Wednesday 26 January 2011

January 2011


This month, there is a detailed look at the Blondie and Deborah Harry discographies.

Plus, there is also the final part in the David Bowie discography, covering 1989 to the present day, and a look at Pink Floyd on 45. To look at any of these blogs, click the relevant tab on the right hand side of this page.

































































"I Am Always Touched By Your Presence, Dear"

Saturday 15 January 2011

Pink Floyd - Singles and Compilations


When Pink Floyd issued “Dark Side Of The Moon” in 1973, it established them as leaders of the Prog Rock scene. “DSOTM” was not so much nine (or ten, depending on which version you have) songs, but rather two long suites of music. Here was an album to listen to, in order, from start to finish. You do wonder, had CD’s been around then, whether or not the band would actually have made it all into just one long song. Although an edited version of “Money” appeared as a single in the US at the time, there were no singles from the LP in the UK. In fact, the Floyd had not released a single in their home country since 1968, and would not do so until 1979.

And yet, at the start of their career, the band had been quite prolific at issuing 45’s. They released no less than five singles in 1967/68, and with one exception, the material on these singles consisted of songs that were not included on any Floyd album at the time. But for some reason, unlike other “heritage” acts, the band seem to have avoided any real attempt at including these songs on most of their compilation albums. Even today, of these nine “rarities”, two are still only available on CD in a box set which retails at £100+. In this blog, I will look at all of the band’s UK singles, and how most of their compilation albums actually created NEW rarities, rather than providing a home for the existing ones.

The Early Singles

For the record, the five singles that the band issued at the start of their career were:

Arnold Layne/Candy And A Currant Bun (DB 8156)
See Emily Play/The Scarecrow (DB 8214)
Apples And Oranges/Paint Box (DB 8310)
It Would Be So Nice/Julia Dream (DB 8401)
Point Me At The Sky/Careful With That Axe Eugene (DB 8511)

"The Scarecrow" was lifted from the band’s debut LP, “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” - everything else on these 45‘s were exclusive to the format. The first two singles were fairly sizeable hits, but from “Apples And Oranges” onwards, the singles sold poorly and failed to chart. As a result, there became a desire in later years by fans to try and get hold of these songs, and the value of those later singles rose quite significantly as years passed by.

The first attempt to try and compile some of the nine rarities was on a European only LP called “The Best Of The Pink Floyd”. It included all but two of these rarities - neither side of the “Point Me At The Sky” 7” was included. The version of “It Would Be So Nice” was a radio version featuring a reference to “The Daily Standard”, the original version - I am reliably informed - referred to the London newspaper “The Evening Standard” and this radio version was created at the request of BBC for fear that this would otherwise be seen as advertising on a commercial-free station. One sided promo copies of “It Would Be So Nice” apparently feature a shorter mix, by the way. So, six rarities and an “alternate” mix was a good start. A 1974 reissue of the album called “Masters Of Rock” used a new stereo mix of “Apples And Oranges” instead of the original mono single mix, but despite a stereo mix of “Julia Dream” being in existence by this point in time, the mono single version was used again on the reissue.

The first UK LP to compile some of these rarities was 1971’s “Relics”, issued in the UK on the EMI budget label, “Starline”. Housed in a variety of different sleeves worldwide, the original UK version came in a textured white sleeve, with a pen and ink sketch by drummer Nick Mason on the cover. On the face of it, “Relics” was a bit of a hot-potch of songs - A sides, B sides, album tracks, and even a previously unreleased song in the form of “Biding My Time” - but look closer, and you could see that some thought had gone into the tracklisting. The band’s debut single, “Arnold Layne”, opened the set, side 1 closed with a B-side, “Paint Box”, and “Bike”, which closed “Piper”, also closed this LP as well. As well as “Arnold Layne”, another A-side “See Emily Play” made the set, whilst three of the four B-sides - “Julia Dream”, ”Careful With That Axe Eugene” and the aforementioned “Paint Box” all appeared, but new stereo mixes were used instead of the original mono mixes from the singles. Furthermore, a track lifted from “Piper”, “Interstellar Overdrive”, faded out early - making this version a good five seconds shorter than the original LP version. “Relics” is considered still to be one of the most important Pink Floyd best-of’s, which explains why it was reissued in a new cover, along with the rest of the band’s back catalogue, on Cassette and CD in the mid 90s. It's also worth noting that "Arnold" and "Emily" appeared not in their original mono form, but in simulated stereo on both the original LP version and the reissue - a common practice in the early 70s.

As the 70s progressed, no attempt was made to compile the missing rarities onto a compilation LP. “Careful With The Axe Eugene”, despite being a B-side, was now one of the more well known songs from the early singles, having appeared in live form on 1969’s “Ummagumma” as well as “Relics“. It was also featured in the 1972 film "Live At Pompeii", and had even appeared in alternate form on a soundtrack album to the film "Zabriskie Point".

1979 And Beyond

In 1979, the band released their first UK single for over a decade. “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” was lifted from “The Wall”, where it was segued into from “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives”, and then segued into “Mother”. The track was therefore altered for the single - the ending faded out early, whilst the intro was actually altered by including a now famous guitar riff before the vocals started. The b-side, “One Of My Turns”, also differed to the version originally on “The Wall”.

In 1981, the band released the ironically titled “A Collection Of Great Dance Songs”, consisting of mostly quite well known Floyd tracks. Of the six songs on the LP, all of them - in their original album form - cross faded into or from other songs, so everything on the LP would have a new start or ending - or both. “Another Brick” was included, but was a curious hybrid of the single and album mix - it included the guitar intro from the 45, but faded out later, whilst “Money” was a completely new recording. In the US, the band were now signed to Columbia, and the label who owned the rights to material from “DSOTM”, Capitol, refused to licence the track to the band‘s current label. Lead singer Dave Gilmour simply got round this by re-recording the song himself, playing everything on the new version except the saxophone solo. The collection therefore succeeded in creating even more rarities than was in existence before, but is thankfully still available on CD.

In 1982, “The Wall” was made into a movie, and a new soundtrack was composed for the film. A new song, “When The Tigers Broke Free” was written, whilst other material from the original LP was remixed, or re-recorded. A 7” single offering “Tigers” on the A-side, with a new version of “Bring The Boys Back Home” on the flip was released in the summer, and despite plans for a soundtrack LP including these plus all of the other reworked material from the film, the soundtrack LP was never released.

In 1983, Pink Floyd released “The Final Cut”. By now, keyboardist Rick Wright had been more or less forced out of the band, with co-lead singer Roger Waters now taking the reigns. The album was pretty much all Waters’ own work, written as an anti-War LP in protest against the Falklands Conflict. Only one song on the entire LP featured Gilmour as vocalist, “Not Now John”, and this was also the only single taken from the record. The single was issued on both 7” and 12”, with a “censored” version of the track appearing on both of the formats. The b-side was an extended version of album track “The Hero’s Return”, called “The Hero’s Return (Parts 1 & 2)”. “The Final Cut” was re-released on CD in 2004, with “When The Tigers Broke Free” as a bonus track, but rather strangely, it appeared not at the end, but midway through what was originally side 1 of the LP.

In the US, another compilation album appeared the same year. “Works” was issued by Capitol to try and deflect sales away from Columbia’s release of “The Final Cut”, and like “Dance Songs”, created more rarities than it compiled. Of the early singles, only “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play” made the cut (and both in simulated stereo again, rather than mono), but “See Emily Play” cross faded into the next song on the LP, “Several Species Of Small Furry Animals…”, so doesn’t count in the "housing the old rarities" list! The LP did contain a big rarity in the form of “Embryo”, recorded by the band for a 1970 Various Artists LP, and although played on stage by the band at the time, it was never included on a Floyd LP until now. Of the six remaining songs, “One Of These Days” was remixed and sounded noticeably different to the original mix on 1971’s “Meddle”, “Fearless” segued into a new semi-quadraphonic mix of “Brain Damage”, and “Eclipse” also appeared in newly remixed form. This meant that only three of the ten songs appeared here unaltered - the aforementioned “Embryo”, “Free Four” and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”. Impressive.

By 1987, Waters had left the band, claiming the band had reached their natural conclusion. Gilmour and Mason disagreed, and re-recruited Wright (only as a session musician at first, due to “legal” issues) to form a new version of the band - resulting in much bad blood between Waters and the rest of the band for a good 20 years. The new line up released “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”, and suddenly fell in love with singles again - issuing no less than three from the LP. Edited mixes of “Learning To Fly” and “One Slip” appeared on the CD issue of the first single from the album, along with an alternate mix of “Terminal Frost” as an extra track. Live versions of “Run Like Hell” and “On The Turning Away” appeared as B-sides of the studio version of “On The Turning Away”, the second single - the A-side was also edited, but for radio promos only. Single three, “One Slip”, came backed with a live version of “Dogs Of War”. Although the Floyd would release a live LP “Delicate Sound Of Thunder” the following year upon which all these tracks would appear, the versions released on the live LP were from different shows to those sourced for the B-side versions.

Shine On - And On

In 1992, the situation regarding the early singles was finally solved. A 9-CD box set, “Shine On”, was issued, featuring 7 Floyd albums and an exclusive set called “The Early Singles” which included the A and B sides of all of the five Columbia 7” singles from 67 and 68. Well, sort of. The version of “Paint Box” was actually slightly longer than the original 7” mix, for some reason, with a longer faded ending. The main problem with this release was that it was exclusive to the box set - and copies of the box set have always tended to sell for £100 or more, so it wasn’t a very cheap way of getting the rarities.

In 1994, the band released what remains to date, their last studio album - “The Division Bell”. Two singles were issued from the album, with edited mixes of the A-sides appearing on most formats. “Take It Back” came backed with a previously unissued live version of “Astronomy Domine”, originally the first song on their first LP, and regularly played as the opener on the 1994 tour. The second single, a double A side release of “High Hopes” and “Keep Talking”, came backed with a live version of “One Of These Days”, taped during August 94.

In 1997, Pink Floyd released a mini album called “1967 - The First Three Singles”. It was released to coincide with the 30th anniversary reissue of “Piper”, and other Floyd CD’s from the back catalogue were also repressed at the same time. The CD was available at a reduced price if purchased with other Floyd CD’s, or £5.99 if bought individually. It made the likes of “Candy And A Currant Bun” and “Apples And Oranges” more widely available than previous, and although the original mono mixes were used in most cases, the version of “Paint Box” was once again longer than the 1967 original. Of course, by limiting the release to the 67 singles, this meant that “It Would Be So Nice” and “Point Me At The Sky” still remained fairly obscure. The five “non album” tracks from this set also appeared on an expanded edition of “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” in 2007.

In 2001, possibly sensing there would be no more Floyd material, EMI released what was planned to be the defintive Pink Floyd best-of, “Echoes”. In an attempt to recreate the cross-fading that was so prevalent on most of the post Syd-Barrett records, the majority of the set featured cross-fades between most of the songs, meaning that nearly everything on the set appeared in a slightly different form to the original versions. Other songs were also edited to be able to squeeze more material on, and only three or four songs appeared here in their original album/single form. A vinyl box set was also issued, where a handful of songs that either started or ended one of the sides of the record, used slightly different mixes to the CD equivalent. The only stand alone singles on the collection were “Arnold Layne”, “See Emily Play” and “When The Tigers Broke Free” - no B-sides made the set. And again, the version of "Tigers" crossfaded into the next song on the collection, so differed from the original 7".

And so, with the band now pretty much defunct, what is still missing? Well, it's probably easier to list what isn't missing. Basically, the 1967 stuff is on the 3-disc "Piper" reissue mentioned earlier, and "Relics" will give you "Eugene" and "Julia Dream". "When The Tigers Broke Free" is on the current edition of "The Final Cut" but "Shine On" is the only real home for "It Would Be So Nice" and "Point Me At The Sky". It has been claimed that the reason no real effort has been made to make these two songs more widely available is that the band hated both of them. "Point Me At The Sky" was reissued in Italy in 1973 on Harvest, and I managed to get a copy a few years back for about a fiver, whilst "Masters Of Rock" can usually be picked up quite cheaply. Whilst all of the other A sides and B sides are tracks available on Floyd LP's, the versions from the singles - being either live versions or alternate mixes - remain available only on those singles. It's amazing to think that singles dating from as far back as 1979 are still home to unique Floyd material.


Discography

Listed below are the most important Pink Floyd singles releases - formats which offer nothing in terms of rare mixes, etc are omitted. 7” and CD Singles are the default formats shown. Also listed are details of the UK compilation albums - any released in the “CD Era” will have details of the relevant CD pressing, otherwise the vinyl release is shown.

PINK FLOYD SELECTED SINGLES DISCOGRAPHY

Arnold Layne/Candy And A Currant Bun (7”, Columbia DB 8156)
See Emily Play/The Scarecrow (7”, Columbia DB 8214)
Apples And Oranges/Paint Box (7”, Columbia DB 8310)
It Would Be So Nice/Julia Dream (7”, Columbia DB 8401)
Point Me At The Sky/Careful With That Axe Eugene (7”, Columbia DB 8511)
Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) (Single Version)/One Of My Turns (Alternate Single Version) (7”, Harvest HAR 5194)
When The Tigers Broke Free/Bring The Boys Back Home (New Version) (7”, Harvest HAR 5222)
Not Now John (Obscured Version)/The Hero’s Return (Parts 1 & 2) (7”, Harvest HAR 5224, 12” version exists which includes album version of “John” as bonus track)
Learning To Fly (Edit)/One Slip (Edit)/Terminal Frost (Album Version)/(DYOL Version) (CD, EMI CDEM 26)
On The Turning Away/Run Like Hell (Live)/On The Turning Away (Live) (CD, EMI CDEM 36, also on 12“)
One Slip/Terminal Frost/The Dogs Of War (Live) (CD, EMI CDEM 52, also on limited and “normal“ 12“ editions)
Take It Back/Astronomy Domine (Live)/Take It Back (Edit) (CD, EMI CDEMS 309, fold out booklet, Red Vinyl 7” and Cassette editions also exist which do not include album version of “TIB”, other CD editions exist in "normal" sleeve)
High Hopes (Edit)/Keep Talking (Edit)/One Of These Days (Live) (CD, EMI CDEMS 342, limited edition with seven art cards. Standard edition also released without cards, and diff cat number)
1967 The First 3 Singles (CD EP, EMI CDEMD 1117)

Note: Coloured vinyl 7” versions of “Learning To Fly”, “On The Turning Away”, “One Slip” and “High Hopes” were pressed, but without the ‘rare’ B-sides.

PINK FLOYD UK COMPILATIONS

Relics (1971, LP, EMI Starline SRS 5071)
A Collection Of Great Songs (1981, LP, Harvest SHVL 822)
Relics (1994 version reissued in new cover, CD, EMI CDEMD 1082)
Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd (2001, 2xCD, EMI 536 1112)

I will cover other Floyd releases, such as the “London 66/67” and “Zabriskie Point” releases in a future blog, as well as looking at the original studio albums.

Further reading:
Pink Floyd Discography: http://www.pinkfloyddiscography.org/
The Pink Floyd Archives: http://www.pinkfloydarchives.com/

Thursday 6 January 2011

Blondie & Deborah Harry



“Blondie Is A Band” they famously proclaimed at some point in the late 70s. But that didn’t stop Chrysalis issuing not one but two compilation records in subsequent decades which put Debbie Harry's solo records alongside older Blondie hits. Of course, you can understand why. Harry was so much the focus of the band - she looked like a pop star, you could well believe that she had previously been a Playboy Bunny, and she helped give Blondie "a look" - her iconic image invented Madonna, who then invented everybody else, and during her solo years, still looked 15 years younger than she actually was. Whether she was singing “Presence Dear” or “French Kissin’ In The USA”, Harry’s voice was pristine, and she looked stunning - it’s easy to see why it’s such a marketable punt to merge the two elements of her career into one.

Blondie have always been the more celebrated act - when a Harry solo collection was issued at the end of the 90s, even the cover photo was from a photo shoot taken when Blondie were in their infancy…in other words, it was a picture from before Harry had even recorded her first solo album. And with a new Blondie album due this year, “Panic Of Girls”, now is as good a time as any to look at both Blondie and Debbie (or Deborah) Harry from start to finish.

The Early Years

Blondie’s first demos were taped in 1975, but it was not until the following year that the Harry/Chris Stein/Gary Valentine/Jimmy Destri/Clem Burke lineup of the band signed to Private Stock. None of the demo material would end up being used on the band’s first LP though. Their debut single, “X Offender”, was issued in the US during the summer of 76, backed with “In The Sun”. In the UK, the release was cancelled, and unreleased copies of the single have now become premier Blondie rarities. Their second US single, “In The Flesh”, was issued at the tail end of the year. In the UK, Private Stock had another go at issuing “X Offender” as a single, and using a new mix of the track, with “In The Flesh” appearing as a AA side on the flip, this became Blondie’s first “official” UK 45. Promo videos were filmed for both “X Offender” and “In The Flesh” thereafter, using the same set but with the band decked out in different outfits for the two songs. The new mix of “X Offender” was included on their debut LP “Blondie”, issued early on in 77, as was “In The Flesh”, but “In The Sun” appeared on the record in a new version.

Within only a few months, the band were reportedly unhappy with the label’s handling of their career - neither the album nor any of it’s singles had caused much of an impact. The band promptly left the label and signed with Chrysalis, who reissued the LP. In the UK, the decision was taken to re-promote the album with a AAA side single, consisting of “Rip Her To Shreds”, “X Offender” and “In The Flesh”. The single appeared on both 7” and 12” (“3 Tracks For 75p” the sleeve excitedly barked), a gimmick repeated on several subsequent 45's. “Blondie” was reissued in 2001 with some of the 1975 demos, and both sides of the original “X Offender”/”In The Sun” 45.

“Blondie” was a decent, sometimes patchy record, but it’s follow up was anything but. “Plastic Letters” was a revelatory listen, the band getting a perfect mix of pop and punk throughout the record. Valentine left the band midway through recording, meaning that only four band members appeared on the cover, although Frank Infante came in as a replacement soon after, and is apparently on all tracks on the LP. The band covered a 1963 Randy & The Rainbows single “Denise”, but altered the gender and retitled it “Denis” - it was to be issued as the lead single from the LP, and the accompanying video clip featured a sixth band member, Nigel Harrison, who did not play on the record but was by now in the band for their next tour. Both Harrison & Infante would “officially” join the band on album number three, 1978’s “Parallel Lines”, regarded by many as their classic album. The follow up to “Denis”, “(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear”, written by Valentine, included a non-album track on the B-side entitled “Poet’s Problem”. “Plastic Letters” has been reissued on CD twice, both times including previously unreleased tracks. The 1994 edition included an alternate version of “Denis”, the 2001 edition no longer includes this but instead has a previously unreleased live take of “Detroit 442”.

The first 45 from “Parallel Lines” was “Picture This”, the only Blondie UK single to be issued on coloured vinyl. It was pressed on yellow vinyl, not quite sure if the choice of colour was significant, although Harry did appear in an all-yellow outfit in both the promo video and the band’s “Top Of The Pops” appearance. The next release, “Heart Of Glass”, appeared on a 12” which included an extended mix and an instrumental mix. Later copies of “Parallel Lines” replaced the original LP version with the 12” mix instead, with most - if not all - CD copies using the 12” mix as well. The last single from the album, “Sunday Girl”, was also recorded in French, and appeared on the 12” edition, before resurfacing on a multitude of Blondie compilations in following years. The 2001 edition of “Parallel Lines” included a previously unreleased version of “Heart Of Glass” from early album sessions, the 2007 edition removed this rarity and replaced it with a DVD of video clips and alternate takes of other songs from the album, already available on other compilations. The cover photo was, however, altered for this edition. A freebie copy given away with The Mail On Sunday on 5th December 2010 included three tracks from “Panic Of Girls” as bonus tracks.

By the time of 1979’s “Eat To The Beat”, Blondie were proper pop stars - especially in the UK, where they played a celebratory New Years Eve gig in Glasgow which is now available on the “Blondie At The BBC” set. “Eat To The Beat” saw them start to further indulge their disco leanings which they had touched upon with “Heart Of Glass”, with “Atomic” being the most noticeably different sounding song on the record when compared to their New Wave beginnings. It was edited for single release, with 12” editions including a live cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” as an extra track. An “Eat To The Beat” Video Album was also issued at the same time, but has been deleted for years.

1980 saw the release of the band’s first “stand alone” 45, “Call Me” - taped for the “American Gigolo” soundtrack. The single appeared in different sleeves in different countries - some with Harry on the cover, some with the film’s star Richard Gere - and in different colours. An Instrumental mix appeared on the flip, whilst a Spanish Language version of the song appeared as a bonus track on the 12”. The standard version of the track was actually edited down from the original album mix, with a running time of barely half of that of the original. In the US, the 12” edition included the album mix and a longer version of the instrumental. The instrumental mixes were credited to “Giorgio Moroder”, who had recorded the song with the band, which explains why these mixes have rarely surfaced on any Blondie collections since. This is arguably a bit of a misnomer, as from what I can gather, the rest of the band do all actually play on the instrumental versions.

The first release from 1980’s “Autoamerican”, Blondie’s slightly schizophrenic mix of multiple genres, was a cover of “The Tide Is High”, again edited for single release. The B-side was a track only otherwise available on Cassette editions of the album, “Suzy & Jeffrey”. It’s follow up was arguably the most important song on the album, “Rapture” - Blondie’s nod to late 70s Rap Culture, which not only name checked Hip Hop Icon Fab 5 Freddy, but also featured him in the accompanying video. The track was edited for the 7”, whilst the 12” featured extended mixes of both the A-side and the “Autoamerican” album track, “Live It Up”. The 1994 reissue of “Autoamerican” included both sides of this 12”, but later reissues have omitted the “Live It Up” remix. Despite “Rapture” being a monumentally important release in the band’s history, it was actually the beginning of the end.

The End of Blondie / The Start of The Solo Career

In 1981, Harry set off on a solo career whilst the band took a short break. “Koo Koo” was in effect Harry fronting Chic, with Chris Stein also involved. The first single, “Backfired”, was edited for the 7”, and extended for the 12”, but other tracks issued as singles in some countries failed to be released as 45’s in the UK. The album itself sold in only moderate numbers, and was considered a poor relation to Blondie’s albums.

It has been claimed that sales of the record were dented by Harry’s label themselves - Chrysalis had put the record out, but also released “The Best Of Blondie” later the same year. In an attempt to entice punters, “new” material was included in the form of new mixes of “Heart Of Glass”, “Rapture”, “In The Flesh” and “Sunday Girl”. There was no mention on the sleeve that “Rapture” was a new mix. The album was retitled “Blondie’s Hits” for release in Holland, where despite using the same rear sleeve as the UK edition, the “Special Mixes” listed were replaced by the normal album/single versions. An accompanying video was issued, with a different track listing, and with each video “inter-connected” with special additional footage to create the effect of a 50 minute long video-album.

Blondie returned in 1982 with the much maligned “The Hunter”, mauled by the critics, who hated everything from the music to the cover showing Harry wearing a quite ridiculous over-sized wig. “Island Of Lost Souls” was edited for 7” release, whilst the follow up single “War Child” was extended for the 12”. This mix has been included on later CD repressings of the album ever since. A variety of outside issues, including Stein facing a life threatening illness, internal band fighting, and poor ticket sales of an upcoming US tour, saw the band finally throw in the towel. An offshoot label of Chrysalis, Air, released a career spanning greatest hits double vinyl LP in 83 called “Encounters With Blondie”, but for some reason, it was withdrawn from sale, and now sells for a ton - minimum.

Harry released a handful of new solo singles featuring exclusive A-sides over the next few years, “Rush Rush” in 1983, and “Feel The Spin” in America only in 1985, before issuing her second solo album, “Rockbird”, in 1986. By now, the world of multiple remixing was taking hold, and all of the songs released as singles from the album were edited/remixed numerous times for different formats. Another stand alone single, “Liar Liar”, followed in 1988.

The same year, saw the release of “Once More Into The Bleach”, a remix album split half and half between Blondie and Debbie Harry solo material. The Blondie songs were newly remixed for the set, most of the solo material consisted of already available mixes. Two singles were taken from the album, “Call Me” and “Denis”, the former of which included a Debbie Harry solo track as one of the B-sides, the only Blondie single to ever be released in the UK in such a style.

The following year saw the release of “Def Dumb And Blonde”, Harry’s third solo LP. Unlike the singles from “Rockbird”, it was only the “extended play” formats that were of interest in most cases, with the 7” and Cassette singles that were released featuring nothing exclusive this time around. The vinyl copy of the album included 11 songs, but other formats had more - 15 on the CD. After another one off single in 1990, a cover of “Well Did You Evah” with Iggy Pop for the “Red Hot & Blue” charity LP, Chrysalis issued their second Blondie/Harry split LP, a best of set called “The Complete Picture”. As well as “Well Did You Evah”, the 20 track album included nineteen other singles, although not all of them appeared in single form (the mix of “Atomic” included was the album version). Despite featuring five photos of Harry post-Blondie on the cover, only six of the twenty songs were actually from her solo career. Single mixes were used for “Island Of Lost Souls” and “Sweet And Low”, whilst the mix of “Rapture” was that from “The Best Of Blondie” - although none of this was mentioned on the sleeve, yet again. According to Wikipedia, the mix of “Heart Of Glass” is a shorter version of the “Special Mix” from the same album, but when I tried listening to all these different "HOG" mixes one after the other recently, they started to sound the same after a while.

The Temporary End of the Solo Career and the re-birth of Blondie

In 1993, Harry’s fourth solo LP, “Debravation” was released. As well as a Cassette featuring a new B-side, and a 12” full of remixes, there were a pair of “Greatest Hits” CD EP’s of the first single “I Can See Clearly“, both using Blondie hits as some (or all) of the B-sides. A follow up single, “Strike Me Pink”, was also multi-formatted, but it was only the two CD Singles that had exclusive material. Also issued the same year was “Blonde And Beyond”, an oddball collection of B-sides, hit singles, album tracks and previously unissued material. It was the first UK Blondie LP to include Debbie only on the front cover (although virtually every UK single beforehand had been released in such a style), and it would not be the last. The “rare” material had a running time of 40-45 minutes, and included the 12” mix of “Heart Of Glass”, already available on the then current CD edition of “Parallel Lines”. The album also included another alternate unreleased version of the same song, this one dating from the debut album sessions of 1976.

In 1994, EMI released what was at the time the most ambitious Blondie best-of, “The Platinum Collection”. It included the A-side and B-side of every UK 45 released between 1976 and 1982, although B-sides only available on 12” singles were omitted. Where a single had also been issued in the US with a different B-side, this extra B-side was also included. Where they existed, 7” edits were used - the version of “Heart Of Glass” is a slightly longer mix than that used on the original LP, which was used on some - but not all - 7” editions of the single when first released, with a running time of 4.10. The set ended with five demos from 1975, two of which “Puerto Rico” and “Once I Had A Love”, remain exclusive to this set. The latter, is yet another early version of “Heart Of Glass”, meaning that since 2001, unreleased versions taped in 75, 76 and 78 had now been issued. Also included were a pair of new remixes of “Atomic” and “Rapture”.

The remixed “Atomic” had also been released as a single at the same time - a CD single with a stack of five new mixes was issued, whilst a second CD included the same mix from “The Platinum Collection” along with three old “hits” - including the original 1980 edit of the same song. It was also the first single from a remix LP, “Beautiful”, released the following year. Remixed versions of “Heart Of Glass” and “Union City Blue” were also issued as singles in 95, whilst the US version of “Beautiful” came in a new sleeve, with a slightly altered track listing, called “Remixed Remade Remodelled”.

In 1996, the Dutch label Disky issued “Denis”, the first of a never ending stream of budget label compilations. It was a mix of hit singles, album tracks and rarities, but neither this nor the barrage of similar compilations that followed offered anything that was not already available elsewhere. Meanwhile, Harry continued her solo career of sorts, becoming the semi permanent lead singer of jazz ensemble The Jazz Passengers on both stage and on record.

Blondie Return

It was at this point that tentative efforts to reunite the band began. The basic line up of Harry/Stein/Destri/Burke had hoped to join up with originating member Valentine, but this line up of the band was only together for a brief period. Harrison, from the “second” line up, apparently taped some demos with the rest of the band, but in the end, the band’s next studio album would feature neither him nor the other sixth member, Infante. The decision by the band to reunite as a four piece led to legal action from both, and created bad blood between the two camps that has never gone away today. When I met the reformed band in early 1999, I got my vinyl copy of “Autoamerican” signed - I can’t remember who did it, but one of the band, as well as signing the sleeve, drew lines through the images of both Infante and Harrison, as if to say “these people no longer exist in our world!”

Whilst the reformed band slowly started work on studio album seven, EMI released a limited edition US live album in 1998 called “Picture This Live”, including previously unreleased material culled from shows taped in 1978 and 1980. The release of the album was one of several on EMI that were issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the label, and was reissued in a new sleeve with a new cover the following year. Later on during 98, another hits set called “Atomic” was issued, using a cover photo from the original five piece line up, partly due to the ongoing legal battles. Once again, the “4.10” mix of “Heart Of Glass” was used, whilst all of the other singles which had been edited for single release, appeared here in their edited forms. A pair of new remixes of “Atomic” appeared at the end, and even though an “Atomic 98” CD Single was pressed up in the UK, it was withdrawn from sale. The CD was reissued again the following summer, in a new silver sleeve, retitled “Atomic Atomix”, and came with a second CD full of remixes. Of the nine songs on the bonus disc, two were from “Beautiful”, and two were from “Once More Into The Bleach”. The original unedited mix of “Call Me” was included, as was the 12” Instrumental mix of “Heart Of Glass”, the extended version of “War Child” and another new mix of “Atomic”, taken from the withdrawn single. The version of “Rapture” included was the US 12” Mix - longer than the LP version, but shorter than the UK 12” mix, and thus made it’s UK debut on this release.

At the end of 1998, Blondie returned to the UK to play their first gigs here for some 18 years. The tour included a pair of gigs at the London Lyceum, the second of which was taped for broadcast on BBC Radio 2. A sampler cassette featuring short clips of four songs from the forthcoming LP, “No Exit”, was made available at the shows. The first single from the record issued early the following year, “Maria”, hit number 1 in the UK - not bad for a band who, technically, had been AWOL for the last seventeen years. It was a classic Blondie pop moment, and it’s quality was very much indicative of “No Exit”, generally regarded as a major return to form after “The Hunter”. A second single, “Nothing Is Real But The Girl”, was arguably even better, and by the end of the year, the band had returned to UK stages, including a slot at the Glastonbury Festival. Blondie would start to tour on pretty much an annual basis from now on. Initial copies of “No Exit” included a free 4 track live CD from the Lyceum broadcast, whilst a full live album from the tour, “Livid”, appeared in 2000.

In 2002, yet another Greatest Hits album, titled - um - “Greatest Hits” was issued. It included the four “special” mixes from the “Best Of Blondie”, along with plenty more hits. The US edition used a picture of the “Infante” line up, the UK one instead used a photo of Harry, Stein, Destri and Burke only. An accompanying DVD featuring the videos was issued, which was basically a reissue of the “Best Of Blondie” Video, with three extra clips. It was followed in 2003 by another studio LP, “The Curse Of Blondie”, and another live LP, “Live By Request”, in 2005. The Japanese edition used a photo of the six-person touring line up of the band, with Harry and Co joined by Leigh Foxx and Paul Carbonara on the cover.

In 2005, yet another best of appeared, “Greatest Hits : Sight And Sound”. Using a superb cover, this was basically a CD with a free DVD (hence the title), and offered up a few rarities like a new version of “In The Flesh”, and an official outing for the Blondie/Doors mash up, “Rapture Riders”, which was planned to be released as a single, but got no further than the promo stage. The DVD included most of the band’s videos released between 76 and 03 (no “Call Me” though), and unlike the “Best Of Blondie” video, these were the original “unedited” clips. 2007 saw Harry return to her other day job, with the release of a fifth studio LP, “Necessary Evil”.

During 2009 and 2010, the specialist reissue label The Beat Goes On reissued all four of Harry’s pre-Necessary Evil albums on a pair of 2-on-1 CD sets. Harry’s first two solo albums had been credited to “Debbie Harry”, the second pair “Deborah”, and BGO decided to pair albums one and three, and two and four, together. The first pairing was credited to “Debbie Harry”, and the second “Deborah Harry”, just to confuse maters. Each set came as a two disc release inside a specially designed slipcase. The first set included the 11 track vinyl edition of “Def Dumb And Blonde”, rather than the 15 track CD edition.

2010 also saw the release of “Blondie At The BBC”, a CD/DVD set featuring material from the 70s and 80s. The CD consisted of the band’s New Year Eve show from Glasgow in 1979, with a running time of some 75 minutes, whilst the accompanying DVD included 40 minutes of the same show, broadcast on “The Old Grey Whistle Test”. The DVD was padded out with clips from “Top Of The Pops” and a “Plastic Letters” era 3 song set on “Whistle Test”, this time, in the Whistle Test studio, absolutely fizzing with energy. The label designs on the two discs mirrored that which was originally used on the plastic moulded 7” singles that Chrysalis issued during the same time period - a sweet touch. A similar approach was also used on 2009’s double CD set “Singles Collection”.

All of which brings us to “Panic Of Girls”. Since “The Curse Of Blondie”, Destri has left, rejoined, and left the band again, and the group - according to their website - now seems to consist of Harry, Stein, Burke, Foxx and two new members - Matt Katz-Bohen and Tommy Kessler.

Blondie always had an edge over their closest counterparts - with Harry’s looks helping them look unlike any other band hanging around CBGB’s, their love of punk, pop and disco, helped them go further than most of the three-chord brigade. Whether they were thrashing through “Detroit 442”, hitting the harmonies on “Denis”, or re-writing the rule book on “Rapture”, they really do deserve their place in the history books.

Discography

Listed below is the (almost) complete Blondie and Debbie/Deborah Harry discographies. For the albums, I have listed all of the UK releases I am aware of, plus selected reissues. Formats shown are personal choices or items from my own collection. The singles shown, aside from any issued on one format only, include only those with unique material or unique cover art. Notable additional formats are listed where they are considered worthwhile, some “extra” formats including rare material are excluded if the songs can be found on any of the albums listed either above or in the LP discography below (the MK 12” mix of “Heart Of Glass”, included on the 1995 "HOG" CD Single, for example, is also on the “Remixed…” USCD).


ESSENTIAL BLONDIE LP DISCOGRAPHY

Blondie (1976, Chrysalis 7243 533596 2 1, CD, 2001 reissue with US 7” single mixes of “X Offender” and “In The Sun”)
Plastic Letters (1977, Chrysalis CDCHR 6085, CD, 1994 reissue with alternate version of “Denis”)
Plastic Letters (1977, Chrysalis 7243 533598 2 9, CD, 2001 reissue with previously unissued live take of “Detroit 442”, some reissued in 2002 in box set with 2001 edition of “Blondie”)
Parallel Lines (1978, Chrysalis CDL 1192, LP with “3.54” mix of “Heart Of Glass”)
Parallel Lines (1978, Chrysalis 7243 533599 2 8, CD, 2001 reissue with “1978” version of “Once I Had A Love” and “5.50“ mix of “Heart Of Glass“)
Eat To The Beat (1979, Chrysalis CDP32 1225-2, CD, 1987 reissue, 2007 release includes original “Eat To The Beat” Video Album on bonus DVD)
Autoamerican (1980, Chrysalis 7243 830794 2, CD, 1994 reissue with both sides of the UK “Rapture” 12” as bonus tracks)
The Best Of Blondie (1981, Chrysalis CHR 1337, LP, most copies have free Debbie Harry poster)
The Hunter (1982, Chrysalis 533 670 2, CD, 2001 reissue with “War Child (Extended Version)”)
Once More Into The Bleach (1988, Chrysalis CJB-2, 2xLP)
The Complete Picture (1991, Chrysalis CCD 1817, CD)
Blonde And Beyond (1993, Chrysalis 321 9902, CD)
The Platinum Collection (1994, Chrysalis CDCHR 6069, 2xCD)
Beautiful (1995, Chrysalis 7243 8 34604 2, CD)
Denis (1996, Disky DC 867192, CD, reissued in 2006 by EMI as “The Blondie Collection” in new cover)
The Esssential Collection (1997, EMI Gold CD GOLD 1091, CD, cover image dates from after band had split, 1999 reissue uses photo from “correct” period, with “Eat To The Beat” era logo, a superior release [499 4212])
Picture This - Live (1998, Capitol 72438-21440-2-1, US CD, copies originally shrinkwrapped with “EMI 100” scratch card inside)
Picture This - The Essential Blondie Collection (1998, EMI CDMFPE 6416, CD, includes remixes of “Atomic” and “Union City Blue” as bonus tracks)
Atomic (1998, Chrysalis 494 9962, CD)
Atomic / Atomix (1999, Chrysalis 499 2882, 2xCD)
Call Me (1999, EMI Gold E524 2562, CD, includes remix of “The Tide Is High” as bonus track)
No Exit (1999, Beyond 74321 648372, 2xCD, rear sleeve makes no mention of disc 2, 2-disc editions should have sticker on front cover with track listing)
Philadelphia 1978 Dallas 1980 (1999, EMI 7243 5 21233 2 2, CD, UK edition of “Picture This - Live“)
Livid (2000, Beyond 74321 71254 2, CD, retitled as “Live” in US with different version of “One Way Or Another”)
Blondie Is The Name Of A Band (2000, Burning Airlines PILOT 71, 2xCD, 1978 German TV Show on both audio and video discs)
Greatest Hits (2002, Capitol 7243 5 43105 2, CD)
The Curse Of Blondie (2003, Epic 511 921 9, CD in slipcase)
Live By Request (2005, Cooking Vinyl COOKCD 332, CD)
Personal Collection (2005, Big Time IFPI 3066, CD, “The Mail On Sunday” newspaper freebie, 7 tracks from “Live By Request”, and 3 songs by Harry with The Jazz Passengers, plus “limited play” bonus tracks on enhanced CDRom section)
Greatest Hits: Sight And Sound (2006, EMI 345 0542, CD, initial copies feature “Sight And Sound” sticker on cover, repressings omit this and are thus simply titled “Greatest Hits”)
Blondie: Daily Star Sunday (2007, Upfront BLONUP01, CD, 15 track newspaper freebie, Blondie only feature on first 7 tracks, all from “Live By Request”)
Blondie Collection (2008, EMI Gold 50999 2 07979 2 8, CD)
Singles Collection (2009, EMI 50999 968037 2, 2xCD, includes A and B sides of the 77-82 EMI singles, including instrumentals, remixes, and 12” bonus tracks, both sides of “Rapture” 12” included again. Extended mix of “War Child“ missing, whilst Spanish version of “Call Me“ omitted in favour of full length album version)
Blondie At The BBC (2010, Chrysalis 50999 64215822, CD+DVD)


IMPORTANT BLONDIE SINGLES DISCOGRAPHY

X Offender/In The Flesh (7”, Private Stock PVT 105)
Rip Her To Shreds/In The Flesh/X Offender (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2180)
Rip Her To Shreds/In The Flesh/X Offender (12”, Chrysalis CHS 2180-12)
Denis/Contact In Red Square/Kung Fu Girls (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2204, listed as “Denis (Denee)”, later pressings housed in Chrysalis company bag, rather than Debbie p/s. The track was later included on a compilation LP called “Street Level“, where it was retitled yet again as “Denis Denis“)
Denis/Contact In Red Square/Kung Fu Girls (12”, Chrysalis CHS 2204 12)
(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear/Poet’s Problem/Detroit 442 (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2217)
(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear/Poet’s Problem/Detroit 442 (12”, Chrysalis CHS 2217/12)
Picture This/Fade Away And Radiate (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2242, initial copies on Yellow Vinyl)
Hanging On The Telephone/Will Anything Happen (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2266)
Heart Of Glass/Rifle Range (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2275)
Heart Of Glass (5.50 Disco Mix)/(Instrumental)/Rifle Range (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12-2275)
Sunday Girl/I Know But I Don’t Know (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2320)
Sunday Girl (LP Version)/(French Version)/I Know But I Don’t Know (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2320)
Dreaming/Sound Asleep (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2350)
Union City Blue/Living In The Real World (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2400)
Atomic (Edit)/Die Young Stay Pretty (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2410)
Atomic (Edit)/Die Young Stay Pretty/“Heroes” (Live) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2410)
Call Me (Edit) +1 (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2414)
Call Me (Edit)/(Spanish Version) +1 (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2414)
The Tide Is High (Edit)/Susie And Jeffrey (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2465, B-side spelt differently in different countries!)
Rapture (Edit)/Walk Like Me (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2485)
Rapture (Special Disco Mix)/Live It Up (Special Disco Mix) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2485)
Island Of Lost Souls (Edit)/Dragonfly (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2608, also released as a picture disc)
Island Of Lost Souls/Dragonfly (12”, Chrysalis 12 CHS 2608)
War Child/Little Caesar (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2624, also released as a picture disc)
War Child (12” Mix)/Little Caesar (12”, Chrysalis 12 CHS 2624)
Denis (The 88 Remix)/Rapture (Teddy Riley Remix)/(Dub) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3328, also released as a picture disc)
Call Me (The 88 Ben Liebrand Remix)/Backfired (88 Forest & Heller Remix) (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3342)
Call Me (The 88 Ben Liebrand Remix)/Backfired (88 Forest & Heller Remix)/Call Me (Original Version)/Hanging On The Telephone (CD, Chrysalis CHS CD 3342)
Call Me (The 88 Ben Liebrand Remix Extended)/(Original Version)/Backfired (88 Forest & Heller Remix Extended) (12“, Chrysalis CHS 12 3342, also released as a picture disc)
Atomic (Diddy’s Edit)/(Diddy’s 12” Mix)/(Diddy Pushes The Button Mix)/(Boom Mix)/(New Disco Mix) (CD1, Chrysalis CDCHSS 5013)
Atomic (Diddy’s Edit)/Sunday Girl/Union City Blue/Atomic (Edit) (CD2, Chrysalis CDCHS 5013, different p/s)
Heart Of Glass (Diddy’s Adorable Illusion Mix)/(Richie Jones Club Mix)/Call Me (E-Smoove’s Beat Vocal Mix) (12”, Chrysalis 12 CHS 5023)
Heart Of Glass (Diddy’s Adorable Edit)/Rapture (Pharmacy Dub)/Atomic (Explosive Ecstacy Mix) (Cassette, Chrysalis TC CHS 5023)
Union City Blue (Diddy’s Power & Passion Edit)/(Diddy’s Power & Passion Mix)/(Vinny Vero’s Turquoise Mix)/(Jammin’ Hot I Can’t Believe It’s Not Diddy Mix)/(Burger Queen Peroxide Power Mix) (CD1, Chrysalis CDCHSS 5027)
Union City Blue (Diddy’s Power & Passion Edit)/I Feel Love (Live)/Union City Blue (The OPM Poppy Mix)/(LP Version) (CD2, Chrysalis CDCHS 5027, different p/s)
Maria (Radio Edit)/(Soul Solution Remix Radio Edit)/(Talvin Singh Remix Edit) (CD1, Beyond 74321 645632)
Maria (Radio Edit)/Screaming Skin (Live)/In The Flesh (Live) (CD2, Beyond 74321 637372, different coloured sleeve with sticker on case)
Nothing Is Real But The Girl (Boilerhouse Lounge Mix)/Rip Her To Shreds (Live) (Cassette, Beyond 74321 669484)
Nothing Is Real But The Girl (Radio Remix With Alternative Intro)/Rip Her To Shreds (Live)/Maria (Live) (CD1, Beyond 74321 669472, with insert)
Nothing Is Real But The Girl (Boilerhouse Mix)/(Danny Tenaglia Club Mix)/(Danny Tenaglia Instradub) (CD2, Beyond 74321 663802, different colour sleeve, with insert)
No Exit (The Loud Rock Remix - Radio Version)/(The Infamous Hip Rock Version)/Maria (J&B Mix)/(Talvin Singh Rhythmic Mix)/Nothing Is Real But The Girl (DT Edit)/Hot Shot (CD, Beyond 74321 716532)
The Coca Cola Connection EP (5 track CD Single given free with multi-packs of Coca Cola, no cat no, includes “Atomic”. The withdrawn “Atomic 98” single also featured a Coca Cola ‘plug’ on the cover)
Heart Of Glass (LP Mix)/(Video) (“The Sun” newspaper freebie, Enhanced CD, Chrysalis SUNW 008. White cover with band name and title, different to original 1979 release)
Good Boys/Maria (Live At The House Of Blues)/Rapture (Live)/Good Boys (Video) (CD1, Epic 674399 2)
Good Boys (Album Version)/(Giorgio Moroder Extended Long) (CD2, Epic 674399 5, unique p/s)
Good Boys (Giorgio Moroder Extended Long)/(Scissor Sisters’ Gyad Byas Myax Ya Mix)/(Return To New York Mix) (12”, Epic 674399 6, border around p/s, otherwise same as CD1 cover)


DEBBIE & DEBORAH HARRY UK LP DISCOGRAPHY

Koo Koo (1981, Chrysalis 7243 8 30796 2, CD, 1994 reissue with bonus tracks “Backfired (12” Mix)” and “The Jam Was Moving (12” Mix)”)
Rockbird (1986, Chrysalis CHR1540, LP)
Def Dumb And Blonde (1989, Chrysalis CDP32 1650-2, CD)
Debravation (1993, Chrysalis CDCHR 6033, CD, US issue includes extra tracks)
Collection (1998, Disky CD 888402, CD, includes rarities such as Def Dumb & Blonde bonus track “I’ll Never Fall In Love” and “Feel The Spin”, later reissued by EMI as “French Kissin‘ The Collection“)
Most Of All (1999, EMI 7243 5 22945 2 7, CD, cover image actually from late 70s. Remixes of “I Want That Man” appear at end, planned single release of this 45 in UK cancelled)
Necessary Evil (2007, Eleven Seven ESE003, CD)
Koo Koo/Def Dumb And Blonde (2009, BGO BGOCD869, 2xCD)
Rockbird/Debravation (2010, BGO BGOCD 951, 2xCD)


SELECTED DEBBIE & DEBORAH HARRY UK SINGLES DISCOGRAPHY

Backfired (7” Edit)/Military Rap (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2526)
Backfired (12” Mix)/Military Rap (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2526)
The Jam Was Moving (7” Mix)/Chrome (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2554)
The Jam Was Moving (12” Mix)/Inner City Spillover (12” Mix)/Chrome (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2554)
Rush Rush +1 (7”, Chrysalis CHS 2752, US version comes in different cover)
Rush Rush (Extended Version)/(Extended Dub Version) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 2752, US version comes in different cover)
French Kissin’ (7” Edit)/Rockbird (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3066, some copies in fold out sleeve)
French Kissin’ (Dance Mix)/(Dub Version)/Rockbird (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3066, border around sleeve unlike 7” pressing, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
In Love With Love (London Mix Edit)/French Kissin’ (French Version, 7” Edit) (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3128)
In Love With Love (Extended Version)/Feel The Spin (Extended Dance Version)/French Kissin’ (Full Length French Version) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3128, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
Free To Fall (7” Edit)/Feel The Spin (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3093, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc with different track listing)
I Want That Man (12” Remix)/(7” Version)/(Instrumental)/Bike Boy (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3369, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
I Want That Man (12” Remix)/(7” Version)/(Instrumental)/Bike Boy (CD, Chrysalis CHSCD 3369)
Brite Side (Remix)/In Love With Love/Bugeye (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3452, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
Brite Side (Remix)/In Love With Love/Bugeye (CD1, Chrysalis CHSCD 3452)
Brite Side (Remix)/French Kissin’/Bugeye (CD2, Chrysalis CHSCCD 3452)
Sweet And Low (Phil Harding Remix)/(Phil Harding Dub)/(Phil Harding 7” Mix) (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3491, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
Sweet And Low (Phil Harding Radio Edit)/(Phil Harding Dub)/(Phil Harding Single Version) (CD, Chrysalis CHSCD 3491)
Maybe For Sure/Get Your Way (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3537, also pressed as 7“ Picture Disc)
Maybe For Sure/Get Your Way (Cassette, Chrysalis CHSMC 3537)
Maybe For Sure/Get Your Way/End of the Run (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3537)
Maybe For Sure/Get Your Way/End of the Run (CD, Chrysalis CHSCD 3537)
Well Did You Evah +1 (7”, Chrysalis CHS 3646)
Well Did You Evah +1 (Cassette, Chrysalis CHSMC 3646)
Well Did You Evah +1 (12”, Chrysalis CHS 12 3646, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc)
Well Did You Evah +1 (CD, Chrysalis CHSCD 3646)
I Can See Clearly/Atomic/Heart Of Glass (“Best Of Blondie” edit) (CD1, Chrysalis CDCHSS 4900)
I Can See Clearly (Shakedown Mix)/Call Me/In Love With Love (London Mix Edit) (CD2, Chrysalis CDCHS 4900)
I Can See Clearly (Single Mix)/Standing In My Way (Cassette, Chrysalis TCCHS 4900)
I Can See Clearly (D:Reamix)/(D:Ream Instrumental)/(Deep South Mix)/(Murk Habana Dub) (12”, Chrysalis 12 CHS 4900)
Strike Me Pink/On A Breath/Sweet And Low (Phil Harding 7” Mix) (CD1, Chrysalis 7243 8 80833 2 4)
Strike Me Pink/8½ Rhumba/Dreaming (CD2, Chrysalis CDCHS 5000, also pressed as 12“ Picture Disc with “Sweet And Low (Phil Harding 7“ Mix)” as bonus track)

I have not listed any singles released by other acts “featuring Debbie Harry”, nor any download releases, so I would suggest looking at the Wikipedia entry for Deborah Harry for more details of her extra-curricular activities. There is also a "Blondie Vs Edison" release of "Heart Of Glass" which sampled parts of the original, from 2006.

Note 1: In 2004, EMI issued a CD Singles Box Set from the Chrysalis years, which included reissues of all the UK singles from “Rip Her To Shreds” through to “War Child”. All tracks from the 7” and 12” editions were used, but in a moment of artistic licence, the “Call Me” disc added the “Album Mix” and “12” Instrumental” versions of the track, previously only available in the US.

Note 2: There are now several videos/DVDs by the band in existence, including one called “Blondie Live!” taped during the ill-fated 1982 US tour. I am hoping to go into greater detail in Blondie on Film in a future blog.

Note 3: As a solo artist, Harry has recorded numerous songs for soundtrack and Various Artist LP’s, many of which have also been issued as stand alone singles - but not necessarily in the UK. The songs concerned are: Feel The Spin, Liar Liar, Summertime Blues and Prelude To A Kiss (Promo only release). The link below goes into greater detail about all of Harry’s various solo escapades.


Further reading:
Blondie Official Site: http://www.blondie.net/
The Complete Discography: http://www.recmod.com/

Sunday 2 January 2011

Bowie in the 90's - and beyond



Ever since Bowie released some huge hit records that weren’t actually that good in the 1980s, he has undertaken one of the most remarkable “comebacks” ever seen in the world of music. Some lazy music critics will still claim he’s done nothing of worth since 1980, but what do critics know? Bowie, in fact, has made some records in the last two decades that actually surpass some of the stuff from the “Golden Years” of the 70s - “Black Tie White Noise” is better than “Pin Ups”, for example.

In this blog, we shall look at Bowie’s releases from the end of 1989 to the present day. Compilations and reissues of material from previous decades are in the main ignored, as these have been covered in previous blogs, and mentioning them again will make this article just a bit too “heavy”. However, important releases that cover the period from 1969 to 1989 are mentioned where appropriate.

“Sound + Vision” - ChangesBowie

Following the release of the “Tin Machine” album in 1989, Bowie briefly returned to his day job the following year with a World Tour, dubbed the “Sound + Vision” tour. Alongside a box set, and reissues of all his albums from 1969 to 1980, the tour was scheduled as a “farewell to the hits” - the original plan was for Bowie to get his fans to vote for the songs they wanted him to play, although this plan was apparently scrapped before the tour took place after the NME tried to “fix” the voting by getting people to vote for “The Laughing Gnome”. Bowie performed more or less the same greatest hits show each night, although there were a few obscure choices, including a new song called “Pretty Pink Rose”. The track had been released on an album by Bowie’s tour guitarist, Adrian Belew, and was a duet between the pair - it was also issued as a single whilst the tour took place.

The box set was a mix of hits, album tracks, and previously unreleased rarities - both in the form of alternate versions of otherwise available songs, or completely “new” material. Disc 1 included a demo of “Space Oddity” and the never-before-issued “London Bye Ta Ta”, along with the “Sax” mix of “John I’m Only Dancing”. B-sides in the form of the acoustic version of “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud” and “Round And Round” appeared along with the original stand alone A-side version of “The Prettiest Star”. Disc 2 offered the previously unreleased medley of “1984” and “Dodo”, along with the US single mix of “Rebel Rebel”, and previously unreleased tracks “After Today” and a cover of Springsteen‘s “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” - the second of two Bruce covers Bowie taped in the 70s, but failed to release at the time (the other was “Growing Up“). Disc 3 offered mostly album tracks, although a remixed version of “Helden” (“Heroes” sung in German) was a rarity. The box was issued in a semi see through sleeve, pressed on Vinyl, Cassette and CD, with the CD set adding a bonus Video Disc, which included three previously unreleased live tracks, although I believe these tracks are all now available on the 2003 expanded edition of “Aladdin Sane”. The set covered only the “RCA” years from 69 to 80, but did include some tracks from the 1973 taped, but 1983 released, live LP “Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture”.

An updated greatest hits album, “ChangesBowie” was also released to coincide. It was a sort of expanded edition of the 1976 “ChangesOneBowie” set, using the same typeface, and the same cover photo, although for this version, a series of “Bowie through the ages” images were superimposed around the edges of the sleeve. A remixed version of “Fame”, dubbed “Fame 90”, was included on the record, and was also issued as a single with multiple remixes in it’s own right, complete with a newly shot music video. In the US, one remix not made available on the UK edition was included on the CD Single.

In 1991, a US only reissue of the “Sound And Vision” single took place in the US. Credited to “David Bowie Vs 808 State”, it appeared as a four track CD single which included two new mixes, the original LP version, and another mix which appeared as a bonus track on the then current edition of “Low”. The single used a completely new picture sleeve to any previous “Sound And Vision” releases.

After another Tin Machine studio album and tour, David Bowie The Solo Singer returned in 1992, with a rather low key stand alone single. “Real Cool World” was recorded for the half cartoon/half live action movie “Cool World” and was issued on the label who released the accompanying soundtrack LP, Warner Brothers. The track was edited for single release, with an instrumental mix on the B-side of the 7”, and multiple mixes on the CD. The single stalled outside the top 40. The original album version would not appear on a proper Bowie LP until the 2003 reissue of 1993’s “Black Tie White Noise”.

Black Tie White Noise - The Singles Collection

“Black Tie White Noise” was Bowie’s first solo studio LP since 1987, and appeared amidst a blaze of publicity. It appeared on the short lived Arista offshoot label, Savage, and there was a silent TV ad, showing a moving graphic equaliser image, with various TV interviews also lined up. The album was previewed by a single “Jump They Say”, an astonishing mix of Ziggy era sax, 90s drum machines, and a left field pop sound, that was a more successful attempt at making a contemporary sounding single than anything Bowie had done in the previous decade. The single was issued on two different CD Singles with different B-sides, the first of which included an eight page “Bowie History” booklet, which made a successful stab at educating any non-believers as to the genius of the man. The album, like “Scary Monsters” started and ended with different versions of the same song, with the Cassette and CD editions featuring one or two extra tracks respectively. The Cassette included the “Jae-E Edit” mix of “Jump They Say”, whilst the CD added this and “Lucy Can’t Dance”, a bit of a throwaway song seemingly included as a bonus on the CD because it would not have fitted into the LP proper. The overall quality of the album was magnificent, Bowie’s bombastic take on Morrissey‘s “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday” being a highlight, whilst the beauty of “The Wedding” and “Don‘t Let Me Down And Down“, the energy of “You’ve Been Around”, and the sheer inventiveness of the instrumentals “Looking For Lester” and “Pallas Athena”, made this record far better than anything Bowie had done as a solo performer since 1980.

Two further singles were lifted from the album, the title track and “Miracle Goodnight”. Both appeared on 12” and CD, each format offering different remixes. There was no tour to support the album, but later in 1993, Bowie released the slightly baffling “Black Tie White Noise” VHS. It consisted of a series of “mimed in the studio with a band” clips of selected album tracks, intercut with interview footage and finished off with the three music videos for the singles.

Later the same year, Bowie’s former label EMI issued a superb double CD set, “The Singles Collection”. The album included a number of tracks that had not actually been released as singles in the UK, whilst in some instances, album mixes instead of their edited single versions, were included instead. The set covered the period from 1969 to 1987, and included the non-album “John I’m Only Dancing” on disc 1, and “Alabama Song“ on disc 2. The set also included the 7” versions of “Diamond Dogs”, which features a faded-in intro, “Heroes”, “Let’s Dance”, “China Girl” and “Modern Love”. The “short” version of “Under Pressure” was also on disc 2, along with the edited mixes of “Absolute Beginners” and “Day In Day Out”, the Pat Metheny collaboration “This Is Not America”, and the “3.10” mix of “Dancing In The Street”. The set has since been reissued in several countries, some with altered track listings, and others in new slipcase sleeves. An accompanying VHS, “The Video Collection”, featured most - but not all - of Bowie’s videos from the same period.

The Buddha Of Suburbia - RarestOneBowie

At the tail end of 93, Bowie released what is arguably his most brilliant post-”Scary Monsters” album, “The Buddha Of Suburbia”. It was a soundtrack to a BBC TV show, based on a Hanif Kureishi novel, and as such, was marketed not as a Bowie LP, but as a soundtrack. The original cover featured the album title in big letters, with an image from the TV show as the cover, but with Bowie’s name buried almost out of sight at the bottom. A limited number were issued in a see through, thick plastic box, which included a paperback copy of the novel as well as the CD, and these are now very rare. The album was a miraculous piece of work - by working on a soundtrack rather than a “new” album, Bowie saw this as an opportunity to experiment, and as such, included a number of instrumentals on the record, a throwback to the “Low” and “Heroes” period. The title track was released as a single, but appeared almost without notice - the first time I was made aware of the single was when I heard it had hit number 35 on the top 40 chart rundown on Radio 1 the week after the single had been released! The single appeared as a 4 track EP, all songs being lifted from the album, and a 2 track collectors CD, which featured a cut down cover, and a hologram around the edge of the CD, which was visible to would-be purchasers thanks to the “half” sleeve. The album included nine new Bowie songs, with a “Rock Mix” of the title track closing the album, featuring Lenny Kravitz on guitar. The album has since been reissued in a sleeve featuring a photo of Bowie on the cover, with the original soundtrack references from the 1993 cover removed in an attempt to align it with the rest of Bowie’s back catalogue. Even so, it still remains to this day an overlooked gem, Bowie’s greatest “long lost” album.

In 1994, the dubiously titled Golden Years label released the first of two official, but not Bowie-endorsed, sets of previously unreleased material. The first was “Santa Monica 72”, a recording of a long bootlegged show taped on October 20th that year. Golden Years had connections with Bowie’s former management company MainMan, which explains how they were able to not only have access to these recordings, but were able to release them without having to OK it with the man himself. The CD came with a reprint of a ticket from the show, and was taped at an interesting point in the “Ziggy” tour. At the time, Bowie’s next LP, “Aladdin Sane”, was several months from being released, and there is something fascinating about hearing Bowie introduce “Jean Genie, and it begins in E” to a wall of silence. A Bowie endorsed reissue, “Live Santa Monica 72”, was issued by EMI in 2008, but features exactly the same track listing. A single was issued from the LP, “Ziggy Stardust”, with two other tracks from the album appearing as B-sides, in 1994.

In 1995, Golden Years released “RarestOneBowie”, using the same typeface as the “ChangesOneBowie” LP. This was a hotch potch of rarities from across the seventies, with the sound quality varying quite substantially at times. The album featured the original demo of “All The Young Dudes”, given away to Mott The Hoople - the only previous version of this track on a Bowie album had been a live version on 1974’s “David Live”. There was also a live version of “Queen Bitch” from the Nassau Coliseum show in 1976, this show being the source for the bonus tracks on the 1991 expanded edition of 1976’s “Station To Station” - the entire show has now been issued in it’s entirety on the 2010 reissue of the same LP. There was a never-before-issued-in-any-form song in the form of “Footstompin”, whilst the set concluded with a lo-fi taping of “I Feel Free”, from a show at Kingston Polytechnic, South London, in 1972. The inclusion of this song is quite historic - Bowie had finally gotten round to recording it for “Black Tie White Noise”, even getting Mick Ronson in to help out, so it’s appearance here was an interesting - if rather muffled - selection.

Outside

Later the same year, Bowie issued “1.Outside” (or simply “Outside" as it usually referred to), the first album for the BMG/Arista/RCA imprint following the demise of Savage, and was planned to be the first of a series of annual albums to be released in the run up to the millennium. In the end, the 1997 follow up “Earthling” was deemed to be “not the official follow up”, and in the end, Bowie never did get round to doing “album 2”. Indeed, he only released one more album after “Earthling” before 2000 arrived.

“Outside” took it’s cues from industrial rock acts like Nine Inch Nails, and like “Black Tie”, was a fascinating left field turn. The album bristled with an energy, a strangeness, and a brashness that took it even beyond the brilliance of “Black Tie”, and in “I’m Deranged”, “I Have Not Been To Oxford Town”, “The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction” and “We Prick You”, Bowie had recorded some of the best songs of his career. In an attempt to salvage the “lost” nature of “The Buddha Of Suburbia”, a track from that record, the stunning “Strangers When We Meet”, was re-recorded as the album closer.

In the run up to the album, Bowie went off on his first tour since the “Farewell” tour of 1990. Bowie more or less stuck to his promise that he would no longer play the old hits, and with Nine Inch Nails as his support, he opted to mix “Outside” material with some of the most obscure items from his past - “Andy Warhol”, “Look Back In Anger”, “Boys Keep Swinging“ and “Teenage Wildlife” were amongst numerous items exhumed from his past. When the tour hit the UK, Bowie invited Morrissey on tour as his support, but the pair had a falling out after a handful of shows, and Morrissey walked off midway through the tour. Later shows saw upcoming Glam-Indie-Goth Punks Placebo opening for Bowie. Bowie would usually close the set with one of the “Outside” numbers, “Hallo Spaceboy”, and would not return for an encore.

As the tour progressed, Bowie slowly began to include more hits, having now become more “happy” to do them. “Under Pressure” was in most, possibly all shows, but by the time Bowie hit the festival circuit the following year, the likes of “Heroes” were also back in the set. Bowie had in fact performed both these songs at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert back in 1992, but this had at the time been assumed to be a “one off”. Others, such as “Moonage Daydream” were not performed at many, if any, of the earlier shows, but were in the set at the tail end of 95.

Three singles were released from the album. The second was the re-recorded “Strangers When We Meet”, which was issued as a AA side with a live version of “The Man Who Sold The World”, taped during 1995, with Bowie performing it in a pared down drum and bass style. A coloured vinyl 7” was issued which came in a simple plain sleeve, with typed titles and little else on the cover. The same went for the follow up, a remixed version of “Hallo Spaceboy”, which had been given a going over by Pet Shop Boys. It’s release, early in 96, coincided with Bowie getting a lifetime achievement award at The Brits - Bowie claimed he only accepted the award so he could plug his new 45! The first single from "Outside" had been “The Hearts Filthy Lesson”, which included a non album track “Nothing To Be Desired”, on the B-side in the US, which was only released in the UK when an expanded version of “Outside” appeared in 2004. A unique two minute edit of one of the remixes of "THFL" turned up on a free cassette given away with an issue of long defunct fortnightly (if I remember correctly) glossy music mag “Raw”.

Earthling - The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979

During the 1996 Festival gigs, Bowie performed a new song, the heavily jungle-influenced “Telling Lies”, which would ultimately be the first single from his next album, 1997’s “Earthling”. The single was issued as a 3-mix CD, with a sleeve that simply listed the legend “David Bowie V A Guy Called Gerald V Adam F” on the cover - the latter had provided remixes for the CD. Despite it apparently being released only via independent record shops, I seem to recall a stack being offered for sale in the Virgin Megastore at Tottenham Court Road in London early the following year. The version of the track that surfaced on “Earthling” was different to all of the mixes on the CD.

The jungle influence was still evident on the first “proper” single from “Earthling”, the superlative “Little Wonder”. It was issued on two CD’s and a 12“, featuring different mixes on each. Similar multi formatting skills were used on the next single, “Dead Man Walking”. The 12” came in a plain die cut sleeve, with an information sticker glued onto the front.

“Earthling”, like Bowie’s other 90’s LP’s, was an exhilarating listen. He was berated by some, for being a man who had turned 50 doing drum and bass, but the record had enough pop nous to make it a varied and often thrilling adventure. The likes of “Battle For Britain” and “The Last Thing You Should Do” remain amongst the most exciting things Bowie has ever committed to vinyl. Bowie’s stock, in the main, was now at it’s highest. He managed to invite a whole stack of indie royalty to perform on stage with him at his 50th Birthday Party gig in New York at the start of the year (Sonic Youth and The Cure’s Robert Smith turned up, amongst many more).

Another UK single, “Seven Years In Tibet”, appeared as a limited coloured vinyl 7” in August, as well as a limited CD single. The extra track on the CD was a live version of “Pallas Athena”, taped at one of the now famous “twin set” shows early on in the “Earthling” tour. These shows would see Bowie play a mostly instrumental drum and bass set to start, before returning to play a more “standard” show thereafter. This version of “Pallas Athena” was taped at the Amsterdam Paradiso on 10th June 1997. Bowie had played a pair of “twin set” shows at the Hanover Grand in London the week before, but abandoned this concept when he did a club tour of the UK in August - instead concentrating on playing a two hours plus set, with some of the “drum and bass” material squeezed into the main show. “Pallas Athena” was later issued as a 12” single under the moniker “Tao Jones Index” - this was the name under which Bowie played a secret drum and bass set in the dance tent at the Phoenix Festival in July 97. Bowie headlined the main stage the following day, having also headlined the same event in 1996. Bowie varied the UK club set from night to night - I saw both the first UK show at the Birmingham Que Club and the final show at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, and although he opened each night with “Quicksand”, much of the remainder of the two sets I witnessed featured different songs, with “All The Young Dudes”, “Moonage Daydream” and “Waiting For The Man” making into the London setlist.

In the US, another single was issued, “I’m Afraid Of Americans”. There was further involvement from Nine Inch Nails, with lead singer Trent Reznor doing a remix. Five other mixes appeared on the CD, but were simply listed as “V1”, “V2”, etc - “V1“ was the Reznor mix. Most of these mixes have never been officially released in the UK. Another US only release at the time was the “Earthling In The City” EP, a 6 track CD given away with GQ magazine. It’s a rare item to track down, but consisted mostly of material already available in the UK.

There was another slightly obscure single release before the year was out. Bowie re-recorded a track from the first Tin Machine LP, “I Can’t Read”, for the soundtrack of the “Ice Storm” movie. There was a “short” mix and a “long” mix of the song, and both then appeared on a CD Single issued in selected countries. In Germany, the CD was released by ZYX Records, who added “This Is Not America” as a bonus track, giving the whole single a movie theme. German import copies of the single proved popular in the UK, where the single charted on import sales alone.

With Bowie’s kudos at an all time high, EMI issued yet another best of - “The Best Of David Bowie 1969/1974”. This was a slightly shambolic attempt at compiling material from the early part of Bowie’s time on RCA, with a mish mash of album tracks and obscure 45s, and no attempt at putting the set into chronological order. The CD included the 1970 7” version of “The Prettiest Star”, the “Sax” version of “John I’m Only Dancing”, and the “All The Young Dudes” demo off “RarestOneBowie”. A B-side, “Velvet Goldmine” was also included.

The following year, and EMI issued a follow up - “The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979”. Again, in an attempt to do something a bit different, the CD included some strange things - I do love “The Secret Life Of Arabia”, but who would have thought about sticking it on a best of collection? Also included were the single edits of “Golden Years”, “Young Americans”, “Heroes” and “TVC15”. The full length version of “John I’m Only Dancing Again” was thrown in, as was “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City”, off the “Sound + Vision” box set.

In 1999, Bowie collaborated with former tour partners, Placebo, by duetting with them on a re-recorded version of “Without You I’m Nothing” - originally the title track of their second album issued in 1998. A limited edition CD Single was issued, which along with the duet, featured a series of remixes.

Hours - All Saints

Later on in 1999, in another turn of genius, Bowie decided to move his musical stylings back towards the mainstream with the “Hours” album, issued on Virgin Records. The record was more laid back, a lot more ‘Pop’ than “Earthling”, although the lead single in the US, “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell” (it’s titled nicked from Iggy And The Stooges “Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell”), was a noisy guitar heavy blast that had an “Outside” vibe to it. This change of mood was apparently a major reason behind Bowie’s long time sidekick Reeves Gabrels departing from the studio and touring ranks, as he was not happy that Bowie was going back to the “middle of the road”, but it really was no different to when Bowie followed up “Diamond Dogs” with “Young Americans” in the 70’s.

“Hours” initially came housed with a lenticular moving image sleeve, and in the UK, was trailed by the genteel “Thursday’s Child” single. The single, like it’s follow up, “Survive” (issued early in 2000) was issued on two CD singles, each with different B-sides. Single three, “Seven”, appeared on three CD’s, with the “V1” mix of “I’m Afraid Of Americans” appearing as the B-side of CD2. This single was issued to coincide with Bowie’s groundbreaking headline show at Glastonbury, thirty years after he had first played there. Bowie decided to “give the people what they want”, and with his hair grown to such a length he looked the same as he did in 1970, promptly ploughed through a two hour greatest hits set, actually opting to ignore the “Hours” album in an attempt to play to the masses. After a handful of songs had been broadcast as part of BBC1’s TV coverage, presenter Jayne Middlemiss announced that Glastonbury “had had it’s moment”, before they then cut away to Macy Gray sleepwalking her way through a tepid set on the second stage. Bowie’s set is still regarded to this day as one of the five greatest Glastonbury shows of all time.

After the Glasto show, Bowie played a gig at the BBC Radio Theatre, changing the set slightly to include material from “Hours”. The show was taped for a Radio 2 broadcast, and was later issued officially as a free album with initial copies of the 2000 double CD set, “Bowie At The Beeb”. This collection was the first Bowie set to include material from both the pre AND post “Space Oddity” years, covering as it did material from 1968 to 1972. This came about because, at the time, Bowie was being invited to perform sessions for the BBC, even though he was unsure in which direction to take his career next, and in 69, found himself playing material he had already released whilst signed to Deram, plus other songs that would eventually appear on the “Space Oddity” album. When it was first issued, copies of the album were mispressed - the second disc was supposed to feature two different versions of “Ziggy Stardust” taped at different sessions, but the version taped at a second 1972 session was included twice by accident. A free CD featuring the missing first session version was shipped out to people upon request, and I also believe it was possible to download it from Bowie’s website at the time.

At the time of the “Beeb” release, Bowie - perhaps unsurprisingly - was starting to re-evaluate material from his pre-Space Oddity years. He began to perform a handful of this material on stage - I personally witnessed him perform a storming version of “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” at the London Astoria at the end of 99, the best thing he did all night - and during 2000, re-recorded several songs for an album called “Toy”. In the end, the “Toy” album - for some reason - was abandoned, but some of these recordings would be released at a later date.

1999 had also seen the release of the “LiveAndWell.com” fan club release, a live album pressed on CD only and made available to subscribers of the BowieNet website. It compiled live recordings from 1997 of material from the “1.Outside” and “Earthling” albums, and was later re-released with a bonus 4 track CD, which included an outtake entitled “Fun”, appearing here in a remixed form. The other three tracks were remixes of “Telling Lies”, “Little Wonder” and “Dead Man Walking”, all of which had all been released on earlier Bowie singles.

There was another Bowie single release at the tail end of 1999. His 1981 duet with Queen, “Under Pressure”, had been remixed for Queen’s “Greatest Hits 3” set, and this new remix appeared as an A-side. As before, Queen tracks minus Bowie were used as B-sides across the various formats.

The “Bowie At The Beeb” album appeared midway through a series of other reissues and “new” releases on EMI. Bowie’s 69-89 back catalogue was reissued in 1999, with the “Tin Machine” album appearing as a Bowie solo album, whilst 2001 saw the reissue of the “Christiane F” soundtrack in a new sleeve. The same year saw the release of “All Saints”, a repressing (with new sleeve and track listing) of what was previously a privately pressed CD from 1993. This edition featured 15 instrumentals from “Low” onwards, with a version of “Some Are” by Philip Glass closing the set. Some of the songs had previously surfaced on the early 90’s reissues of “Low” and “Heroes”, but with these pressings now deleted, this made the likes of “Abdulmajid” and the title track quite desirable items. Also included on this set was the stand alone 1980 A-side “Crystal Japan”.

Heathen - Black Tie White Noise 10th Anniversary Edition

In 2002, now signed to Columbia, Bowie released the remarkable “Heathen” record, an album which defied description. It had elements of both the “dance” aspects of “Black Tie White Noise”, the noise elements of “Outside” and “Earthling”, and the poppier moments of “Hours”. It was given some great reviews, and was later nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. At the ceremony, an idiotic Radio 1 reporter giving his views on who should win dismissed the album because he said “Bowie is no longer relevant”. The eventual winner was that beacon of music excellence and widespread musical influence, Ms Dynamite - spot the irony.

Perhaps sensing the looming death of the single, or perhaps concerned he would no longer get a single onto the radio, “Heathen” was released without a single being issued in the UK before the LP’s release. The initial pressing originally came with a free 4 track bonus CD, with remixes of “Sunday” and “A Better Future”, both on the original album. Also included was the 1979 re-recording of “Panic In Detroit”, first issued on the 1992 expanded version of “Scary Monsters”, but released here due to the deletion of that edition of the album, making this track a bit of a rarity. Also included was the re-recorded version of “Conversation Piece”, from the “Toy” sessions, the track having originally been the B-side of “The Prettiest Star”.

To coincide with the Mercury nod, Bowie issued “Everyone Says Hi” as the first and last UK single from the record. The single appeared on three CD’s, each using the same cover photo but with different coloured text, and the B-sides of two of the CD’s used tracks from the unreleased “Toy” project. An old demo, finally finished and titled “Shadow Man” appeared on one CD, whilst another included re-recordings of “Baby Loves That Way” and “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving”. In some countries, “Slow Burn” had been issued as a single in the run up to the album’s release, with these B-sides appearing on this release instead. A remixed version of “Everyone Says Hi” also appeared on a compilation LP called “Hope” the following year.

Before the end of the year, another greatest hits set, “Best Of Bowie” was released. There were a series of different editions issued worldwide, with the chosen track listing of each edition being tailored towards the hits Bowie had had in that particular country. The UK version included the edited mixes of “Ashes To Ashes”, “Fashion”, “Scary Monsters”, “Loving The Alien”, “Jump They Say” and “Little Wonder”, along with the “V1 Radio Edit” of “I’m Afraid Of Americans” and the Pet Shop Boys remixed version of “Hallo Spaceboy”. Also included was the radio edit of “Slow Burn” - a strange choice, as not only had this song not been issued as a single in the UK, but this edited mix was only used on Japanese copies of the original single! An accompanying DVD was also issued.

In 2003, the 1983 “Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture” LP was re-released. The original VHS was also reissued on DVD, and all releases benefited from remixed sound second time around. The LP was pressed on red vinyl, and featured longer versions of “Cracked Actor” and “Width Of A Circle” than had previously been available (the latter was some five minutes longer than the 1983 version), whilst the running order was altered so that the songs now appeared in the order in which they were originally performed. However, there was still no place for the “Jean Genie”/”Love Me Do” medley that was performed on the night, nor the performance of “Round And Round”, although the former (and I think also, the latter) has done the rounds on bootlegs for years.

Also in 2003, there was the reissue of “Black Tie White Noise”, to celebrate it’s tenth anniversary. As good as the record is, it was a strange choice for an anniversary reissue, hardly being one of Bowie’s most well known albums, and it’s re-release simply seems to have been because the original had been deleted and was therefore hard to find. The first disc removed the bonus tracks from the Savage original, so that “The Wedding” and “The Wedding Song” now book ended the set, whilst the original CD bonus track, “Lucy Can’t Dance”, appeared on disc 2. Along with the album mix of “Real Cool World”, the rest of the second CD included various remixes from the period, many of which had only been released on promos only (such as the 10 minute long remix of “Nite Flights”). There was no space for the “Jae-E Edit” of “Jump They Say” that had been on the original CD as the other bonus track, but there was the “Dub Oddity Mix” which had originally been on the UK “Jump” 12”. This mix opened with a sample of a fan saying “I’m Just The Space Cadet, He’s The Commander”, taken from the “Cracked Actor” documentary about Bowie, filmed on his 1974 US tour. The third disc on the reissue was a DVD pressing of the “Black Tie” VHS. The whole package came in a very impressive fold out sleeve, with the two bonus discs coming housed in their own jewel case, which used a different cover shot to the normal CD. It is possible, but unlikely, that the bonus CD’s have been split and offered for sale on their own - although if you download the record from iTunes, the album image that appears on your iPod is that of the bonus discs case, and not the normal release! I am not sure if this has since been rectified.

Reality - Now

Later the same year, and Bowie released the superb “Reality”. I have always thought of “Heathen” and “Reality” being the modern day equivalents of “Low” and “Heroes”, as there are elements of “Low” on “Heroes”, and elements of “Heathen” on “Reality”. “Reality” had a slightly more pop feel to it, and was trailed by a DVD only single, “New Killer Star”, which included a cover of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s “Love Missile F1-11”, a song I always used to hate, but Bowie made it a bit more acceptable.

When the album was first released, it came with a free 3 track bonus disc, which included a newly recorded version of “Rebel Rebel”. However, a tour edition version of the album appeared only a few months later. Housed in a new silver coloured sleeve, it replaced the 3 track disc with a DVD featuring a live performance of the album in it’s entirety, whilst disc 1 had a bonus track in the form of a cover of The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset”. This was not the first time Bowie had covered the band (“Where Have All The Good Times Gone“ was on 1973‘s “Pin Ups“); “Waterloo Sunset” had originally appeared on the promo only “Never Get Old” single in certain overseas territories.

There was a fourth Bowie album in 2003 - Club Bowie. This slightly odd release cobbled together a variety of mixes from a myriad of labels, with a selection of promo only and commercially released mixes included. Some of the songs were actually dance recordings with Bowie samples included (“Just For One Day”), others were “proper” remixes, such as the “Scumfrog Vs David Bowie” mix of “Loving The Alien”, which was also released as a single in it’s own right before the release of this album. Another remix, the Danny S mix of “Magic Dance“ had also been issued as a 12“ some time before - supposedly a promo only, some copies were sold as “commercial“ copies via mail order, and featured a second remix on the B-side.

2003 also saw the reissue of the “Sound + Vision” box set. It came in a new sleeve, and was updated to include material from after 1980. “Baal’s Hymn” and “The Drowned Girl” from the 1981 “Baal” EP were included, along with the 12” single mix of “Cat People” and the live version of “Modern Love” which appeared on the flip of the 45 of the same name. Tin Machine material from both studio albums were included, along with previously unreleased mixes of “Nite Flights” and “Pallas Athena”. The live version of the latter, from the “Seven Years In Tibet” single, was also included at the end of the set.

In 2004, the in thing was the rise of the bootleg “mash up” - two songs mixed together. Bowie decided to do his own, and released “Rebel Never Gets Old” - a mix of “Rebel Rebel” and “Never Get Old”. In keeping with the “mix” feel, the single was issued on 12” only, with three different versions, with an album track “Days” as a bonus track. It was pressed as a picture disc, although export pressings were pressed on black vinyl. The same year saw the release of a concert DVD, “A Reality Tour”.

“The Collection” was the title of a slightly pointless, but quite well designed, budget collection in 2005. Released by EMI Gold, it offered up a Bowie penned track from each of his “RCA” studio records from 1969 to 1980, meaning that no material from the covers album “Pin Ups” was included. It was mostly LP tracks that made the cut, and the decision was taken to include “Andy Warhol” and “Sweet Thing” - tracks which were either segued into, or formed a segue into, another track on their original LP, and therefore both had to be edited slightly for this set. The cover was good, a series of Bowie pictures from throughout the seventies, displayed in strange looking photo frames, whilst details of each of the original albums were given in the booklet.

In 2005, EMI released yet another best of set. “The Platinum Collection” included the 1969/1974 and 1974/1979 compilations, along with a third disc of material from 1980 to 1987 - meaning the set more or less covered the RCA and EMI America years in full. Disc 3 included - for the first time on a standard priced CD - “The Drowned Girl” from the “Baal” EP, along with the 7” single mix of “Cat People”, “When The Wind Blows”, and the single mixes of “Day In Day Out” and “Underground”. Also included was the “unedited” mix of “Under Pressure”.

In 2006, Bowie issued a stand alone 45, a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Arnold Layne”. The track was actually recorded live at a David Gilmour gig, with Bowie guesting on vocals for this song. Bowie did not feature on the B-side of the single, which was issued on both 7” and CD, and to date, it remains unavailable on any Bowie LP.

In 2007, the third disc of “The Platinum Collection” was issued in it’s own right as “The Best Of David Bowie 1980/1987”. The choice of years also meant that the substandard EMI America material was balanced out by the much superior material from “Scary Monsters”. Realising that many people already had this material in this form on “The Platinum Collection”, EMI decided to throw in a free DVD featuring clips of most - but not all - of Bowie’s videos from the period. The clips of “The Drowned Girl” and “When The Wind Blows” had never been included on a Bowie video collection before.

Another release in 2007 was the “Bowie Box Set”, issued by Sony. Sony had acquired the rights to all of Bowie’s albums post-”Black Tie White Noise”, and thus this 10 CD set included double disc editions of all five studio LP’s from “1.Outside” through to “Reality”. Each double CD had also been available separately some time earlier, “Outside“ having been reissued in 2004. The bonus material varied dependent on what was available from that time period - so whilst the “Reality” set simply offered up all of the material from the double disc release and associated singles, “Outside” offered the US only B-side “Nothing To Be Desired” amongst a stack of vinyl only mixes and other rarities.

In 2008, there were two more Bowie releases aside from the reissue of the “Santa Monica” set. The first, “iSelect”, was initially given away as a freebie with The Mail On Sunday newspaper. Compiled by Bowie himself, it was an alternative “best of”, a mix of singles and more obscure LP tracks. “Some Are”, which had first surfaced on the 1991 reissue of “Low”, was included on the basis that this edition of “Low” had by now been deleted, whilst also included was a new mix of “Time Will Crawl”. A track from the “Santa Monica” album, “Hang Onto Yourself”, was used to close the album. “iSelect” was later issued as a standard CD in the US, with Bowie’s comments about the album - previously only printed in the newspaper that gave away the CD - printed in the booklet. Later the same year, Immortal Records released the “Glass Spider Live” CD, which put onto an audio format, the two “Glass Spider” VHS releases from the late 80s.

2009 saw the release of the “VH1 Storytellers” set, from a gig taped for the TV channel some ten years earlier. The set included an 8 track CD, and a 12 track DVD - the eight tracks off the CD, plus four bonus tracks. The set was noticeable for including a live version of “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”.

2010 saw a strange release - some six years after the release of the “A Reality Tour” DVD, came a CD edition of the same release. This featured all of the material from the DVD, plus three previously unissued tracks - although quite why it took until 2010 to issue this set, is a mystery. It remains, as I type this, the final "new" Bowie release.


THE 1990-2010 DISCOGRAPHY

Listed below are details of the most important Bowie album and singles releases from the period. For the singles, any formats which included nothing exclusive at the time are omitted - unless they were pressed as a picture disc or on a similarly exotic format. I have listed - by default - CD singles, and where a single was released on a non-CD format which did once contain exclusive material, but does no more thanks to the reissues of all of Bowie’s 93-03 albums from 2003 onwards, then this format is also omitted for clarity. The list includes selected foreign singles and coloured vinyl releases, but promos and dance singles featuring Bowie are omitted, unless Bowie’s involvement is very important. “Magic Dance” is listed on the basis that at least one mail order firm at the time issued it as a standard 12”. Other odds and sods, such as Bowie’s one line contribution to the “Perfect Day” charity single, are also omitted. Reissues and box sets are not listed, but details of the 03-04 repressings are mentioned at the end of the list.

SINGLES

Fame 90 (Gass Mix)/(Bonus Beat Mix) (7” Picture Disc, EMI America FAMEPD 90)
Fame 90 (With Queen Latifah)/(House Mix)/(Gass Mix)/(Hip Hop Mix)/(Absolutely Nothing Premeditated Epic Mix) (US CD, Rykodisc RCD5-1018)
Pretty Pink Rose (Edit) +1 (7”, Atlantic A 7904)
Pretty Pink Rose +2 (CD, Atlantic A7904CD, also available on 12”)
Sound And Vision (808 Giftmix)/(808 ‘Lectric Blue Remix Instrumental)/(1991 David Richards Remix)/(LP Version) (US CD, Tommy Boy TBCD 510)
Real Cool World (Edit)/(Instrumental) (7”, Warner Bros W0127)
Real Cool World (Edit)/(Radio Remix)/(Cool Dub Thing #1)/(12” Club Mix)/(Cool Dub Overture)/(Cool Dub Thing #2) (CD, Warner Bros W0127 CD)
Jump They Say (7” Version)/(Hard Hands Mix)/(JAE-E Remix)/Pallas Athena (Don’t Stop Praying Mix) (CD1, Arista 74321 139422)
Jump They Say (Brothers In Rhythm Mix)/(Brothers In Rhythm Instrumental)/(Leftfield 12” Vocal)/(LP Version) (CD2, Arista 74321 139432)
Black Tie White Noise (Radio Edit)/(Extended Remix)/(Urban Mix)/You’ve Been Around (Dangers Edit) (CD, Arista 74321 14868 2)
Black Tie White Noise (Extended Remix)/(Trance Mix)/(Album Version)/(Club Mix)/(Extended Urban Remix) (12”, Arista 74321 14868 1)
Miracle Goodnight (Album Version)/(12” 2 Chord Philly Mix)/(Masereti Blunted Dub)/Looking For Lester (CD, Arista 74321 16226 2)
Miracle Goodnight (Blunted 2)/(Make Believe Mix)/(12” 2 Chord Philly Mix)/(Dance Dub) (12”, Arista 74321 16226 1)
Buddha Of Suburbia/South Horizon/Dead Against It/Buddha Of Suburbia (Rock Mix) (CD1, Arista 74321 17705 2)
Buddha Of Suburbia/Dead Against It (CD2 in cut down sleeve with hologram image on disc, Arista 74321 18668 2)
Ziggy Stardust (Live)/Waiting For The Man (Live)/The Jean Genie (Live) (CD, Golden Years GYCDS 002, most/all copies exported from France to UK)
The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Radio Edit)/I Am With Name (Edit)/The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Bowie Mix)/(Alt. Mix) (CD, RCA 74321 30703-2)
Strangers When We Meet (“Outside” Version)/The Man Who Sold The World (Live) (Green Vinyl 7” in unique p/s, RCA 74321 329407)
Strangers When We Meet (Edit)/The Man Who Sold The World (Live)/Strangers When We Meet (“Outside Version”)/Get Real (CD, RCA 74321 329402)
Hallo Spaceboy (Remix)/The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Radio Edit) (Pink Vinyl 7” in unique p/s, RCA 74321 353847)
Hallo Spaceboy (Remix)/Under Pressure (Live)/Moonage Daydream (Live)/The Hearts Filthy Lesson (CD, RCA 74321 353842)
Telling Lies (Feelgood Mix)/(Paradox Mix)/(Adam F Mix) (CD, RCA 74321 397412)
Little Wonder (Edit)/(Ambient Junior Mix)/(Club Dub Junior Mix)/(4/4 Junior Mix)/(Junior’s Club Instrumental) (CD1, RCA 74321 452072)
Little Wonder (Edit)/Telling Lies (Adam F Mix)/Jump They Say (Leftfield 12” Vocal)/Little Wonder (Danny Saber Remix) (CD2, RCA 74321 452082, slightly diff p/s)
Dead Man Walking (Edit)/I’m Deranged (Jungle Mix)/The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Good Karma Mix) (CD1, RCA 74321 475842)
Dead Man Walking (AlbumVersion)/(Moby Mix 1)/(House Mix)/(This One’s Not Dead Yet Mix) (CD2, RCA 74321 475852, slightly diff p/s)
Dead Man Walking (House Mix)/(Vigor Mortis Remix)/Telling Lies (Paradox Mix) (12”in die cut sleeve, RCA 74321 475841)
Seven Years In Tibet (Edit)/(Mandarin Version) (Clear Vinyl 7”, RCA 74321 512547)
Seven Years In Tibet (Edit)/(Mandarin Version)/Pallas Athena (Live Amsterdam Paradiso 1997) (CD, RCA 74321 512542)
Pallas Athena (Live Amsterdam Paradiso 1997)/V-2 Schneider (Live Amsterdam Paradiso 1997) (12”, RCA 74321 512541)
I’m Afraid Of Americans (V1)/(V2)/(V3)/(V4)/(V5)/(V6) (US CD, Virgin V25H - 38618)
I Can’t Read (Short Version)/(Long Version)/This Is Not America (CD, ZYX 8757-8)
Earthling In The City (US Only CDEP, given free with GQ Magazine, AT&T 81165-01)
Without You I’m Nothing (Single Mix)/(Unkle Mix)/(Flexirol Mix)/(Brothers In Rhythm Club Mix) (CD, Hut FLOORCD 10)
Thursday’s Child (Radio Edit)/We All Go Through/No One Calls (CD1, Virgin VSCDT 1753)
Thursday’s Child (Rock Mix)/We Shall All Go To Town/1917 (CD2, Virgin VSCDX 1753, “negative” p/s)
Under Pressure (RAH Mix Radio Edit) +1 (7” Picture Disc in sticker sealed clear bag, Parlophone QUEENPD 28)
Under Pressure (RAH Mix Radio Edit)/(Mike Spencer Mix)/(Video) +1 (CD1, enhanced, Parlophone CDQUEENS 28)
Under Pressure (RAH Mix) +2 (CD2, different p/s, Parlophone CDQUEEN 28)
Survive (Marius De Vries Mix)/(Album Version)/The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Stigmata Film Version)/Survive (Video) (CD1, enhanced, Virgin VSCDT 1767)
Survive (Live)/Thursday’s Child (Live)/Seven (Live)/Survive (Live-Video) (CD2, enhanced, Virgin VSCDX 1767, red p/s)
Seven (Marius De Vries Mix)/(Remix by Beck)/(Demo) (CD1, Virgin VSCDT 1776)
Seven/I’m Afraid Of Americans (V1)/(Video) (CD2, enhanced,Virgin VSCDX 1776, green p/s with poster)
Seven (Live)/Something In The Air (Live)/The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Live) (CD3, Virgin VSCDXX 1776, purple p/s with 4 postcards)
Substiute : The Songs Of The Who EP (newspaper freebie CD, includes “Pictures Of Lily”, Edel SUBTEL1)
Loving The Alien (Radio Edit)/(8.23 Mix)/(Video) +1, (CD, enhanced, Positiva CDTIV-172, also issued as a 12” with less tracks in die cut sleeve)
Everyone Says Hi (Radio Edit)/Safe/Wood Jackson (CD1, Iso 673134 2)
Everyone Says Hi (Radio Edit)/Baby Loves That Way/You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving (CD2, Iso 673134 5, different p/s)
Everyone Says Hi (Radio Edit)/When The Boys Comes Marching Home/Shadow Man (CD3, Iso 673134 3, “blue” p/s)
New Killer Star (Video)/Reality (EPK - Video)/Love Missile F1-11 (DVD, Iso 674275 9)
Magic Dance (The Danny S Magic Party Mix)/(The Danny S Magic Dust Dub) (12”, Subuzz DBD001)
Rebel Never Gets Old (Radio Mix)/(7th Heaven Edit)/(7th Heaven Mix)/Days (12” Picture Disc, Iso 675040 6)
Arnold Layne +1 (CD, CDEM 717, also available as 7“)

ALBUMS

ChangesBowie (CD, EMI CDP 794 1802)
Black Tie White Noise (CD, Savage 74321 13697 2)
The Singles Collection (2xCD, EMI CDEM 1512)
The Buddha Of Suburbia (CD with free novel, Arista 74321 178222)
Santa Monica 72 (CD, Golden Years GY002, with free replica concert ticket)
RarestOneBowie (CD, Golden Years GY 014)
1.Outside (CD, RCA 74321 30702 2)
Earthling (CD, RCA 74321 44944 2)
The Best Of David Bowie 1969/1974 (CD, EMI 821 8492)
The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979 (CD, EMI 494 3002)
LiveAndWell.com (CD, Risky Folio, no catalogue number, later reissued with enhanced 4 track bonus CD)
…Hours (CD, Virgin VDCX 2900, copies without moving image cover also available [VCD 2900])
Bowie At The Beeb (3xCD, includes free “BBC Radio Theatre” CD, EMI 528 9582, most if not all editions mispressed, most if not all 2xCD editions later released without the free album play correctly)
All Saints (CD, EMI 533 0452)
Heathen (CD, first pressing with free four track CD, Iso 508222 9)
Best Of Bowie (2xCD, EMI 539 8212)
Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture Soundtrack (2xRed Vinyl LP, EMI ZIGGYRIP 3773)
Reality (CD, first pressing with free three track CD, Iso 512555 9, later editions replace this with live DVD [512555 3])
Club Bowie (CD, Virgin VTCD 591)
The Collection (CD, EMI Gold 477 6532)
The Platinum Collection (3xCD, EMI 344 0762)
The Best Of David Bowie 1980/1987 (CD+DVD, EMI 386 4782)
Iselect (CD, EMI UPDB 001)
Glass Spider (2xCD, Immortal, IMA 104212)
VH1 Storytellers (CD, EMI 50999 96490921)
A Reality Tour (2xCD, Sony 88697 588272)

A second “Glass Spider” release from recent years on EMI pairs the original VHS releases onto a single DVD, with a pair of CD’s featuring a gig from Montreal in 1987 instead as bonus dics.

The expanded reissues of Bowie’s “non soundtrack” studio albums differ a bit in terms of what they offer as bonus tracks. “Black Tie” includes mostly an entire CD of promo only mixes, the only songs on the 2003 edition that had been available before had been “Lucy Can’t Dance”, “Real Cool World”, the “3rd Floor US Radio Mix” of “Black Tie White Noise” (albeit in the US only), the “Make Believe Mix” of “Miracle Goodnight”, the Indionesian version of “Don’t Let Me Down & Down” (albeit in Singapore only), the “Brothers In Rhythm Mix” of “Jump They Say”, and the aforementioned “Dub Oddity” mix of the same song.

“1.Outside” includes the “Alt”, “Rubber”, “Simple Test”, “Filthy” and “Good Karma” mixes of “The Hearts Filthy Lesson”, most previously from the 12” version of the single, the edit of “I Am With Name”, the Jungle mix of “I’m Deranged”, “Get Real” and the aforementioned US only “Nothing To Be Desired”. “Earthling” included the “Danny Saber Remix” and “Junior Vasquez Club Mix” of “Little Wonder”, the Mandarin version of “Seven Years In Tibet”, “Dead Man Walking (Moby Mix)”, and the Paradox and Feelgood mixes of “Telling Lies”. Both sides of the Tao Jones Index 12” were also included, as was the clean and uncensored “V1” mix of “I’m Afraid Of Americans”. In both cases, the remainder of the material on the bonus CD’s consisted of either hard to find tracks from soundtrack CD’s, or were remixes commercially unreleased in the UK.

It was the same story for the bonus disc for “Hours”, which in addition to the rare stuff, included the “Rock” mix of “Thursday’s Child”, along with the Marius De Vries mixes of “Seven” and “Survive”. The Beck Remix and Demo version of “Seven” were also included, along with the “Stigmata” version of “The Pretty Things”. All four B-sides of “Thursday’s Child” finished the set.

The bonus discs of “Heathen” and “Reality” were the least interesting, consisting entirely of material that had already been released in the UK. “Heathen” included the material off the four track bonus disc, plus all six of the “Everyone Says Hi” B-sides. “Reality” included “Waterloo Sunset”, and the material off the original three track bonus disc, along with “Love Missile F1-11” and the three versions of “Rebel Never Gets Old” from the UK 12”.

Bowie has contributed huge numbers of other tracks to soundtracks and the like (such as providing all the vocals on “Hop Frog”, on the Lou Reed LP “The Raven”) - again, I refer you to the Illustrated DB Discography for more details about such things.

And there you have it. The end of our 5 month long look at the single most important artist in the history of Rock And Roll. There may have been better vocalists, technically, and better lyricists, but Bowie’s maverick approach to making music, a man determined (1980s excepted) to never make the same album twice, is an approach that few other people have tried - and of those that have, few have succeeded. I would dearly love for this man to make another record, but until then, let us just accept the fact that what Bowie has given us so far, is miles ahead of any other collection of music recorded by anybody else. And what’s more, nobody is ever going to come close to creating what this man has created thus far.

Genius.

Further reading:
Bowie's official site: http://www.davidbowie.com/