Gnome sweet gnome ... David Bowie.
No artist's musical past has come back to haunt them quite like David Bowie's.
There he was in 1973, the world's most cutting-edge pop star: half the
country certain he's rock's saviour, the other half terrified, seemingly
convinced he actually is some kind of gay alien sex demagogue on Earth
to corrupt youth. He has achieved this via stunning records and
provocations: telling the press he's homosexual, pretending to fellate
his guitarist on stage, suddenly announcing his retirement. It has all
been brilliantly planned and executed, which makes the reappearance of
music he made years before devising Ziggy Stardust all the more
agonising. Worse, the song his old label has rereleased and seen rise to
No 6 in the charts is The Laughing Gnome, a 1967 novelty that has also
been covered by crooner Ronnie Hilton. The Laughing

