silly Love Songs

   Paul McCartney's retort to his critics has one of the greatest bass lines in pop history. And Macca knew it, pushing his instrument up high in the mix so fans would want to dance. "Silly Love Songs" would peak at #2 in the UK but top the US charts for five non-consecutive weeks. 

33. The Wurzels : Combine Harvester

  The Wurzels, British slang for "yokels", had two big "Scrumpy and Western " hits in 1976. Both borrowed the melodies of old hits and changed up the lyrics. "Combine Harvester", a #1 UK hit for two weeks, reworks Melanie's "Brand New Key". Later that year they repeated the formula by releasing " I Was A Cider Drinker" ("Una Paloma Blanca") which reached number 3.

39. Mud : Shake It Down

  Channeling Ernie Isley on lead guitar, Mud scored a UK #12 disco hit with "Shake It Down", furthering sowing the seeds of punk rock.

40 Year Itch : A Parallel World

Far East Family Band : Entering

[Purchase]

  When Japanese prog rockers Far East Family Band ( featuring future ambient rock pioneer Kitaro) teamed up with Klaus Schulze ( Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple) producing, they traded their heavy Pink Floyd influences for more of a Krautrock sound. The classic cut is the sixteen minute "Entering", which is all glistening synthesizer sounds for the first four minutes. Six minutes in the drums began to pound and we are all "entering" the space rock orbit so well illustrated on the cover of Parallel World. A treat with headphones!

Far East Family Band and Klaus Schulze in Tokyo, 1975

   Around the same time Schulze released his 1976 electronic rock masterpiece Moondawn. Phenomenal!

40 Year Itch : Dance ’Till You Feel Better

James Brown : Get Up Offa That Thing

[Purchase]

   In May of 1976, James Brown released his biggest hit single of the late 70's, "Get Up Offa That Thing". In his autobiography, Brown revealed the inspiration for his #4 R and B hit: 

   “The audience was sitting down, trying to do a sophisticated thing, listening to funk. ( not unlike the people in the video below) One of the tightest bands they’d ever heard in their lives, and they were sitting. I had worked hard and dehydrated myself and was feeling depressed. I looked out at all those people sitting there, and because I was depressed they looked depressed. I yelled, “Get up offa that thing and dance til you feel better!” I probably meant until I felt better."

40 Year Itch : It Happened on May 3, 1976

   On May 3, 1976,  Paul McCartney and Wings kicked off the "Wings Over America" tour at the Tarrant County Convention Hall in Ft Worth Texas. It was McCartney's first appearance on stage since the Beatles farewell show at Candlestick Park in 1966. Beatle fans had many reasons to rejoice. Among them: McCartney played five Fab Four songs on the tour: "Yesterday", "The Long and Winding Road", "Blackbird", "I've Just Seen a Face" and "Lady Madonna".

That same night at Madison Square Garden, Paul Simon put on a benefit concert for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, the Brecker Brothers and Jimmy Cliff also performed . Tickets cost between $10 and $12.50. Asked why, Simon said "Because I love the library and I'm a New Yorker." 

May 3, 1976 is also the official date Aerosmith got back in the saddle with the release of Rocks, arguably the hardest rocking and most critically acclaimed of the band's albums. Joe Perry said "There's no doubt we were doing a lot of drugs by then, but whatever we were doing, it was still working for us." 

Meanwhile, across the pond, ABBA was celebrating the ascent of "Fernando" to the top of the UK pop chart. People in the UK must have been pleased as well because that meant the Brotherhood of Man's "Save Your Kisses For Me" was finally on the descent after spending six week at number one.

40 Year Itch : Bowie's "Nazi Salute"

    On May 2, 1976 David Bowie stood up in his newly purchased open top Mercedes at Victoria Station in London and acknowledged the welcoming crowd with a straight-armed wave of his hand. The moment, caught in a fraction of a second by a photographer, looked to some like he was giving a Nazi salute. That shot appeared in New Musical Express with the headline "Heil and Farewell" and nearly ruined The Thin White Duke's career.

   Bowie's paranoid and drug fueled "cracked actor" phase, his penchant for outlandish quotes and his fascination with the life of Adolf Hitler set the unfortunate stage. In a 1975 interview with Playboy, Bowie called Hitler "one of the first rock stars":  

   Think about it. Look at some of his films and see how he moved. I think he was quite as good as Jagger. It’s astounding. And, boy, when he hit that stage, he worked an audience. Good God! He was no politician. He was a media artist himself. He used politics and theatrics and created this thing that governed and controlled the show for those 12 years. The world will never see his like. He staged a country. 

That was followed with rumors that Bowie had been photographed outside Hitler's bunker, that books about Albert Speer and Josef Goebbels has been confiscated by Soviet Guards at the Russian-Finnish border and a comment at a press conference in Sweden a week earlier  in which Bowie stated 

  "As I see it I am the only alternative for the premier in England. I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism."

Now the press had its proof with the shot of Bowie, dressed in a black shirt like Oswald Mosley, raising his right arm in a salute. 

Or did they?

Bowie furiously denied the allegations, swearing to Allan Jones in a 1977 Melody Maker interview:

That didn't happened. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. I waved. I just WAVED. Believe me. On the life of my child, I waved. And the bastard caught me. In MID-WAVE, man. And, God, did that photo got some coverage… As if I'd be foolish enough to pull a stunt like that. I died when I saw the photo. And even the people who were with me said, "David! How could you?". The bastards. I didn't… GOD, I just don't believe in all that.

 The film footage shot below ( at 3:35)  supports Bowie's claim. It was bullshit. 

After two years in exiled from England, Bowie would leave his native country again, to spend more than a year secluded, in of all places, Berlin.