Kooks

Album: Hunky Dory (1971)
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Songfacts®:

  • On May 30, 1971, David Bowie's wife Angie gave birth to a young baby boy they named Zowie. Bowie was listening to a Neil Young record at home when he heard the news he'd become a father. Zowie's birth gave him the inspiration to write this song to his newborn son in the style of early 1970s Neil Young.

    "The baby was born and it looked like me and it looked like Angie," Bowie said in a press release. "The song came out like, 'If you're going to stay with us then you are going to grow up bananas.'"
  • The English band Kooks took their name from this song. They said the song is something they can relate to as they are young and the song was a bit wacky. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2
  • Zowie reverted to his birth name, Duncan Jones, around the age of 18 and attended film school in his late twenties. He became a commercials director, directing French Connection's infamous "Kung-fu lesbian advert" in 2006. In 2009 Jones' first full-length movie, a sci-fi thriller called Moon, was released.
  • Bowie teamed up with producer Ken Scott to co-produce this family snapshot. As a master engineer, Scott lent his talents to the likes of Elton John, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles.

    "'Kooks' is the love of Duncan that he never really showed when Duncan was growing up," Scott told Uncut magazine. "It says it all. It's how he felt at the moment of birth."

    "He didn't really follow through on that, " Scott continued. "We were too busy trying to keep our children fed and our wives in jewelry."

Comments: 2

  • Rayna from Pembroke Pines, FlYes, the talented and handsome Mister B wrote this for his little boy Zowie. Awwwww. he's telling Zowie that even though that he and his wife aren't Ward and June Cleaver and may be kind of hippie-ish, they have enough love for the child to be good parents
  • Sophie from San Jose, CaThis song is so adorable... Take a chance with a couple of kooks hung up on romancing :)
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