Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: early 1968
Released: 5 April 2019
Available on:
Spying Through A Keyhole
Conversation Piece
Personnel
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Sometimes known as ‘Threepenny Joe’, ‘Goodbye 3d Joe’ was a demo recorded by David Bowie in early 1968.
With its mention of Market Square and ‘stories of sadness and despair’, the song is clearly a forerunner of sorts for ‘Five Years’ and ‘Lady Stardust’. Although Bowie never recorded the song in the studio, it was a contender for his second Deram album, which never came to fruition.
We were still working on the assumption that all our problems at Decca would be solved and that David would continue to have his recordings released on the Deram label. Hugh Mendl had agreed that we should now be thinking about the second album and so David and I sat down one night and compiled a list of possible titles. In addition to the songs already recorded and rejected as singles we listed a number of old songs and some new ones that he had been writing at the flat, such as ‘C’est la Vie’, ‘Silver Tree Top School for Boys’, ‘When I’m Five’, ‘Everything is You’, ‘Tiny Tim’, ‘The Reverend Raymond Brown’, ‘Angel Angel Grubby Face’ and ‘Threepenny Joe’. That album was never made and I suppose that David has forgotten that he ever wrote some of those songs, but they live on in my box files where I keep his original manuscripts, either typewritten by himself or written in his own hand.
The Pitt Report
The recording was briefly made available online at the end of 2018, on sites including Apple Music, Deezer, and Akazoo, presumably to retain copyright on the recordings. The streams were credited to JRD, and the album was temporarily titled Grey Angel Joe.
It was given a wider release in April 2019 in the box set Spying Through A Keyhole, and again later that year in Conversation Piece.
Lyrics
Clothed in a patchwork cloak of sequins and diamonds, red and blue
Threepenny Joe performed his harlequin show as dusk was due
Lucy and I were sitting watching the stage in Market Square
Lucy was laughing at his stories of sadness and despair
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Thank you for the magical show
Goodbye, but please don’t come back again
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Placing a mask on Lucy, Threepenny Joe did cast a spell
Leaving poor Lucy in her clown cage and painted plaster shell
Lonely and old she sits behind shuttered windows looking down
Watching the world she cries her tears through the eyes of a clown
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Thank you for the magical show
Goodbye, but please don’t come back again
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Thank you for the magical show
Goodbye, but please don’t come back again
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe
Goodbye, but please don’t come back again
Goodbye, Threepenny Joe