The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
published on Tuesday the 19th,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 24th of February 1974.
David Bowie
Rebel Rebel
At No.6, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is David Bowie with Rebel Rebel.
An instantly recognisable…
…guitar riff sears into a blazing Bowie classic as we climb further up this UK Singles Chart.
You would think, with an intro such as this , it could have exploded from the guitar of Mick Ronson; but no, it is David himself who comes up with the signature guitar sound and plays it himself.
Many compare it with anything Keith Richards can come up with at this stage of the Stone’s career thus far, and you can certainly envisage Mick giving it his best “Brown Sugar” moves; but those guys can dream on.
This is David’s blast to the past. His farewell to the Glam era which, up until now, had propelled him into stratospheric spaceman stardom.
Raised from David’s forthcoming epic Diamond Dogs venture…
…into his dystopian William S. Burroughs type world. An ambitious project which will witness the shape-shifting alien of rock, who by this time has now mutated into the persona of Halloween Jack, instill his own trailblazing counter-culturalist and frantically vacillating rock opera to vinyl, initially loosely inspired by the classic “1984” novel by George Orwell (before the author’s widow denied him the rights to use it).
With piercing challenging lyrics as ambiguous as himself, Bowie shows that he can, not only come up with the moves, but also the raw power and prestige, ambivalence and self assurance, and energise it into those in the teenage populous who get a kick out of not caring what their more staid parents and established general public think of them. A significant precursor to a future culture shift, which will witness these current “Hot Tramps” ultimately morph into the subsequent era of the Punk movement.
The single…
…shoots straight into the chart like a bolt of lightning this week, and promptly becomes this week’s highest new entry.
From here,..
…it will climb just one place higher, and this will astonishingly become its highest peak, where it will remain for the next two weeks.
By the 10th of March, the song will drop out of the Top 10 to No.13, before a more dramatic slide takes place throughout the rest of that month; after which, with 7 weeks of chart action accomplished, it leaves after the 6th of April.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
David Bowie – Rebel Rebel (“TopPop” TV appearance – 7th February 1974)
David Bowie – Queen Bitch (“The Old Grey Whistle Test” TV appearance – 1972)
David Bowie – Queen Bitch (Live Performance – 1972)
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