Biography
In June 1964 Davie Jones & the King Bees issued their lone single, “Liza Jane” backed with “Louie Louie Go Home,” fronted by a still-teenaged David Jones who had not yet adopted his better-known surname. The group specialized in gritty, Rolling Stones-derived R&B-rock typical of countless British acts that year, drawing on familiar blues numbers such as “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Got My Mojo Working.” A period press sheet listed Bowie’s vocal influences as Little Richard, Bob Dylan, and John Lee Hooker. The results bore scant resemblance to the inventive persona that would emerge later in the decade and offered little in the way of originality.
Leslie Conn, the band’s manager, produced the record and placed it on Vocalion, an imprint of Decca; he also appropriated the songwriting credit for the A-side, his own rearrangement of the traditional spiritual “Liza Jane.” Although some later biographers have dismissed the track, it stands as a passable specimen of British R&B—energetic yet plainly derivative. Bowie contributed both lead vocals and saxophone, an instrument he would rarely revisit over the remainder of his career.
The B-side, a cover of the obscure Paul Revere song “Louie Louie Go Home,” proved markedly weaker and remains among the least distinguished sides Bowie ever released. After the single failed to chart, Bowie quit the King Bees for the Manish Boys. Long a scarce collectible, the record has been reissued several times and is most easily found on Rhino’s anthology Early On (1964-1966).
Of the original lineup, only rhythm guitarist and harmonica player George Underwood, a childhood acquaintance, maintained any sustained connection to Bowie’s subsequent work. Underwood supplied the painting reproduced on the back cover of the 1969 David Bowie album and later served as a designer and graphic artist for the singer’s management company, Mainman.
Leslie Conn, the band’s manager, produced the record and placed it on Vocalion, an imprint of Decca; he also appropriated the songwriting credit for the A-side, his own rearrangement of the traditional spiritual “Liza Jane.” Although some later biographers have dismissed the track, it stands as a passable specimen of British R&B—energetic yet plainly derivative. Bowie contributed both lead vocals and saxophone, an instrument he would rarely revisit over the remainder of his career.
The B-side, a cover of the obscure Paul Revere song “Louie Louie Go Home,” proved markedly weaker and remains among the least distinguished sides Bowie ever released. After the single failed to chart, Bowie quit the King Bees for the Manish Boys. Long a scarce collectible, the record has been reissued several times and is most easily found on Rhino’s anthology Early On (1964-1966).
Of the original lineup, only rhythm guitarist and harmonica player George Underwood, a childhood acquaintance, maintained any sustained connection to Bowie’s subsequent work. Underwood supplied the painting reproduced on the back cover of the 1969 David Bowie album and later served as a designer and graphic artist for the singer’s management company, Mainman.