A previously unheard David Bowie demo titled ‘Today’ has been released, taken from the upcoming 1965 Shel Talmy Recordings album.
The release comes as a series of Early David Bowie songs from 1965 are to be released on a new album featuring a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page.
Set to arrive on September 18 via Parlophone (pre-order/pre-save here), the songs were recorded before the singer – real name Davie Jones – went on to adopt the David Bowie moniker.
They were all made alongside legendary producer Shel Talmy, who was responsible for hits from The Who and The Kinks. The album will also include 10 previously unheard tracks, as well as musical contributions from pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds and Nicky Hopkins (The Rolling Stones, The Beatles).
Along with the album announcement, there was the release of the previously unheard ‘I Want Your Love’. Now, there is another previously unheard demo that has been dropped, titled ‘Today’.
The second track to be released from the album, ‘Today’ is a melancholic, stripped back ballad, and opens with chords and melodies that would later go on to become a signature style of Bowie in years to come.
Like all the other songs on the record, it was recorded on London’s famous ‘Tin Pan Alley’ Denmark Street at Central Sound Studios in 1965, and sees the iconic singer-songwriter recall lost love and heartbreak.
“Nothing can I give/ only one sad song,” he sings. “I’ve had heart aches too many times/ I can only see the rain falling down/ leaving tears upon the pane.” Check it out above.
The sleeve notes on the upcoming album, written by Alec Palao, read: “This collection, a primary chapter if not the very earliest instalment in David’s musical journey, deserves legitimate consideration. It is invariably tempting to search for clues in an artist’s tentative beginnings, and Bowie’s juvenilia has been dissected more than most, but this has rarely been done within the proper context.
“The sounds here should not be judged by the standards of his later career, but by the standards of what was happening in Britain at that precise point in time. In which case, they speak as loudly of the excitement of London and its music scene in that pivotal year of 1965 as they do for the launch of its brightest future star.”
As well as the demos, there are songs ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’ and ‘Baby Loves That Way’, which were originally released as singles on Parlophone, that Bowie would return to later in his career. For these, he re-recorded them with his Glastonbury band for the album ‘TOY’, which was released in 2021.
Find the full tracklist below.
The ‘David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings’ tracklist is:
CD
‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving (2026 Remaster)’ ^
‘I Want Your Love’ *^
‘Cupid’ *^
‘I Pity The Fool (2026 Remaster)’ +
‘Baby Loves That Way (2026 Remaster)’ ^
‘Keep Up With The Jones (Instrumental)’ *^
‘Leave Her To Me’ *^
‘I’ll Follow You’ ^
‘You Gotta Tell Her (2026 Remaster)’ *^
‘Take My Tip (2026 Remaster)’ +
‘Certain Woman’ *^
‘Today (Demo)’ *
‘I Want My Baby Back (Demo) (2026 Remaster)’ –
‘I Live In Dreams (Demo)’ *
‘Bars Of The County Jail (Demo)’ –
‘That’s Where My Heart Is (Demo) (2026 Remaster)’ –
‘I Do Believe I Love You (Demo)’ *
‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’ (Alternative overdub/vocal) (2026 Remaster) ^
‘I Pity The Fool’ (Alternative vocal take) (2026 Remaster) +
‘Baby Loves That Way’ (Alternative vocal take) *^
‘Take My Tip’ (Alternative vocal take) (2026 Remaster) +
VINYL
Side One
‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving (2026 Remaster)’ ^
‘I Pity The Fool (2026 Remaster)’ +
‘Baby Loves That Way (2026 Remaster)’ ^
‘I’ll Follow You’ ^
‘Take My Tip (2026 Remaster)’ +
Side Two
‘I Want Your Love’ *^
‘Cupid’ *^
‘Keep Up With The Jones (Instrumental)’ *^
‘Certain Woman’ *^
‘Leave Her To Me’ *^
*Previously Unreleased
^ Davie Jones & The Lower Third
+ The Manish Boys
– Davie Jones
This isn’t the only release on the way that celebrates Bowie’s early material. As well as the new album, the house Bowie wrote many of his early songs in (4 Plaistow Grove) is set to be restored and will be open to the public in 2027.
Back in 2019, NME also looked at Bowie’s early music and spoke to his close friends and collaborators about the documentary Finding Fame.
“He was incredibly resilient, and you see that in those early years – that ability to get up off the floor when something goes wrong,” director Francis Whately told NME of those early years.
“It made him stand out. When he had knocks, he had the ability to see them for what they were, which was just a phase. They may have freaked out anyone who hadn’t experienced quite so much disappointment in their early lives.”
