Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

in the company. I personally loved his take on
London life and was very disappointed when we
couldn’t make others realize just how original he
was. I vividly remember the day my managing
director called me into his office and said, ‘We’ve
just been going through your recording expenses.
You’ve spent thousands of pounds on David Bowie
and we still haven’t had any hits. I think we should let
him go so you can focus attention on your other
signings.’ Contracts were usually for one year with
options in the favor of the record company. I don’t
know how Bowie or his management felt about Pye
but, very reluctantly, I agreed that we should part
company. But, bloody hell, I knew it wouldn’t be long
before we’d see him at number one.”
Sensing that his client was miserable with his
second-tier status at Pye, Pitt worked out an
arrangement with a new label, Deram (a start-up
offshoot of Decca Records), using extremely strong
new material like “The London Boys,” “Rubber Band”
and “Please Mr. Gravedigger” for leverage. The deal
was modest but it would enable Bowie to record an
entire album’s worth of solo material. Pitt also
secured a lucrative publishing contract, only to find,
upon the deal’s completion, that the fiscally hapless
Ralph Horton had already inked one on Bowie’s
behalf for far less money (Pitt never told Bowie what
he was missing out on for fear of crushing his spirit).
On another business trip to New York City in early
1966, Pitt took a meeting with the pop artist Andy
Warhol, with an eye toward representing his as yet