All the Young Dudes was written and produced by David Bowie. Mott The Hoople had a cult following in England and Bowie was a big fan but they were about to break up. To stop them from breaking up he offered to produce their next album and give them a song…this song.
Mott the Hoople does a great job on this. This era is my favorite of David Bowie… All the Ziggy Stardust music (which this was originally written for) and the Hunky Dory album…not that any era of Bowie is bad.
David Bowie on writing the song for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album
“Ziggy was in a rock ‘n’ roll band, and the kids no longer want rock ‘n’ roll,” Bowie explained to Rolling Stone in 1974. “There’s no electricity to play it. Ziggy’s adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, ’cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this, and there is terrible news. ‘All the Young Dudes’ is a song about this news. It is no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite.”
The song peaked at #37 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in the UK in 1972.
All The Young Dudes
Billy rapped all night ’bout his suicide
How he’d kick it in the head when he was 25
Don’t wanna stay alive when you’re 25
Wendy’s stealing clothes from unlocked cars
Freddy’s got spots from ripping off stars from his face
Funky little boat race
The television man is crazy
Saying we’re juvenile delinquent wrecks
Man I need a TV when I’ve got T. Rex
Hey brother you guessed I’m a dude
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
Now Jimmy looking sweet though he dresses like a queen
He can kick like a mule
It’s a real mean team
We can love
Oh we can love
And my brother’s back at home
With his Beatles and his Stones
We never got if off on that revolution stuff
What a drag
Too many snags
Well I drunk a lot of wine
And I’m feeling fine
Gonna race some cat to bed
Is this concrete all around
Or is it in my head
Oh brother you guessed I’m a dude
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
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This is another song where I never actually paid attention to the lyrics. There’s a lot more to the backstory than I would have expected.
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I didnt know that he wrote it for his album…I understand it more now.
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Love this track… Prefer bowie singing it but what can you do. Think I read somewhere that after this bowie gave them – drive in Saturday to record but they didn’t want it! Have you heard that?
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He did give them Suffragette City but they didn’t want it… just crazy…how do you turn that down?
I didn’t hear about Drive-In Saturday… If so…why wouldn’t they want both of them? It’s Bowie….you take it
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Oh didn’t know about suffragette city…. As you say from bowie you take it. It’s not as if they had any competing songwriters!
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Exactly…I like Ian Hunter but they were not hiding a new Bowie.
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Say that again…
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The lyrics of this song make no sense, but at the same time complete sense… Love it
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Very edgy stuff at the time with it’s homosexual themes. Despite that, it has become a staple of Classic Rock. It’s just too good to be denied.
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Glam rock at it’s height… Its catchy without being corny. Great song
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Ian Hunter is still going strong as he approaches 80.
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Wow I didn’t know he was that old… When I think of him I think of “All The Good Ones Are Taken”…loved that song in the eighties but it wasn’t a giant hit.
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He got a late start on stardom- he is older than Ringo or John by a year. Turns 80 in the spring.
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I’ve always like Mott and his solo stuff. Very English
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For a long time this is the only song I ever heard from them but I heard another song of theirs on the HBO show vinyl called Rock and Roll Queen. What a great song.
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I remember that song from Ian Hunter…All the good ones are taken
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Me too. But listen to this it’s kind of a mess but that’s what makes it good. https://youtu.be/pm9sc-oNykE
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I’ve heard that before.
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