Strangers When We Meet single is 25

“Cold tired fingers, Tapping out your memories”

Top left in our montage is a single-sided flat for Strangers When We Meet, taken from the album 1. Outside and released as a single 25 years ago today.

The 14th November to 7th December leg of The Outside World Tour was also advertised on this flat. Indeed, on 20th November, the day of the single’s release, Bowie was playing the first of two shows at Birmingham NEC.

He would return to the city the following month for the last show of the 1995 leg of The Outside World Tour for the Big Twix Mix Show. That performance was released today as No Trendy Réchauffé, a title taken from the Strangers When We Meet lyric. As old Leonardo Da Vinci said: “Realise that everything connects to everything else.”.

The image bottom right is a still from Sam Bayer’s beautiful video, which we posted on Facebook earlier:

#BowieStrangersWhenWeMeet

★ video arrived five years ago today

“He trod on sacred ground he cried aloud into the crowd”

Five years ago today, Johan Renck’s video for ★ was premiered.

Watch it here.

#Blackstar #imablackstar #BlackstarIsFive

When did The Man Who Sold The World arrive?

“And I asked “Why not?” and I replied “I don't know.””

Extra points for any of you that have remained awake by the end of this train-spotter special.

In a recent post regarding Metrobolist (AKA The Man Who Sold The World), we suggested we weren’t comfortable with the accepted release date of Wednesday 4th November, 1970, in the USA. Aside from Wednesday not being a normal release day for albums back then, we've yet to source an original review or press advert that was published before January 1971.

When one takes into consideration the Thanksgiving and Christmas break it’s possible that journalists weren’t tied to their desks at the time. But two months is still a long time after an album release for reviews to start appearing, particularly as they are normally published ahead of release date.

Of course, it could have been Bowie’s US promotional press trip in January/February 1971 that sparked journalists into action and gave Mercury the impetus to publish the one advert for The Man Who Sold The World we’ve managed to uncover, but it seems unlikely.

Also, two sets of tape boxes (four boxes in total) with the final version of The Man Who Sold The World (but still bearing the title Metrobolist), exist in the archive. One of those sets was transferred at Mercury Sound Studios in New York on November 10th, 1970, fifty years ago today.

That doesn't prove anything about the release date, safety masters can be made at any time, but it does confirm that the final running order that we know was still called Metrobolist, even though the album went through different sequencing before this one was settled upon.

So, we’re asking if anybody out there reading this has any actual concrete evidence of The Man Who Sold The World having a release of Wednesday 4th November, 1970, in the USA? Obviously information in books published since doesn’t count as evidence.

We’ll be scanning the forum for any suggestions. Fingers crossed.

#Bowie1970 #BowieMetrobolist #BowieTMWSTW

BLA Part 2 - No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95)

“Slinky secrets, Hotter than the sun”

VINYL AND CD AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY VIA THE DAVID BOWIE OFFICIAL STORE & WARNER MUSIC GROUP’S DIG! STORE (https://lnk.to/DB-BLA2)

‘BRILLIANT LIVE ADVENTURES’ PART 2: 'NO TRENDY RÉCHAUFFÉ (LIVE BIRMINGHAM 95)’ SECOND LIVE ALBUM TO BE RELEASED ON CD AND 2xLP 20 NOVEMBER

Parlophone Records is proud to announce further details for DAVID BOWIE 'BRILLIANT LIVE ADVENTURES', a series of six live albums from the 1990s which will be released on vinyl and CD as limited one run only pressings. There will also be special limited edition boxes for both vinyl and CD to house the full collection. The albums and boxes will be available only via the David Bowie official store and Warner Music Group’s Dig! store.

The first three albums and the special limited edition boxes will be released pre-Christmas, with the remaining three albums coming early next year.

The second release on CD and double vinyl is NO TRENDY RÉCHAUFFÉ (LIVE BIRMINGHAM 95) a previously unreleased live album recorded live at the Birmingham NEC 13th December 1995. This was the final show of the Outside tour in 1995 and was the first night of a five night festival promoted as "The Big Twix Mix Show”.

The set list features rare live performances of 'Jump They Say’ and 'Strangers When We Meet’—the latter featuring lyrics that inspired the album’s title.

The album also features two versions of 'Hallo Spaceboy,’ the second of which was filmed as ’Spaceboy’ was the intended next single at the time. The video was never completed, as the track was subsequently remixed by the Pet Shop Boys for single release and an alternative promotional video made.

Excerpts from the show were broadcast by the BBC, and 'Moonage Daydream' and 'Under Pressure' were mixed by David Richards for release on the 'Hallo Spaceboy' CD single. Both versions on this album are previously unreleased, included here as played and mixed on the night they were performed.

NO TRENDY RÉCHAUFFÉ was produced by David Bowie and performed by Bowie – vocals and saxophone, Carlos Alomar – rhythm guitar, Reeves Gabrels – lead guitar and vocals, Gail Ann Dorsey – bass and vocals, Zachary Alford – drums, Peter Schwartz - musical director, keyboards and synthesisers, George Simms – vocals, and Mike Garson – piano and keyboards.

NO TRENDY RÉCHAUFFÉ (LIVE BIRMINGHAM 95) TRACKLISTING

CD

Look Back In Anger (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (David Bowie)

The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty) (David Bowie/Brian Eno/Reeves Gabrels)

The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)

Hallo Spaceboy (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

I Have Not Been To Oxford Town (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Strangers When We Meet (David Bowie)

Breaking Glass (David Bowie/George Murray/Dennis Davis)

The Motel (David Bowie)

Jump They Say (David Bowie)

Teenage Wildlife (David Bowie)

Under Pressure (David Bowie/Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor/John Deacon/Brian May)

Moonage Daydream (David Bowie)

We Prick You (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Hallo Spaceboy (version 2) (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

LP

Side 1

Look Back In Anger (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (David Bowie)

The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty) (David Bowie/Brian Eno/Reeves Gabrels)

The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)

Side 2

Hallo Spaceboy (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

I Have Not Been To Oxford Town (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Strangers When We Meet (David Bowie)

Breaking Glass (David Bowie/George Murray/Dennis Davis)

Side 3

The Motel (David Bowie)

Jump They Say (David Bowie)

Teenage Wildlife (David Bowie)

Side 4

Under Pressure (David Bowie/Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor/John Deacon/Brian May)

Moonage Daydream (David Bowie)

We Prick You (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Hallo Spaceboy (version 2) (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Recorded live at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, 13th December, 1995. Produced by David Bowie

Photography © Getty Images

#BowieBirmingham95 #DBBLA #BrilliantLiveAdventures

The Man Who Sold The World lyric video

“President Joe once had a dream...” *

To mark today’s release of Metrobolist (AKA The Man Who Sold The World), enjoy this rather beautiful lyric video for the title track.

Also, well worth a read is this piece regarding the album by Alan York over on the Dig! Site.

* For those not yet familiar with Metrobolist/The Man Who Sold The World for one reason or another, today’s lyric quotation is from the song Saviour Machine which appears on it.

#Bowie1970 #BowieMetrobolist #BowieTMWSTW #TMWSTW2020Mix

The Man Who Sold The World is 50 today

“In the corner of the morning in the past...”

Here's an exclusive photograph kindly donated by writer/journalist/musician and occasional photographer, John Mendelssohn.

John took the shot during a session at the Holiday Inn in San Francisco in February 1971, while Bowie was in the city for a brief press junket in America to promote The Man Who Sold The World.

We've posted it in celebration of what is recorded as the 50th anniversary of the release of The Man Who Sold The World in the US, Wednesday, 4th November, 1970.

The accuracy of that date has been called into question recently, but we'll present the findings of our investigation to those that care about such details in the near future. If you have any actual real evidence of the release date, aside from the myriad Bowie books where the date is repeated, then we’d love to hear from you.

The inset in our montage is from John’s Rolling Stone review for The Man Who Sold The World, dated 18th February, 1971.

Here’s a short excerpt from it:

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In an album that, save for the impotently sarcastic 'Running Gun Blues', is uniformly excellent, at least four tracks demand special attention: 'Saviour Machine' demonstrates that Bowie far from exhausted his talent for quietly moralistic rock sci-fi in his earlier 'Space Oddity'. The almost insufferably depressive 'After All' contains the strangest refrain perhaps ever conceived — a haunting, mantric "Oh, by jingo". 'The Width of the Circle' is both a hallucination with religious overtones that recall both Dante and Adam and Eve and a sound of enormity.

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That last phrase was even picked up for the strapline for the only advert we've managed to find for this first release of the album.

For those of you wondering about the DailyBowieThing hashtag, search #DailyBowieThing on Instagram and Facebook to find out what it’s all about.

#DailyBowieThing #Bowie1970 #BowieMetrobolist #BowieTMWSTW #BowieMendelssohn