Arnold Corns

Arnold Corns was a band formed by David Bowie in 1971. The name was inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Arnold Layne".

This was one of Bowie’s side projects and something of a dry run for Ziggy Stardust. The band was formed in Dulwich College and Bowie agreed to write for them. At the same time he also agreed to write for the 19 year old dress designer Freddie Burretti (aka Rudi Valentino). Bowie came up with the idea of combining Burretti and Arnold Corns, and with the help of Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder, a revised version of Arnold Corns was created during the spring of 1971. Bowie was writing material that would later become Hunky Dory, as well as songs earmarked for Burretti. Burretti as the frontman was a total fabrication, and his contributions were simply lost alongside Bowie's.

The band’s first single was "Moonage Daydream (with a spoken intro "Whenever You're Ready")"/"Hang on to Yourself", released on B&C Records on 7 May 1971 and a flop. Both these songs later reappeared on Ziggy Stardust in new versions with updated lyrics. The Arnold Corns versions appeared as bonus tracks on the Rykodisc CD re-release of The Man Who Sold the World (minus the spoken intro on "Dream").

A second single "Looking for a Friend"/"Man in the Middle (vocals by Valentino)" was planned but scrapped (it was released by Krazy Kat in 1984). In 1972, B&C issued "Hang on to Yourself"/"Man in the Middle" as the second single.

Trivia

Both the B&C single and Dutch Philips single "Moonage Daydream" has a "Whenever you're ready" spoken tag at the beginning which is missing on all subsequent legal reissues.
To date, "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang on to Yourself" have never appeared in stereo.

Band members

References

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