Recording: I Dig Everything, I’m Not Losing Sleep

David Bowie recorded the single ‘I Dig Everything’ on Tuesday 5 July 1966.

This was the second and final session, following an unsuccessful attempt on 6 June. Both sessions took place at Pye Studios in London.

This one was really awful when I recorded it. I hated it. It’s not my fault, really. It’s always everybody else’s fault, you know that, in life? Did you know that? If something goes wrong, don’t worry about it. It’s never your fault, it’s always everybody else’s fault. It’s a very good rule to remember.

In this case it was poor Tony Hatch’s fault. Tony Hatch was a very big producer at the time, and he’d just had a big hit called ‘Downtown’. And he really believed in me, really believed in my songs, but every one he produced always ended up sounding like ‘Downtown’. I said, ‘Can I have a loud electric guitar?’ ‘No, no, no, you don’t want to do that.’ [sings] “Dig everything, da-da-da-da-da… Downtown…”

This time producer Tony Hatch arranged for a new set of session musicians to back Bowie. Their names were not documented.

I couldn’t tell you for certain who played on the re-recording but in those days, for ‘rock’ sessions I always hired great musicians like Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Jim Sullivan, Herbie Flowers, Clem Cattini, Tony from Sounds Incorporated, Roger Coulam and Alan Hawkshaw, the ‘hooligans’ of their time.

Also recorded during the session was the single’s b-side ‘I’m Not Losing Sleep’. The single was released on 19 August 1966 as Pye 7N 17157.

Bowie revived ‘I Dig Everything’ during two live dates in June 2000, and re-recorded it later that year for the Toy album.