David Bowie - Scary Monsters [12", LP]

Today it's been exactly three months since DAVID BOWIE passed away.

SCARY MONSTERS has always been one of my favourite Bowie albums. It's actually hard to say which of his albums is really my favourite, since they are so diverse. Sometimes i'm simply more in a Ziggy glamrock mood, while some other time i am more in an experimental  Berlin '77-era  mood. Scary Monsters however is an album that i can always listen to. I won't write a complete review here of the album because Bowie's albums have been thoroughly reviewed over the years. As for the songs: Fashion always was one of my all-time favourite Bowie tunes, with Robert Fripp's signature guitar playing. He sure knows how to play his instrument. The title track is brillant as well, by the way.
Furthermore i like the album's artwork a lot. The costume Bowie's wearing on the sleeve was also featured in the Ashes To Ashes video, when he's walking on the beach dressed as a clown. It was funny to see the thing with my own eyes some time ago at the David Bowie Is exhibition in Groningen.

Label: RCA

Year of release: 1980

Cat.nr.: PL1364-7

SIDE A:

01. It's No Game (No.1)

02. Up The Hill Backwards

03. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

04. Ashes To Ashes

05. Fashion

SIDE B:

01. Teenage Wildlife

02. Scream Like  Baby

03. Kingdom Come

04. Because You're Young

05. It's No Game (No. 2) 

David Bowie - Heroes / Helden / Héros [12"]

This 12" is a nice score from the recent Utrecht record fair. I was already on my way out, when i spotted this DAVID BOWIE maxi in the crates of a stand that was selling everything for half-price. And since it was very reasonably priced already in the first place, i now got it for a real bargain. The only reason i was actually interested in it, was that it contains the French version of the song HEROES: HÉROS. HELDEN, the German version is much more common. I already had that on a compilation album called Rare, for example. And while the German version is already quite horrible when it comes to David's foreign language skills, the French one is even worse :) Nevertheless a great find and a very welcome addition to my Bowie collection.

Label: RCA
Cat.nr.: PC 9821
Year of release: 1977

SIDE A:
01. Heroes/Helden

SIDE B:
01. Heroes/Héros

David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars [12", LP]

Since it came out in 1972, a lot has been written about THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS already. A classic DAVID BOWIE album and quite possibly his most famous one as well. I like it a lot, with Five Years and Moonage Daydream being my favourite songs of this album, although my favourite Bowie albums are still the ones from his Berlin period. This particular copy is a Dutch reissue from 1979 and has a somewhat different sleeve than the regular versions, because there's this green border around it with the text "Rock Originals" on top. Probably part of some kind of series. Anyway, i'm posting about this album because i recently went to London and visited the street where this cover picture was taken. It's a small U-shaped street off Regent Street called Heddon Street, and the picture was taken at #23 in the part that runs parallel from Regent Street. On the album cover it looks like some kind of shabby back alley, but nowadays the street houses some restaurants and bars and looks pretty dandy. In 2012, Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet) who is a big Bowie fan unveiled a plaque that marks the exact spot where the picture was taken. Unfortunately nowadays there's a terrace with some pretty big plants on the spot where the boxes on the cover are located, so i couldn't take a picture from that angle. I made one from the other side of the street though, so the spot is on the left side, way in the back.

Label: RCA
Cat.nr.: NL-14702
Year of release: 1979 (originally 1972)

SIDE A:
01. Five Years
02. Soul Love
03. Moonage Daydream
04. Starman
05. It Ain't Easy

SIDE B:
01. Lady Stardust
02. Star
03. Hang On To Yourself
04. Ziggy Stardust
05. Suffragette City
06. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Lou Reed - Rock 'N' Roll Animal [12", LP]

Today is a sad day. News just broke that LOU REED died, at the age of 71.

Having become a massive David Bowie fan when i was a teenager, i first got to know Reed from the stuff that Bowie did for him (producing Transformer together with Mick Ronson, for example) and the songs that Bowie covered (most notably White Light/White Heat during his Ziggy Stardust period). So out of curiosity i started to listen to the man's work. First Transformer, then i discovered Berlin, and then the whole Velvet Underground catalogue. Amazing stuff! I still rank many Velvet Undergound songs as some of the best pop/rock songs ever written, and Lou Reed was the writer of nearly all of them. His solo work rarely reaches the same level as the Velvets did, to my opinion at least, but still i love albums like Berlin and New York. Also Transformer, The Blue Mask, Magic And Loss and the phenomenal Songs For Drella (with John Cale) are albums that mean a lot to me. So does this particular album, ROCK 'N' ROLL ANIMAL. It's a live album from 1974 and the songs are mostly from his Velvet Underground period. It only has five songs on it, but these are definitely the best live versions i've ever heard of every single one of them, and the total length of the album is still over 40 minutes. Especially the guitar work is excellent. Some live albums are true classics. This is one of those.
Funny detail: the musicians on this album would later join Alice Cooper when he had parted ways with his old band members and went on to release Welcome To My Nightmare. Producer Bob Ezrin introduced them.
As for myself, i've seen Lou Reed perform live twice. First during his Magic And Loss tour in 1992, and a year later with the Velvet Underground during their MCMXCIII reunion tour. And as of today, it's clear that there will definitely be no further chance. Truly sad.

I own two different editions of this great album. The picture above is from an original pressing from 1974. Below, it's a reissue from 2012, when Music On Vinyl released it as a special Record Store Day release, remastered and on 180 grams vinyl. Even sounds better than it ever did before.

 

Label: RCA / Music On Vinyl
Cat.nr.: APL1-0472 / MOVLP 529
Year of release: 1974 / 2012

SIDE A:
01. Intro/Sweet Jane
02. Heroin

SIDE B:
01. White Light/White Heat
02. Lady Day
03. Rock 'n' Roll

David Bowie - Beauty And The Beast [7"]

This is a peculiar version of DAVID BOWIE's single of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. I came across it in a secondhand store where they had a couple of other similar singles from the same source where this 7" came from. It originates from the archive of Dutch national radio, apparently. It's modified in a way that they've put it in a generic sleeve with the Dutch Top 40 Foundation logo on it ("Stichting Nederlandse Top 40"), and put an address stamp and a numbered sticker on the centre label. The disc looks like it has almost never been played. And if this single was only meant for airplay on the Top 40, that could very well be the case: it failed to chart in Holland and never made it any further than #21 in the so-called Tip Parade. So this single was very likely only played a handful of times around the time it came out in Holland - and when it was, it'd be broadcasted nationwide. Quite a unique copy.

Label: RCA
Cat.nr.: PB 1190
Year of release: 1977

SIDE A:
01. Beauty And The Beast

SIDE B:
01. Sense Of Doubt

David Bowie - Stage [12", 2LP]

STAGE is a double live album by DAVID BOWIE that was originally released in 1978. It was one of the first Bowie albums i bought in 1983 when i became a massive fan after i had bought the Let's Dance album, and in that way it introduced me to the variety of his back-catalogue at the time. Side A/B almost chronologically covers the first 6 years of the 70's, and side C/D has songs from Low and Heroes. The album captures live performances from a few USA shows of his Isolar II World Tour (1978) and is pretty polished, in that there's little crowd to be heard in these recordings. Also the running order of the setlists was changed, and there are fades between the songs. So it sounds a bit sterile for a live album. Like said, i bought my copy in 1983, and that's the one pictured below here on black vinyl:

The yellow version as showed on top is a copy i bought second-hand somewhere a few years ago. It is a limited edition of the first UK pressing from 1978. In Holland the album also has come out on blue vinyl at the time.


Label: RCA
Cat.nr.: PL 2913 (reissue: PL 89002)
Year of release: 1978 (reissue: 1983)

SIDE A:
01. Hang On To Yourself
02. Ziggy Stardust
03. Five Years
04. Soul Love
05. Star

SIDE B:
01. Station To Station
02. Fame
03. TVC 15

SIDE C:
01. Warszawa
02. Speed Of Life
03. Art Decade
04. Sense Of Doubt
05. Breaking Glass

SIDE D:
01. "Heroes"
02. What In The World
03. Blackout
04. Beauty And The Beast