Recording: Song For Bob Dylan

David Bowie began recording the Hunky Dory album on 8 June 1971.

It was the first recording session to feature the Spiders From Mars – Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey – although they were yet to be named thus.

The session took place at London’s Trident Studios, with Ken Scott producing. On this opening session they worked on ‘Song For Bob Dylan’.

Dylan had obviously influenced David a bit as a folk singer. To me, that song was David saying, ‘You’ve dropped everybody in the shit, Dylan; you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing. You’ve stirred everything up. You’ve said, this is wrong and that is wrong, but you’ve got no solutions.’ I think that helped him to become the solution himself; to say, ‘I’ll tell everyone where to go, then.’ It was a bit cheeky of Bowie, mind, because Dylan had been a massive influence on our generation.

This version of ‘Song For Bob Dylan’ remained unused, and the song was subject to various remakes until the final version was laid down on 6 August, the final Hunky Dory session.