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Early version of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album announced for Record Store Day

Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth)

By Paul Sinclair

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41

On what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday, Parlophone have announced a special vinyl LP called Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth).

This record features the then provisional tracklisting for what would become Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. This early version is taken from the Trident Studio quarter-inch tapes dated 15 December 1971.

There are four songs on Waiting in the Sky that didn’t make the final album. On side one, in the place of ‘Starman’ (one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is the Chuck Berry cover ‘Round and Round‘ which was eventually found a home as the B-side to the Aladdin Sane single ‘Drive-in Staturday’, on 6 April 1973. Also, Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, ended side one (this was sat on for even longer and became the B-side of ‘Sorrow’ on 12 October, 1973. Side two of this RSD release includes both ‘Holy Holy‘ and ‘Velvet Goldmine‘. The former is the re-recording with The Spiders of David’s 1971 single and wasn’t released at the time until ‘Diamond Dogs’ was issued as a single when it became yet another B-side. ‘Velvet Goldmine’ was unreleased for nearly four years, but became the B-side to the 1975 reissue of ‘Space Oddity’.

As well as ‘Starman’, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ and ‘Suffragette City’ had not been recorded and are also missing from this early version of the album. Three great late additions, I’m sure you’ll agree!

This vinyl was cut from digital and is a half-speed vinyl pressing. There is no CD version for Record Store Day (see the recent SDE post on CDs!).

Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth) will be released on 20 April 2024 (this year’s Record Store Day) via Parlophone and will be available at participating independent record shops.

Tracklisting

Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth) David Bowie /

    • Side 1

      1. Five Years
      2. Soul Love
      3. Moonage Daydream
      4. Round And Round
      5. Amsterdam

      Side 2

      1. Hang On To Yourself
      2. Ziggy Stardust
      3. Velvet Goldmine
      4. Holy Holy
      5. Star
      6. Lady Stardust

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41 Comments

41 thoughts on “Early version of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album announced for Record Store Day”

  1. It’s amazing to me how many people below are absolutely certain in their opinion about an album they haven’t heard or even held in their hand yet — months before it was released :).

    It’s a first draft of Ziggy Stardust, date of recording 12-15-1971, before the record company complained that the album didn’t have a single. I agree that I’d like to see a Ziggy box set with everything recorded during these sessions — which should include Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust combined, actually. But I wasn’t ready to lay out money for that kind of product, so I’m grateful for this one. Very high quality for what it is and good audio level on the vinyl, plus under $30.00 US.

    The Ziggy box set btw is slated for June 2024: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-bowie-ziggy-stardust-reissue-box-set-1234991832/

  2. Pointless release. Rubbish title. Nice photo. At least Parlophone haven’t knocked out a picture disc or multi coloured variants. And whatever happened to “Blackhole Kids”, “Only One Paper Left” & “Something Happens” Ziggy demos that Bowie spoke of mixing in the late 90’s. He’s also on record as “loathing” the mix of Velvet Goldmine that RCA bunged out in ’75. He stated that he much preferred his original demo – entitled – “He’s a Goldmine” to the Velvet Goldmine version. It’s tragic that Bowie’s estate is so uncaring towards his legacy. The Era box sets have been a tremendous disappointment for most fans, and the less said about the “Brilliant Live Adventures” debacle the better. And for all those who bought the picture disc 45’s, you have my sympathy. You purchased in good faith, expecting a full set and then someone at Parlophoney decided they were done.

  3. Anyone knows why the retrospective boxsets just didn’t go any further than the 80’s after a regular output of one a year ? Why keep releasing 70’s stuff over and over ?

  4. One to avoid. Totally pointless if I am right that there are no alternate takes or remixes. Come on get a Ziggy box set out or is there nothing to release?

  6. Nice sleeve.
    But like others, I find it totally bizarre that Bowie’s 1980s catalogue isn’t being explored in a more creative way when the barrel bottom of the early 70s is being so desperately scraped.

  7. Despite the record company claiming the album needed a single, I’m curious if, by the time the album reached this point, they were eyeing any tracks as potential singles.

  8. I don’t suppose there will ever be a re-issue of an enhanced Five Years box set (with new Ziggy live + Divine Symmetry) or better still just Re:Call 1 on vinyl. I remember when Five Years was released thinking that one day the Re:Call LP would be reissued, though I didn’t expect just 4 tracks to pop up elsewhere.
    Not much point in a CD as this was all on the Ziggy 30th Anniversary double CD which costs about £10 on eBay.

  9. On CD an immediate purchase, on Vinyl keep your money.

    What I really would like is the last Bowie years box covering his final most interesting albums since the early seventies

  11. This would be interesting if it included alternate versions, but as a truly basic Ziggy rejigged playlist on vinyl, it is beyond pointless, a desperate example of barrel scraping.

  12. Omg, can they just knock it off with the Bowie stone age reissues and give us some 80’s reissues instead?? I’ll be dead and buried by the time anything 80’s is reissued.
    I’m done now with Bowie early 70’s and won’t be getting this.

    1. I was about to make a similar comment when I read your post.
      After missing the obvious opportunity for a 40th-anniversary release of ‘Let’s Dance,’ I’ve given up hope of getting a 40th-anniversary release of ‘Tonight’ that could include all non-album singles from that era, all 7″ and 12″ mixes, along with some surprise, previously unreleased material…

      1. Yes, actually give us some never released on cd 12”es that there are many off!! It’s a joke they keep releasing this old stuff and ignore the 80’s.

  13. Back in 1975 with the reissue of the ‘Space Oddity’ single Bowie complained that ‘Velvet Goldmine’ had been mixed without his consent..always wondered if there is another version knocking about.
    This release is totally superfluous.

    1. Reading between the lines I think Bowie just wanted to permanently bury it because various lines in the lyrics were influenced by the groupie Lori Mattix who was also tangled up with Jimmy Page and became a liability when it got out she was considerably under age. Neither of them knew it at the time and probably figured if she was allowed into the Whiskey a Go Go and the Rainbow Bar and Grill that everything was legit.

  15. Got to say the Conversation Piece, Width oac & Divine Symmetry boxes have been fabulous, some nice picture discs and half masters which all seem to come down to a reasonable price pretty soon after release, so I’ve got high hopes for an accompanying Ziggy era box, this stand alone vinyl looks a bit disappointing to me, but if the record stores are the main recipient of footfall and income that’s ok with me, their costs must be crazy atm

  16. It looks like a whole new seam of sleight of hand exploitation of fans is emerging with these not-quite-the-finished-version Dave B releases – first ‘The Shyster’ or ‘The Jouster’ or whatever it was, now this. Shall we expect a steady stream of work in progress running orders of various records for years to come? Imagine if someone mentioned this idea to Paul McCartney & his team – ‘Hey Macca, do you have any old cassettes of work in progress mixes of ‘Band On The Run’ or the like? Oh, er, hang on…’

  17. I could understand releases like this if they included different mixes,unreleased versions,alternative takes etc..But if all you are doing is changing the cover, dropping a few tracks,then adding a few others,using just the ordinary already available standard release versions it all becomes a rather pointless rip-off.

  18. Bowie has actually been one of the very few artists to release CD versions of RSD stuff previously. Does look more like the counterpart to the alternative Hunky Dory which was vinyl only though.
    I wouldn’t stress too much about the availability on RSD as Bowie releases tend to hang about for ages after the day as pressed in larger quantities than many other RSD things.

  20. It’s interesting, but it looks like that there’ll be no unreleased tracks. A taster for the Ziggy boxset I hope. It is incredible, but it’s true : the Ziggy sessions started in november 1971, before Hunky Dory was released ! Pure genius.

      2. A bit of profit would be better than none at all. I’m sure a lot of us (all of us?) who only buy CDs aren’t suddenly going to buy this vinyl. Zero profit!

    2. Because they want you to buy the LP and then but they music AGAIN when they announce a digital version later – download, CD, boxed-set, blu-ray, SACD – who knows …. maybe all of the above!

      And don’t forget the cassette.

  22. This is certainly an interesting perspective on Bowie’s period of immanent stardom; how differently would events have unfolded if the Ziggy album didn’t feature Starman, which provided him with his first hit single since Space Oddity in ’69? I really hope this release signals a Ziggy era hardback deluxe CD box later this year, continuing in the vein of the wonderful Divine Symmetry & Conversation Piece sets; I was quite disappointed we didn’t see such a box-set last year – here’s hoping we see one later in 2024…

  23. I’m glad there’s no CD version, gives me the incentive to buy this vinyl edition to go with my alternative HUNKY DORY album which was again only available (separately) on vinyl. I have enough Bowie on CD for now.

  24. This looks fantastic, but you’ve got to ask why leave something like this out of the Five Years box set!, granted it probably wasn’t even considered or anyone came up with this great idea at that time, but it seems a real shame that this album wasn’t in that set. I don’t usually do the queue business at RSD but this makes that a necessary essential now.

  26. We all know that record companies exist purely for the profit margins, but this is ridiculous. WHERE IS THE CD VERSION? Surely they would shift considerably more copies if they released it on cd? Or are they doing the same trick they did with cracked actor, by getting Bowie fans (even fans who don’t own a turntable) to double dip with both vinyl and cd copies in the long run and, buy a vinyl version, with no intention of playing it, purely because its a Bowie release? We all know they will release the cd once the vinyl sales of it dry up…

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