David Bowie - rare and unreleased tracks from 1970-1971

Divine Symmetry (rare and unreleased tracks from 1970-1971)

As 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s album Hunky Dory I thought I would put together a mix of rare and unreleased music from this period. 

Considering the Bowie estate have been marking the 50th anniversary of albums with some sort of archival release of unreleased music (as they did with 2019’s Conversation Piece box set and 2021’s Width Of A Circle), it’s likely that at least some of this material would be released in some shape or form in the next 12 months. Like the period in the run up to Space Oddity, Bowie was a very prolific songwriter in the period from late 1970 to the release of Ziggy Stardust with many of the songs recorded ultimately left on the sidelines. Unlike the songs recorded in run up to Space Oddity, a good portion of that music has surfaced through unofficial means, though some songs continue to elude the bootleggers including Black Hole Kids, Only One Paper Left, It’s Gonna Rain Again and King of the City.

The demo version of Quicksand, as well as (most of) Lightning Frightening were previously released on the Ryko reissues of Hunky Dory and The Man Who Sold The World respectively, though those disks have been out of print for about 30 years. Bombers was from the 1971 BOWPROMO promotional disk, which was previously officially released as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2017. The Glastonbury Fayre clips were sourced from the 2019 documentary film David Bowie: Finding Fame.

This mix doesn’t comprise of every recording available from the period, but features at least one version of every unreleased song in circulation. If this list was more thorough you’d have to sit through at least five versions of Looking For A Friend.

https://youtu.be/1EJQ5d2HwfE : 

NOTE: This mix originally included the alternate take of Eight Line Poem, as well as most of the alternate mix of the chatter leading up to Andy Warhol. Both of these were copyright striked resulting in the video being blocked worldwide. I have since removed these tracks from the mix though curiously you can still find the tracks elsewhere on YouTube. Both are sourced from the 1971 BOWPROMO promotional disk.

0:00:00 - 0:04:42 Quicksand (Demo)

0:04:42 - 0:07:41 Rupert The Riley

0:07:41 - 0:11:44 Lightning Frightening (The Man)

0:11:44 - 0:12:03 Oh! You Pretty Things (Excerpt, Glastonbury Fayre, 23 June 1971)

0:12:03 - 0:15:21 Oh! You Pretty Things (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)

0:15:21 - 0:18:24 Tired Of My Life

0:18:24 - 0:18:54 Life On Mars? (Excerpt, Demo)

0:18:54 - 0:22:16 Kooks (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)

0:22:16 - 0:24:56 The Supermen (John Peel: In Concert, 3 June 1971)

0:24:56 - 0:27:52 Bombers (BOWPROMO mix)

0:27:52 - 0:30:43 Andy Warhol (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)

0:30:43 - 0:34:15 How Lucky You Are (Miss Peculiar)

0:34:15 - 0:34:38 Changes (Excerpt, Glastonbury Fayre, 23 June 1971)

0:34:38 - 0:38:22 Shadow Man

0:38:22 - 0:41:31 Looking For A Friend

0:41:31 - 0:45:39 Man In The Middle

0:45:39 - 0:49:09 Changes (Demo)

0:49:09 - 0:51:31 Buzz The Fuzz (The Sunday Show: Introduced by John Peel, 5 February 1970)

0:51:31 - 0:54:18 Fill Your Heart (Sound Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)

0:54:18 - 0:56:42 Right On Mother

0:56:42 - 1:00:36 Amsterdam (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)

Source: YouTube by Fish Magick May 7th 2021