David Bowie The Lost Beeb Tapes – Various BBC Sessions 1967-1972 – SQ 9
Top Gear (18-12-1967)
01 – Love You Till Tuesday .flac
02 – In The Heat Of The Morning.flac
03 – Silly Boy Blue .flac
04 – When I Live My Dream.flac
05 – Little Bombardier.flac
Top Gear (13-05-1968)
06 – When I’m Five .flac
Dave Lee Travis Show (20-10-1969)
07 – Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed.flac
Sound Of The Seventies: Andy Ferris (25-03-1970)
08 – Waiting For The Man.flac
09 – The Width Of A Circle.flac
In Concert: John Peel (03-06-1971)
10 – Queen Bitch.flac
11 – The Supermen.flac
12 – Song For Bob Dylan.flac
13 – Andy Warhol.flac
Sound Of The Seventies: Bob Harris (21-09-1971)
14 – Oh! You Pretty Things.flac
15 – Kooks.flac
16 – Fill Your Heart.flac
17 – Amsterdam.flac
18 – Andy Warhol.flac
Sound Of The Seventies: Bob Harris (23-05-1972)
19 – White Light, White Heat.flac
Bonus Tracks:
Arnold Corns, Radio Luxembourg Studios (10-03-1971)
20 – Lady Stardust.flac
21 – Right On Mother.flac
22 – Moonage Daydream.flac
Label: The Godfatherecords – G.R. 375
Total running time: 1:19:14
Note: Excellent quality audience recording – I’d give it SQ 9
From the earliest recordings made in 1967 to the sixteenth session in 2002 Bowie has contributed some fascinating live sets to the BBC archives.
The early recordings of Bowie at the BBC particularly hold great interest and document an artist still trying to find his way in the world with apparent giant leaps in style although if you really study them it’s more of a rapid evolution.
Most of the unofficial recordings have variable sound quality and generally attribute the wrong dates to the various sets Bowie performed up to the early 70s. Pick and mix bootlegs confuse matters still further as do the often repetitive set lists. The official Bowie at the BBC release is by far the best available but is far from complete so this is where this new release from Godfather steps in as in contains many of the important tracks missing from the original release and all in excellent quality.
Okay, the four volumes of The Rise and Rise of Ziggy Stardust are more complete still, but have poor quality on some sessions. So if you have the official release then the Lost Beeb Tapes makes a sensible purchase filling in most of the gaps in great quality.
The first session documents all the tracks from the Top Gear session of 1967. This vaudevillian period is often derided by Bowie fans but in truth the songs reproduced here live are worthy of re-evaluation and Bowies juvenilia is much more refined and developed than many would have us believe. These are clever songs for those with open minds and beautifully played.
When I’m Five is a sentimental monologue from the 1968 Top Gear Session and is the only full studio recording of the song (A rough demo also exists). The Dave Lee Travis Show of 1969 brings us a great version of unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed delivered quite ferociously that in some way could be attributed to the then recent death of Bowie’s father.
The 1970 show offers us Waiting for the man and The Width of a Circle backed by Bowies then band The Hype. Both songs are guitar heavy workouts almost progressive in delivery.
The John Peel show of 1971 is quite an oddity and unique in sound and structure with various guest vocalists and friends helping Bowie fulfill his Warhol-come-Svengali aspirations. The pick of the sessions is the 1971 Bob Harris show featuring just Mick Ronson and Bowie in a stripped down acoustic set of Hunky Dory songs. All the songs are played quite superbly and it’s surprising the whole set didn’t feature on the official release. The 1972 Bob Harris session completes the disc with a full on Ziggy version of the Velvet’s White Light/ White Heat. So it’s a 10/10 for Godfather so far.
Bonus tracks feature three tracks wrongly attributed to Arnold Corns with the exception of Moonage Daydream. Unfortunately more complete and better quality versions of these three bonus tracks are available elsewhere.
