In the studio
In April 1969, David Bowie and John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson recorded acoustic demos of ten new songs. They included embryonic versions of five compositions that appeared on his self-titled second album: ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Janine’, ‘An Occasional Dream’, ‘I’m Not Quite’ (later retitled ‘Letter To Hermione’) and ‘Lover To The Dawn’, which became ‘Cygnet Committee’.
The bulk of the recordings on Bowie’s second album, including ‘Cygnet Committee’, were made between July and September 1969. The sessions were interspersed with live dates, television and radio appearances, and the death of Bowie’s father John Jones in August.
Seeing him record ‘Cygnet Committee’ was amazing and frightening. It symbolised everything he was doing at the Beckenham Arts Lab. Tony told David to come up at the end, but David said no and instead headed straight for the bathroom where he cried for twenty minutes.
Backstage Passes
At 9:40, ‘Cygnet Committee’ was Bowie’s longest studio recording to date. It was surpassed in later years only by ‘Blackstar’, ‘Station To Station’, James Murphy’s remix of ‘Love Is Lost’, and a handful of live performances including ‘The Width Of A Circle’.
This has always been an anthem for its time. It is certainly not single material at over nine minutes long, but a popular song in the Bowie legacy. It is a passionate amalgam of everything every young person was told to believe in and then critically questioned. The future is starkly defined by the words, ‘I want to live,’ and then, ultimately ‘Live’. Again, Junior’s Eyes are the band joined [by] Rick Wakeman playing harpsichord and organ.
Five Years (1969-1973) book
The release
A home demo of ‘Lover To The Dawn’ was released on 17 May 2019 as part of the Clareville Grove Demos box set. Another version was included on The ‘Mercury’ Demos, released on 28 June 2019.
Both demos featured Bowie and Hutch on vocals and acoustic guitars. They were subsequently included on the Conversation Piece box set, which was released on 15 November 2019.
‘Cygnet Committee’ became the fifth song on Bowie’s self-titled second album, which was released in the UK on 14 November 1969.
Upon the album’s release, Bowie claimed it was its best song.
They say it’s too long, nine-and-a-half minutes as opposed to the usual three… but that’s a song in which I had something I wanted to say, it’s me looking at the hippie movement, saying how it started off so well but went wrong when the hippies became just like everyone else, materialistic and selfish.
David Bowie: Living On The Brink, George Tremlett
Bowie had hoped that ‘Cygnet Committee’ might have been issued as a single, although this was rejected by his record company.
I wanted this track out as a single but nobody else thought it was a good idea. Well it is a bit long I suppose. It’s basically three separate points of view about the more militant section of the hippy movement. The movement was a great ideal but something’s gone wrong with it now. I’m not really attacking it but pointing out that the militants have still got to be helped as people – human beings – even if they are going about things all the wrong way.
Disc and Music Echo, 25 October 1969
A remixed version of the album by Tony Visconti was released in 2019, and as part of the Conversation Piece box set.
Another remix, mostly consisting of Rick Wakeman’s harpsichord, was released on the soundtrack of Brett Morgen’s 2022 film Moonage Daydream.
BBC version
Bowie performed ‘Cygnet Committee’ on one occasion for BBC radio. On 5 February 1970 he recorded a session for The Sunday Show, which was broadcast on Radio 1 three days later.
Backed by Mick Ronson on guitar, Tony Visconti on bass, and John Cambridge on drums, he performed a lengthy 15-song set. Six of the songs, including ‘Cygnet Committee’, were released on Bowie At The Beeb in September 2000. The full session, apart from ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’, was released on 2021’s The Width Of A Circle.
That first part is supposed to be the kind of guy who would put money into so-called underground activities, putting backing behind it hoping that he would get something out of it on a material level. And it did soothe his conscience a bit. There’s probably people over here like that as well. A kind of harmless… Okay call him a liberal, then. Ah, the second section were the Cygnet Committee, the people he had helped. I didn’t bother spelling this out at the time, but I realized very quickly after I recorded it that I should have been a little more specific. Although it’s worked nicely because some people have taken it totally different from the way I intended it and they’ve got a fine old meaning out of the whole thing.
Zygote, 1971
This song always reduces me to tears… Bowie at his song writing genius…
Hmm… I guess I’m here because in almost exactly 3 days I will have been listening to this song..ahem… ALL BOWIE songs since I was 13 years old.. Oh, I’ll be 60 years old at that due time.
I love this song. I know every last word in it but I really never knew his inspiration for it. Now I know. Thanks THEBOWIEBIBLE. Some may say this is useless information. For me? One soundtrack to begin many in my 60 years around the sun.Quite valuable in my pocket. Love on ya~~
These lyrics and Bowie’s comments In The interview are prescient and are as relevant today as they were when he made them , if not more
When this song was released on Space Oddity in 73 in the states I won third place using it in the state’s Dramatic Interpretation finals.
Loved Bowie then and still do. RIP Mate.
Where do you start with DB. I love this track so much and always felt Bowie went to a higher level of excellence on songs where he truly pours his heart out. As well as this, another example of what I mean would be ‘Time’ on Aladdin Sane and his “guilt for dreaming”.
If you like DB’s stuff you might forgive me plugging my own songs:
Supermodel Amour
Long Way To Go
I grew up with all of Bowie’s classic hits but never delved into deeper tracks. When I finally did, this is the first song that really stuck out. Lyrically, it’s one of his epics. He was such a smart and observant guy. He had the ability to look at things from many angles. This song is a great example.
Cygnet Committee is both very specific and also very universal. It describes an apocalyptic future when we become that which we have fought against: “I will kill for the good of the fight for the right to be right.”
I was 12 (1970) when I started listening to Bowie. I used to turn out the lights in my room, put on my headphones, play this song and interpret it through dance. I’ve always loved it and never knew that other people did, too.
Except… One day in 1973, walking home from school I ran into a friend who was walking with a guy I knew from school, but didn’t really know. I started to talk about Bowie, and he said he was also a fan. I said my favorite song is the one that nobody really knows, its 9 minutes long, “Cygnet Committee.” He started to sing it… Six years later we got married.
Cygnet Committee is one of my all time favorites that hardly anyone knows about….
It’s unbelievable that Bowie’s comments in 1973 are remarkably still true, and ever more so. This song always, always brings me to tears. As a new 20 year old in America, I see what happens all around me and I am frightened. I am frightened because of my youth, of love, of loneliness, of aging and decay…I am frightened by the world around me, my “own” society. I feel I am fighting, white knuckled. Trying to find a decent time to listen to this song alone, and letting all tears fall down in their purity. A release of pain and pressure. How do I find home if there is nowhere I wish to belong fully? Maybe in Bowie’s words. “To live” what does this mean anymore…who’s definition? I cry, I want to live and I think I mean it.
Ellie,
You don’t find the home, you make it. There really are others like you, quite a lot actually. Seek them out; they are your home.
Such a beautiful and true sentiment!!! Lovely like Bowie himself!!!
It’s amazing and really blows me away, how anyone could write a song like this. Truly a work of art. God bless you Mr. Jones. Bless you madly. All we simpletons can do is marvel.