Kooks (song)

"Kooks"
Song by David Bowie
from the album Hunky Dory
Released	17 December 1971
Recorded	Trident Studios, London, summer 1971
Genre	Pop rock, folk rock
Length	2:53
Label	RCA Records
Songwriter(s)	David Bowie
Producer(s)	Ken Scott, David Bowie

"Kooks" is a song written by David Bowie, which appears on his 1971 album Hunky Dory. Bowie wrote this song to his newborn son Duncan Jones. The song was a pastiche of early 1970s Neil Young because Bowie was listening to a Neil Young record at home on 30 May 1971 when he got the news of the arrival of his son.

British indie band The Kooks named themselves after the song.

Live versions

• Before the studio recording of the song was made, it was recorded for the BBC In Concert radio show with John Peel, on 3 June 1971 (broadcast on 20 June 1971). In 2000 this recording was released on the Bowie at the Beeb album.
• The song was recorded again for the BBC "Sounds of the Seventies" radio show with Bob Harris on 21 September 1971 (broadcast on 4 October 1971).

Personnel

• David Bowie: lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
• Trevor Bolder: bass, trumpet
• Rick Wakeman: piano
• Mick Ronson: string arrangement
• Mick Woodmansey: drums

Cover versions

• Robbie Williams - Bonus track on "Old Before I Die" single
• Danny Wilson - Single
• Tindersticks - Bowie Songbook
• Kim Wilde - Snapshots, 2011
• Elizabeth Mitchell - Blue Clouds, 2012
• The Smashing Pumpkins - performed the song live in 1993 with James Iha on lead vocals
• Madness - performed the song live in 2016 during their Glastonbury set
• Warren McIntyre - Cover Ups (2019)

In popular culture

• The first three lines of the song ("Will you stay in our lovers' story / If you stay, you won't be sorry / 'Cause we believe in you") are used as a repeated motif in Miranda July's 2015 novel The First Bad Man

References

• Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5

External links

• Template:MetroLyrics song