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New David Bowie Record Store Day release announced

By Paul Sinclair

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David Bowie / I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour '74)

Never before heard 1974 live recordings

Parlophone have announced a second David Bowie release for this year’s Record Store Day. It’s an album of unheard recordings of Bowie in concert in late 1974 as he transformed his theatrical Diamond Dogs tour into a soul revue.

I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) is a live album taken from “recently discovered sources” and was recorded mostly during David’s performance at the Michigan Palace, Detroit on 20 October, 1974. The reason for the ‘mostly’ is that because Diamond Dogs is missing (the whole song wasn’t captured). Because of this, the encores from the 30 November show which featured ‘Diamond Dogs’ are included. This also enables a fuller representation of the set from The Soul Tour including such numbers as ‘Knock On Wood’ and the ‘Foot Stompin’ / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate’ medley.

As is reasonably well documented, The Soul Tour was a radical mid-tour departure from Bowie’s 1974 Diamond Dogs experience. During a three week break in late 1974, the Diamond Dogs Tour’s elaborate six-ton Hunger City stage set was stripped back, and the tour’s set list overhauled to include as-yet-unreleased tracks from the Young Americans sessions at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia. The Soul Tour also featured a revamped band, augmented to include musicians and vocalists from those sessions, and rechristened The Mike Garson Band.

I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) will be released on 2LP, but also as two-CD set and it’s really great to see the label put this out on CD simultaneously. The artwork is based on the (presumably hastily cobbled together) original design for the programmes available at venues for dates on The Soul Tour.

The previously announced CHANGESNOWBOWIE is the other Bowie Record Store Day release this year, although in related news it has recently been announced that the Is It Any Wonder? streaming EP will now be issued as a physical product. There is a slight tweak as ‘Fun (Clownboy Mix)’ replaces ‘The Man Who Sold The World (ChangesNowBowie version)’ on the 12-inch vinyl and CD. The only catch is that it won’t be widely available. In fact, it’s exclusive to Bowie’s online store and other Warner controlled channels.

Is It Any Wonder? will be issued on 20 March 2020, while I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) is available on Record Store Day which is 29 August 2020 (was 18 April 2020).

David Bowie / I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour '74)

I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74)

CD 1
LP Side 1
1. Introduction – Memory Of A Free Festival
2. Rebel Rebel
3. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
4. Sorrow
5. Changes
6. 1984

LP Side 2
1. Moonage Daydream
2. Rock ’n’ Roll With Me
3. Love Me Do / The Jean Genie
4. Young Americans

CD 2
LP Side 3
1. Can You Hear Me
2. It’s Gonna Be Me
3. Somebody Up There Likes Me
4. Suffragette City

LP Side 4
1. Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide
2. Panic In Detroit
3. Knock On Wood *
4. Foot Stompin’ / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate / Foot Stompin’ *
5. Diamond Dogs / It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I like It) / Diamond Dogs *

Recorded at the Michigan Palace, Detroit on 20th October, 1974 and * at the Municipal Auditorium, Nashville on 30th November, 1974.

Musicians:
David Bowie – Vocals, 12 string acoustic guitar, harmonica
The Mike Garson Band:
Earl Slick – Guitar
Carlos Alomar – Guitar
Mike Garson – Piano, Mellotron
David Sanborn – Alto sax, flute
Pablo Rosario – Percussion
Emir Ksasan – Bass
Dennis Davis – Drums
Backing vocals – Warren Peace, Anthony Hinton, Luther Vandross, Ava Cherry, Robin Clark and Diane Sumler.

These recordings have been mastered from the only available sources to provide the best sound quality possible. Any flaws and distortion are inherent in the original sources and we hope the historical importance of the recordings outweighs any such imperfections and does not detract from the enjoyment of the performances.

Is It Any Wonder? EP

SIDE 1
Baby Universal ‘97
Fun (Clownboy Mix)
Stay ’97
 
SIDE 2
I Can’t Read ’97
Nuts
The Man Who Sold The World (Live Eno Mix)

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74 Comments

74 thoughts on “New David Bowie Record Store Day release announced”

    1. But on a somewhat tenuous link – Amazon are now advertising the Conversation Piece box set for £60.59 – apologies if its been this way for a while and considered old news….

  2. For anyone looking to purchase the Is It Any Wonder LP (CD is now sold out),…it is available at the Warner Music Canada store for $19.99 Canadian. Best price there is! The CD was $9.99 Canadian!
    https://store.warnermusic.ca/collections/david-bowie
    Like most of us, I purchased mine through the Bowie store. paid in US dollaras and accepted the shipping charges. Being in Canada, I learned about this after the fact so I thought I would pass it on. Of course I purchased them again and now I will have multiple copies..oh well.

    2. Any chance there are other non-speculator places to get this? With all that’s going on in the world, I somehow missed the announcement here and elsewhere that this was moving from a regular issue CD to limited. As a huge Bowie fan and someone who is always on top of my music news, I’m heartbroken to have missed this. If anyone knows of another source that isn’t asking close to $200 for this CD, I’d love to hear from you.

  3. I’m with you, Paul
    I would never complain about the amount of new reissues of previously unreleased material and concerts that the Bowie Estate has been releasing. I think it’s great ! Keep ’em comin’ !

      1. Somehow my response ended up in the wrong place. Presumably, I screwed up. “Your welcome, but it was actually Matthew a few posts below who told us about Rhino. Thank YOU, Matthew!”

  6. It would be nice if parlophone could give us a preview of the live album, by releasing a track to stream before release maybe, to reassure us of the sound quality.

  7. Thanks Paul, ordered cd from Rhino.
    Great to see a cd release for record day, means I’ll be down my local store on the day – which is the point isn’t it? I wonder how different it’ll be from Cracked Actor.

      1. Or buy it mail order a week later, when most releases are still available. I am afraid I can’t really afford the time or money to to make a 3 hour round trip to shop that might not even have what I want. I appreciate this might not be an issue for those fortunate enough to live close to a shop.

        1. In my town, the one store that does RSD is very close to where I live, and I have made a point to be there early, and have been 1st in line most of the time (I was 2nd in Nov, but the guy before me wanted nothing I did).

          But you are right about being able to mail order some things here in the US, especially as sometimes small, single stores get shorted. I have found that a small chain in Maine called Bull Moose is very good for this and has great prices (i.e., they don’t charge more than their original price for the albums like some places do).

          Semi-regarding CHANGESNOWBOWIE, in a recent thrift shop haul of CDs, I got an original European CD (made in West Germany!) of CHANGESONEBOWIE on RCA for $1 in prefect condition. While maybe not important now, I imagine that some day an original pressing like this may be worth something, and in a way this kind of thing seems more important to me than many of the blatant cash grabs going on these days.

          1. Your welcome, but it was actually Matthew a few posts below who told us about Rhino. Thank YOU, Matthew!

          2. I have mints of CHANGESONE and TWO. I’d like to imagine that they might someday be valuable, but I have my doubts. Plus, the sound quality on those RCA’s is pretty awful. I guess I hold on to them for sentimental reasons! Bought ONE on vinyl in ’81 or so (at age 11) and this was my introduction to the man. Bought TWO on vinyl in ’82 and said to myself, “wtf is this?” Didn’t understand or appreciate the variety of musical styles Bowie inhabited until a few years later.

      2. except I’ve been down a few years on the run Paul queued up to be told have the stock hasn’t arrived, so i wont go down anymore and have to resort to ebay which kinda defeats the object. which they would have some sort of system to make it fairer and also to know beforehand if they have any stock at all!

  10. Nice to see the estate got the rights to issue an official recording of Foot Stompin’. The footage of that song from the Dick Cavett show was left off the dvd Best of, although the footage of Young Americans from the same show was included, presumably for rights reasons.

  11. “These recordings have been mastered from the only available sources to provide the best sound quality possible.”
    Well if there’s just the one source it is what it is, the best or the worst.

  12. On the Rhino store you can order both CD and vinyl of David Bowie – Is it any wonder? for £20 plus £4.10 postage, I had no intention of buying both but couldn’t resist it. The Bowie site says the CD has sold out and the EP on vinyl is a hefty £20 including postage.

  13. thanks for the heads-up about the Rhino store, I’ve pre-ordered the IIAW EP on Vinyl and its nearly a couple of quid cheaper due to the P&P being cheaper via Rhino! the CD and Vinyl are not sold out, you can buy them from either store. with 10,000 units worldwide ( Vinyl & CD) this isnt going to be a rare release

  14. I do remember reading back in the day that all (or nearly all) Bowie concerts were recorded by RCA in the 1970’s. Bowie also was insistent that they were recorded for playback to hear possible mistakes. So let’s not get excited about poor sources.

    Although manna from heaven for me – another holy grail would be the Friars Aylesbury 1971 sole outing in September of that year – that definitely was recorded by RCA. Perhaps the hurdles may be Mainman and the still to this day the power of Tony Defries.

    1. @ Noel Fitzsimons
      Yes, I also read (in David Buckley’s Strange Fascination book IIRC) that Bowie/RCA recorded all his gigs, and even professionally filmed a large number of them, though I believe it was Bowie himself rather than the label or Mainman who didn’t want them released…?

  15. Paul, in the email from the official Bowie site, it stated that the IIAW physical ep would be limited to 6000 vinyl and 4000 cd versions. Are you able to confirm whether this is the total worldwide, or just The allocation for the uk?

    1. Sadly, we probably won’t know until people have already taken the plunge on rsd. I wonder if this is the reason its a rsd release? (Quick money grabbing exercise before people realise what they’ve actually bought!)

    2. Reading between the lines of the official blurb put out by Parlophone lends one to believe that this will be a desk recording and not a audience source tape / bootleg. Besides, there is no recording from the 20th October in Detroit doing the rounds on bootleg (only from 16th / 18th)

      1. I hope you’re right, Sam, but i found a recording on youtube by typing in the date of the show (20th oct). Here’s hoping that the “only available recording” they refer to isn’t that “only” one (i lasted about a minute listening to it, the quality is not worth paying for, and there is even someone shouting “sit down” several times during rebel rebel) Saying that, the youtube recording hasn’t got the intro etc so here’s hoping it WILL be a soundboard release (it would be way below the belt, even for parlaphone Imho, if it wasn’t).

        1. My apologies, Adey! You’re right – there’s the 20th Oct recording on YouTube (and pretty rubbish it is too, of course!).
          I just can’t see Parlophone putting out a 4th rate audience tape as an official release, can you? They’ve set the standard with the Cracked Actor and Welcome To The Blackout albums with desk-sourced recordings up to now. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if it is sourced from a cassette and not a reel-to-reel…

          1. I agree with them setting already setting the standard, Sam. I really hope its at least as good quality as cracked actor (i’m assuming from the official “disclaimer” there may be the odd dropout in the recording), but if its at least as good as the “Robin Mayhew” raw soundboard recording from the 1973 Hammersmith odeon gig, i would probably be onside (at the right price!)

      3. I’d have to agree. If this was recorded using any sort of mobile multitrack setup, the Parlophone language would have led with that. I’d love to be wrong, but this is at best a soundboard recording. If you’re a completist, go for it, but the previous use of live soundboard recordings in reissues has made me a bit gunshy. The Boston soundboard used in The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead deluxe is among the disappointments that spring to mind.

        1. Soundboard should be okay, hopefully. The worse ever official release is the REM Bingo Handjob RSD which was so bad they never should have authorised it.

      1. As noted above, the October 20th show has circulated for many years.
        http://www.davidbowieworld.nl/mijn-bootlegs-2-2/tour-recordings/1974-the-diamond-dogs-tour/attachment/folder-92/
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08FIdpL0KUs
        It’s a listenable but primitive audience recording.
        Technically Parlophone will be correct if it is a soundboard as those specific recordings won’t have been heard.
        The three ‘bonus’ tracks have never been heard on bootleg.
        All up a very welcome release.

  17. What a pity they don’t’ have a quality recording of the concerts from later in the tour, December that year when the crowning jewel of the era (in my opinion), ‘Win’, was played for the one and only time as far as I know (Atlanta, I think?).

    Also, some people may not have seen this reported yet but Uncut magazine’s new issue has a multi-page spread on Iggy and Bowie in Berlin, new Visconti quotes etc. which is effectively promo for deluxe editions of Lust For Life and The Idiot as well as a 7 disc (!) Iggy Pop: “1977 – The Bowie Years” set that the article states Universal will be releasing in May

      1. I’m in for the Iggy box set too. But 1977 is “Year” singular, not plural “Years,” right? ;-) Also, how do they plan on filling 7 discs? Iggy recorded two records with Bowie that year. Add in TV Eye (on which Bowie only appears for 4 songs) and the Cleveland concert that has been unofficially released and reissued a thousand times, I presume. Are there that many demos and alternate mixes out there? Maybe there will be a dvd with any extant live footage and television appearances. Their infamous appearance on the Dinah Shore Show should be part of it!

        1. Struck me as odd that they used the plural “years” too, but I have checked! Blurb at the bottom of the Uncut feature in full:

          “The Idiot (deluxe edition) Lust For Life (deluxe edition) and 1977: The Bowie Years (7 CD boxset) are due late May from Universal Music. More details to follow nearer the release date.”

          1. Bowie brought Iggy along with him on the Station To Station your, and the recording of The Idiot started that same year, so it probably should be 1976-1977: The Bowie Years. Between the two of them they recorded 4 records in the span of a little over one year. It probably felt like many years!

  18. Ordered the EP and look forward to the Soul Tour/ChangesNowBowie records on RSD, thanks Paul. The Bowie store site though is hideous, full of hoodies and tote bags… “Is it any wonder” sticker…why??

  20. Very nice, and on CD too, thank gawd!

    Notwithstanding “the side effects of the cocaine”, I honestly think this particular period of creativity for Bowie is without peer in rock… can you imagine any other band or artist touring the States, becoming obsessed with “the song(s) they’re playing on the radio”, writing new songs in that style, stopping off to record them, then re-tooling the tour to accommodate those new tracks? Unbelievable…

    Really looking forward to this, though “Philly Dogs” would have been a better title…

  21. Does anybody know if the detroit shows are sourced from soundboard or audience recordings? After the disclaimer stating they are from the “only available sources”, it doesn’t leave me with much hope, especially after listening to (Or at least, trying to listen to) the 20th october show on youtube…

  22. Why are there so many rumours that the sound quality of the LP is not up to par? Let’s hear it
    before dissing the release of a long awaited Bowie holy grail.

  24. If if were studio tapes I’d be interested. I admit I’m no fan of live albums anyway, but it’s hard to get excited about yet another Bowie live album.

  28. Don’t suppose anyone knows the date when the full RSD releases list is announced? I just Googled it but couldn’t find it. It must be soon, it was available 28 Feb last year.

  31. Not one, but TWO Bowie rsd releases on cd!!! I was gonna give rsd a miss from now on, but after this news you can count me in!!!!!!!
    Its good to see labels finally giving in to the fact that there still IS a Big demand for cds from music fans.
    Its also good to see “fun” getting a physical release on cd, although £12.75 Incl postage for a 6 track cd is a bit steep. I hope cds aren’t going down the same Pricing route as vinyl (saying that, i still pre ordered it!)
    I already own a virgin promo cdr with a few mixes of “fun”, and the “liveandwell” 2cd set with a mix on it too. once i dig them out i will see if this particular mix is on any of them.

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