Oh! You Pretty Things



"Oh! You Pretty Things" is a song written by David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory. It opens with only piano and Bowie's vocal, before entering the catchy refrain. The simple piano style is often compared to The Beatles' "Martha My Dear". Thematically, the song has been seen as reflecting the influence of occultist Aleister Crowley, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's hollow earth novel The Coming Race, and heralding "the impending obsolescence of the human race in favour of an alliance between arriving aliens and the youth of the present society".

The song was first released by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, in a single on which Bowie played piano. It became a #12 hit in mid-1971. Noone replaced Bowie's line "The Earth is a bitch" with "The Earth is a beast", in a performance that NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray opined to be "one of rock and roll's most outstanding examples of a singer failing to achieve any degree of empathy whatsoever with the mood and content of a lyric".

Personnel

 * David Bowie: lead vocals, piano
 * Rick Wakeman: piano
 * Mick Ronson: backing vocals
 * Trevor Bolder: bass guitar
 * Woody Woodmansey: drums

Live versions

 * A performance of the song by Bowie and Mick Ronson as a duo, broadcast on the BBC show Sounds of the 70s: Bob Harris in September 1971, was released on the Japanese edition of the 2000 release Bowie at the Beeb and on the 2016 vinyl version of that album.
 * Bowie played the song at the BBC show Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show on 22 May 1972. This was broadcast in early June the same year and in 2000 was released on Bowie at the Beeb; it was also issued as a promo single in France in 2000.
 * A live version recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 3 July 1973 was released on the album Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture in 1983. This version of the song was a part of a medley with "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" and "All the Young Dudes".

Other releases

 * The song appeared on the compilations:
 * The Best of David Bowie (Japan 1974)
 * Changestwobowie (1981)
 * The Singles Collection (1993)
 * The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 (1997)
 * Best of Bowie (2002)
 * The Platinum Collection (2006)
 * Nothing Has Changed (2014)
 * Bowie Legacy (2016)
 * It was also recorded on 8 February 1972 for The Old Grey Whistle Test on the BBC, though the performance was not broadcast until over 10 years later. This performance is available on the Best of Bowie DVD. An outtake from the same session, in which Bowie stumbles over the lines and gets them wrong on several occasions, is hidden among easter eggs on the same DVD.

Cover versions

 * Peter Noone – Single (1971)
 * Harvey Danger – Live version released on the 2006 EP Little Round Mirrors
 * Seu Jorge – Portuguese version for the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
 * 67 Special – The Devil May Care (2007)
 * Au Revoir Simone – Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered (2008)
 * Tedeschi Trucks Band – Let Me Get By (Deluxe Edition) (2016)
 * Lisa Hannigan – "Chapter 6" of FX series Legion (2017)