The 1967 Novelty Children’s Song That Took David Bowie a “Long Time” to Get Over

Known as the “latter-day British Al Jolson,” actor, singer, and songwriter Anthony Newley came to fame on mainstream television in the 1950s and later co-wrote the Nina Simone classic “Feeling Good,” the Shirley Bassey-sung “Goldfinger” for James Bond film of the same name, and scored Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). The former child actor was also an early influence on a young David Bowie. Early reviews of Bowie even likened the singer’s cadence to Newley.

“I had never heard of him,” said Mike Vernon, who produced Bowie’s 1967 debut album. “My first reaction was ‘He’s a young Anthony Newley.’ There was a dramatic, show-tune influence in the songs and a storytelling approach that was unique at the time. He was hip, even if he wasn’t famous, and I realized that producing this record would broaden my horizons.”

By the early ’60s, Newley’s inspiration slipped into an early single written by Bowie, the story of a garden gnome he encounters with an incessant laugh. Released as a single on April 14, 1967, “The Laughing Gnome” initially failed to chart until its re-release in 1973, during the height of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust fame, peaking at No. 6 in the UK.

“It was a terrible embarrassment to him,” added Vernon, “but to all concerned, it was only ever intended as a funny children’s record.”

Though Bowie later contributed the song “What Kind Of Fool Am I?” for a 2003 tribute album for Newley, Pop Goes the Weasel, he still considered his Newley impersonation a “bizarre” piece.

“Aarrghh, God, that Anthony Newley stuff, how cringe-y,” said Bowie in a 1990 interview. “No, I haven’t much to say about that in its favor. Lyrically, I guess it was really striving to be something, the short storyteller. Musically it’s quite bizarre. I don’t know where I was at.”

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Gnomes, Roasted Toadstools, and Dandelion Wine

Within the song, Bowie finds himself in a conversation with a gnome who can’t stop laughing.

I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all-day

Oh, I ought to report you to the gnome office
Yes

Voice effects were recorded by slowing down the tape machines, which appeared at a higher and faster register when played back at normal speed, a technique used on the 1950s children’s TV series Pinky & Perky.

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine
Then I put him on a train to Eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(Haven’t you got a light boy? )
Here, where do you come from?
(Gnome-man’s land)
Oh, really?

“I had to get over that a long time ago,” said Bowie of the single. “But then as we all know, history is all revisionism. One makes one’s own history.”

Bowie Revisits “The Laughing Gnome”?

In 1999, Bowie returned to the “Gnome” for the Comic Relief Red Nose Day telethon by performing a new song, “Requiem for the Laughing Gnome,” while playing a recorder. “Hello boys and girls,” said Bowie. “I’m going to play a new composition for you. … It’s in four movements.”

Though he never performed “The Laughing Gnome” live some artists—Charley Stone, Laurence Owen, Moxy Früvous, The Men They Couldn’t Hang—have added the Bowie oddity to their setlists. During Bowie’s A Reality Tour, he performed “The Laughing Gnome” with his band during a November 2003 soundcheck at Wembley Stadium. The song even made the setlist for his November 28th show in Glasgow, Scotland, but was cut at the last minute.

“I really think I should have done more for gnomes,” Bowie joked in 2000. “I always feel a bit guilty that I just put my feet into the water, and never sort of dived into the deep end. I really could have produced a new sensibility for the garden gnome in Britain. Gnomes should have been explored more deeply.”

Bowie continued, “The hats. I should have worn the hat more. I tried the beard in the early ’90s, but because I’m blond it didn’t really take off. I talked to Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald about doing a drum-and-bass version of ‘The Laughing Gnome,’ but it just didn’t fly. When drum-and-bass becomes fashionable again, that’s the time to leap onto that particular bandwagon—gnome and bass.”

Photo: Alisdair MacDonald/Mirrorpix/Getty Images