David Bowie Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976) Box set
It includes the previously unreleased album The Gouster, remastered editions of Diamond Dog and Young Americans, and more
The full details of David Bowie’s Who Can I Be Now? – a box set that collects the rock legend’s works from his 1974 to 1976 “American phase” as well as his unreleased LP The Gouster – have been revealed.
The box set arrives in a variety of formats – including a 13-LP, 12-CD box or digital download – that features newly remastered versions of Bowie albums like 1974’s Diamond Dogs, 1975’s Young Americans and 1976’s Station to Station, plus the live LPs David Live from 1974 and Live Nassau Coliseum ’76. David Live appears in both its original and 2005 mix formats, while Station to Station is included with the original version alongside its 2010 Henry Maslin mix.
Who Can I Be Now? also boasts a pair of compilations unique to the box set: The Gouster – Bowie’s original vision for what ended up becoming Young Americans, featuring unreleased alternate mixes of the Young Americans tracks – plus Re:call 2, which compiles all the single edits and B-sides from this era in Bowie’s catalog, including a largely unreleased Australian edit of “Diamond Dogs” that was only available in that country until now.
Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti described The Gouster as an “outrageous brand new, funkafied version of David’s classic.” Visconti also oversaw the mastering on The Gouster’s original tapes for the release.
The box set, which follows 2015’s Five Years (1969-1973), also touts a hardcover book with rarely seen and previously unpublished photos, historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums from Visconti and Maslin.
DAVID BOWIE ‘WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974-1976)’
LP Box Set:
84 Page hardback book
Diamond Dogs (remastered) (1 LP)
David Live (original mix) (remastered) (2 LP) *
David Live (2005 mix) (remastered) (3 LP)
The Gouster (previously unreleased as an album) (1 LP) *
Young Americans (remastered) (1 LP)
Station To Station (remastered) (1 LP)
Station To Station (Harry Maslin 2010 mix) (1 LP) *
Live Nassau Coliseum ’76 (2 LP)
Re:Call 2 (Single versions and non-album B-sides) (remastered) (1 LP) *
* Exclusive to ‘Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976)’
CD Box Set:
128 Page hardback book
Diamond Dogs (remastered) (1 CD)
David Live (original mix) (remastered) (2 CD) *
David Live (2005 mix) (remastered) (2 CD)
The Gouster (previously unreleased as an album) (1 CD) *
Young Americans (remastered) (1 CD)
Station To Station (remastered) (1 CD)
Station To Station (Harry Maslin 2010 mix) (1 CD) *
Live Nassau Coliseum ’76 (2 CD)
Re:Call 2 (Single versions and non album B-sides) (remastered) (1 CD) *
* Exclusive to ‘Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976)’
CD & Vinyl Tracklistings :
DIAMOND DOGS
Side 1.
1. Future Legend
2. Diamond Dogs
3. Sweet Thing
4. Candidate
5. Sweet Thing (Reprise)
6. Rebel Rebel
Side 2.
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me
2. We Are The Dead
3. 1984
4. Big Brother
5. Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family
DAVID LIVE (ORIGINAL MIX)
Side 1
1. 1984
2. Rebel Rebel
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise)
Side 2
1. Changes
2. Suffragette City
3. Aladdin Sane
4. All The Young Dudes
5. Cracked Actor
Side 3
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me
2. Watch That Man
3. Knock On Wood
4. Diamond Dogs
Side 4
1. Big Brother
2. The Width Of A Circle
3. The Jean Genie
4. Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
DAVID LIVE (2005 MIX)
Side 1
1. 1984
2. Rebel Rebel
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise)
Side 2
1. Changes
2. Suffragette City
3. Aladdin Sane
4. All The Young Dudes
Side 3
1. Cracked Actor
2. Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me
3. Watch That Man
4. Knock On Wood
Side 4
1. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
2. Space Oddity
3. Diamond Dogs
Side 5
1. Panic In Detroit
2. Big Brother
3. Time
Side 6
1. The Width Of A Circle
2. The Jean Genie
3. Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
THE GOUSTER
Side 1
1. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again) – not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a single in 1979 to promote the ‘CHANGESTWOBOWIE’ compilation.
2. Somebody Up There Likes Me – alternative early previously unreleased mix
3. It’s Gonna Be Me – not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a bonus track on the EMI/Ryko edition of ‘Young Americans’ in 1990. An alternative mix with strings was released on the 2007 EMI edition of ‘Young Americans’.
Side 2
1. Who Can I Be Now? – not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a bonus track on the EMI/Ryko edition of ‘Young Americans’ in 1990.
2. Can You Hear Me – alternative early previously unreleased version.
3. Young Americans – same version that ended up on ‘Young Americans’.
4. Right – alternative early previously unreleased version.
YOUNG AMERICANS
Side 1
1. Young Americans
2. Win
3. Fascination
4. Right
Side 2
1. Somebody Up There Likes Me
2. Across The Universe
3. Can You Hear Me
4. Fame
STATION TO STATION
Side 1
1. Station To Station
2. Golden Years
3. Word On A Wing
Side 2
1. TVC 15
2. Stay
3. Wild Is The Wind
LIVE NASSAU COLISEUM ’76
Side 1
1. Station To Station
2. Suffragette City
3. Fame
4. Word On A Wing
Side 2
1. Stay
2. Waiting For The Man
3. Queen Bitch
Side 3
1. Life On Mars?
2. Five Years
3. Panic In Detroit
4. Changes
5. TVC 15
Side 4
1. Diamond Dogs
2. Rebel Rebel
3. The Jean Genie
RE:CALL 2
Side 1:
1. Rebel Rebel (original single mix)
2. Diamond Dogs (Australian single edit)
3. Rebel Rebel (U.S. single version)
4. Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me (live – promotional single edit)
5. Panic In Detroit (live)
6. Young Americans (original single edit)
Side 2:
1. Fame (original single edit)
2. Golden Years (original single version)
3. Station To Station (original single edit)
4. TVC 15 (original single edit)
5. Stay (original single edit)
6. Word On A Wing (original single edit)
7. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again) (1975) (single version)
Tony Visconti note
‘Gouster was a word unfamiliar to me but David knew it as a type of dress code worn by African American teens in the ‘60’s, in Chicago. But in the context of the album its meaning was attitude, an attitude of pride and hipness. Of all the songs we cut we were enamored of the ones we chose for the album that portrayed this attitude.
David had a long infatuation with soul as did I. We were fans of the TV show Soul Train. We weren’t ‘young, gifted and black’ but we sure as hell wanted to make a killer soul album, which was quite insane, but pioneers like the Righteous Brothers were there before us.
So ‘The Gouster’ began with the outrageous brand new, funkafied version of David’s classic ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, a single he wrote and recorded in 1972, only this time our version sounded like it was played live in a loft party in Harlem and he added (Again) to the title. It wasn’t the two and a half minute length of the original either.
We maxed out at virtually seven minutes! With the time limitations of vinyl (big volume drop with more than 18 minutes a side) we could only fit two other long songs on side one, ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’ and ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ both about six and a half minute songs. We had hit the twenty-minute mark. Technically that worked because ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ had lots of quiet sections where the record groove could be safely made narrower and that would preserve the apparent loudness of side one.
Side two also hit the twenty-minute mark with ‘Can You Hear Me’ saving the day with its quiet passages. Forty minutes of glorious funk, that’s what it was and that’s how I thought it would be.’
set to be the second Bowie box set following the release of Five Years – which spanned 12 discs and comprised 6 albums from his self-titled album to Pin Ups, alongside a heap of unreleased songs and two live albums.
Details of what will be included in this forthcoming Who Can I Be Now? set are to be announced next week, but it is expected to cover albums’ Diamond Dogs all the way through to Station To Station.
The Laughing man discusses the forthcoming Bowie box set!!
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