I looked into this for myself and I haven't read one yet, but I think the most definitive one for a long time has been Strange Fascination by David Buckley. A new update was published in 2017. I've also heard good things about David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones, which is an exhaustive oral history. Bowie had planned on writing an autobiography, too. Still burns me up that he didn't.
I'm not sure if A Life is an alternate title for An Oral History by Dylan Jones - Amazon seems to say it is - but I read the latter, and I strongly recommend if so. It was highly engrossing, and particularly entertaining in how some interviews offer contradictory facts, which shows just how different he appeared to everyone who met him. It was lovely.
Well, at least I’m not on here bitching every week about how there’s never any digital format option or cutting up the Watchmen soundtrack because I think I’m an ace bedroom engineer sound guy like some people around here..
You spend your time the way you want to, I’ll spend my money the way I want to..
This conversation is not relevant to the topic. Take it somewhere more suitable, like the Manson thread.
Back to Bowie, I completely understand why The Leon Suites were rejected by the record company. There are no 'songs' there. No hits. It wouldn't have sold.
I have a feeling the Bowie estate is kinda shying away from rereleasing the 90s stuff? Like... Finally the release something and it's a "stripped down" mostly acoustic live (greatest hits) thing.
Oh, I completely agree. And I was perfectly happy to stay on topic until racist troll Roswell decided to try and pick yet another fight with someone after he got told by a mod to stop just a week or two ago. The dude hardly, if ever, posts anything relevant on this board and continuously makes an ass of himself..
But yea, back on topic, there are three or four different versions of the Leon Suites compiled out there. I believe there’s even a box set (again, a bootleg) that tries to round them all up to make some sense of what has been released from those sessions. Definitely uncommercial, but also a fascinating prelude to an album that is still ahead of its time..
For me, Outside is easier to digest. That said, Leon works better as a concept album. I wish Trent had done something like this with Year Zero; some kind of companion piece that goes heavy on lore.
Just discovered that the Showgirls soundtrack had an early version of I'm Afraid of Americans produced by Eno during the Outside sessions. Probably common knowledge, although it's new to me.
Let's leave the Manson thread alone. It's been through enough and I want us to try and be big boys there.
That said, crossing my fingers for no weird screwups on whatever forthcoming box we're gonna get. I was all set to buy the New Career In A New Town set and then I hear the mastering is all fiddle faddle foo and there are audio artifacts on Heroes.
Last edited by Shadaloo; 01-13-2020 at 07:05 PM. Reason: typo
Vogue just posted a list of 15.
Speaking of books, one on Stevie Ray Vaughan came out last year and it goes a little deep into the mess surrounding the potential involvement he had with the Let's Dance tour and whether not he and his band Double Trouble could be the opening act. Long story short it was a mess of logistics and management making things difficult for both sides, with the image of Bowie miming SRV's guitar parts on the video for "Let's Dance" perceived as an insult. In the book it's said Stevie was upset with the video, but would stop short of that by saying up front in interviews he would not be coaxed into saying anything bad about Bowie. For his part, Bowie would write some of the liner notes for a DVD of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival where he discovered Vaughan in in 1982. He said that just before Vaughan's tragic death in 1990, the two crossed paths on the road and made amends towards each other.
Here because I'm cross. Only just heard about I Can't Read '97. Checking the blurb - wow okay, an alternate recording removed from Earthling at the last minute? Well this will be more interesting than TMWSTW... But no. Just another stripped down acoustic version. Does anyone believe this version was going to be on Earthling? I mean, maybe stick it on a b-side I guess?
Basically - as per above - I'm *all* about hearing unreleased 90s era material.
And, as I'm here, Outside Outtakes / Leon Suite / Whatever is genius. I get why it wasn't released as it was at the time, but to be honest I'd rather listen to that version all day. 'You're all number one packet sniffers'. Absolutely goddamn right. I read somewhere that there was more than three suites originally - I'd love to hear the others if they do exist somewhere. Do we know if there was more recorded at the New York sessions? That could be good too.
I believe this '97 version differs from the Ice Storm version that got released as a single.
That said, Stay ‘97 released today surprisingly kicks ass.
I hope they’ll reissue TMWSTW ‘95 to streaming. It’s a studio version of the version they played on the Outside tour and IMO better than the Changesnowbowie version. It came out on the Strangers When We Meet single.
They probably won't since that version technically is not unreleased. But I agree, it's a great rendition.
Yep, and the new single version differs from the video version. The Ice Storm version is closer to the new single version, but features the changes talked about in the description for the new video:
An alternative version, featuring minor chords and a darker sound for the chorus, was recorded for Ang Lee’s film The Ice Storm. The full length version appeared on a single in 1998, while an edit featured on the film’s soundtrack album in 1997, both released by VelVel Records.
I like "I Can't Read" in all its different incarnations, but the 1999 hours... live band arrangement has a special place in my heart. Fast-forward to 36:21 in this stunning performance (with Page Hamilton on lead guitar!) to hear how that sounded. Note the pin-drop quiet after that first chorus...
The VH1 Storytellers performance is where I encountered this arrangement for the first time (which was just before Reeves Gabrels left the band "to make his own album", as Bowie stresses in the intros from that gig above). Good stuff! Apart from the Kit-Kat webcast gig in New York, I don't think there have been any official releases dating from this particular lineup of his band, which was just before they got Earl Slick back to do Glastonbury etc. in 2000. There's a pro-shot video from the Astoria in London but they didn't play "ICR" at that gig
Last edited by botley; 01-27-2020 at 10:24 AM.
Two things give me hope about Is It Any Wonder?
1.It’s all 90’s so far.
2.Two out of six are revived Tin Machine tracks. (Baby Universal ‘97 is the latest as of this post)
Don't you love how each week the tracklist of Earthling is growing and growing?
An unreleased (almost entirely) instrumental song off the Earthling sessions got released today: