Day 154 | The Prettiest Star

Bowie wrote this song for his first wife, Angela, before they got married (she has also claimed that the Rolling Stones song, “Angie,” is about here, but the Stones dispute that). The original version of this was released as a follow-up to “Space Oddity.” While that version made no impact, it was significant in part because Marc Bolan of T-Rex played guitar. At the time (1970) Bowie both admired and felkt threatened by Bolan. I have read that the line, “I can do better than that,” in ,”Queen Bitch,” was inspired by Bowie’s sense of rivalry with Bolan. Certainly Bowie imitated (parodied?) Bolan in the song, “Black Country Rock,” and makes a laudatory reference to T-Rex in, “All the Young Dudes,” (the same song that takes a shot at the “Beatles and the Stones”). The better known version of the song appears on Aladdin Sane and does not feature Bolan. Unfortunately I cannot find footage of Bowie singing the song (let alone with Bolan), but this fan video (of the original Bolan version) is visually interesting, and just for Bede Hasset I’m including a video of Echo and the Bunnymen sining it as well: https://youtu.be/IbmfG3Gb77s