Description
Parlophone Records are proud to announce DAVID BOWIE ‘WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974 – 1976)’ the second in a series of box sets spanning his career from 1969.

The follow up to the awarding winning and critically acclaimed DAVID BOWIE ‘FIVE YEARS (1969 – 1973)’ will be released on 23rd September and will contain the previously unreleased album from 1974 called ‘THE GOUSTER’.

The twelve CD box, thirteen-piece vinyl set and digital download features the material officially released by Bowie during the so-called ‘American’ phase of his career from 1974 to 1976.

The box set, which is named after a track recorded in 1974 but not officially released until the 1990’s, includes ‘DIAMOND DOGS’, ‘DAVID LIVE’ (in original and 2005 mixes), ‘YOUNG AMERICANS’ and ‘STATION TO STATION’ (in original and 2010 mixes) as well as ‘THE GOUSTER’, ‘LIVE NASSAU COLISEUM 76’ and a new compilation ‘RE:CALL 2’ a collection of single versions and non-album b-sides.

All of the formats include tracks that have never before appeared on CD/vinyl/digitally as well as new remasters.

Exclusive to each of the box sets is the previously unreleased as a complete album ‘THE GOUSTER’ that was recorded at Sigma Sound, Philadelphia in 1974 and produced by Tony Visconti. The album was mixed and mastered before David decamped to New York to work with John Lennon and Harry Maslin on what became the ‘YOUNG AMERICANS’ album. ‘THE GOUSTER’ contains three previously unreleased mixes of ‘Right’, ‘Can You Hear Me’ and ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’.

For the 2016 release, Tony Visconti has overseen the mastering from the original tapes and photos taken by Eric Stephen Jacobs have been put together for the sleeve based around one of David’s original concepts for the album.

Also exclusive to the CD, vinyl, standard digital and MFiT box sets will be the remastered ‘DAVID LIVE (original mix)’, the 2010 Harry Maslin mix of ‘STATION TO STATION’ (previously only available on an audio only DVD in 5.1 and stereo as part of the ‘STATION TO STATION’ Deluxe box set in 2010) and ‘RE:CALL 2’.

This new compilation features the original single mix of ‘Rebel Rebel’, which has only featured on a 40th anniversary picture disc in 2014 since its original release on single in 1974, and a previously unreleased on CD Australian single edit of ‘Diamond Dogs’, the only place in the world that this edit was issued. Also appearing on CD for the first time is the single edit of the live version of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me’, which was issued to radio stations in the U.S. to help promote the ‘DAVID LIVE’ album.

‘RE:CALL 2’ features newly originated artwork with 1975 in-studio images from the ‘STATION TO STATION’ recording sessions by David’s friend and backing vocalist Geoff MacCormack aka Warren Peace.

The alternative cover for the 2010 mix of ‘STATION TO STATION’ by Harry Maslin, features the originally intended colour sleeve for the album that never got further than a few colour proofs and was replaced by the more familiar black and white image.

The vinyl box set has the same content as the CD set and is pressed on audiophile quality 180g vinyl.

The box set’s accompanying book, 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, will feature rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers including Eric Stephen Jacobs, Tom Kelley, Geoff MacCormack, Terry O’Neill, Steve Schapiro, and many others as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums from producers Tony Visconti and Harry Maslin.

The CD box set will include faithfully reproduced mini-vinyl versions of the original albums and the CDs will be gold coloured rather than the usual silver.

[tracklisting]‘‘WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974-1976)’ CD & Vinyl Tracklistings (showing Vinyl side breaks)

DIAMOND DOGS
Released on RCA APLI 0576 (U.K.) / CPLI 0576 (U.S.) on 31st May, 1974.
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)
Released on RCA APL2 0771 (U.K.) / CPL2-0771 (U.S.) on 29th October, 1974.
David Live was culled from performances on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th of July, 1974 at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia.
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)
David Live was culled from performances on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th of July, 1974 at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia.
Released on EMI 874 3042 on CD and also in 5.1 on the DVD-Audio EMI 874 3049 on 14th November, 2005.
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
Previously unreleased as a complete album.
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
Released on RCA RS 1006 (U.K.) / AQL1-0998 (U.S.) on 7th March, 1975.
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
Released on RCA APL1 1327 on 23rd January, 1976.
STATION TO STATION (2010 HARRY MASLIN MIX)
First released on EMI BOWSTSD 2010 in 5.1 and in stereo at 48kHz/24bit on the DVD format within the Station To Station deluxe set on 20th September, 2010.
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
Recorded live at the Nassau Coliseum Uniondale, NY, U.S.A., 23rd March, 1976. Released on EMI BOWSTSD 2010 within the Station To Station deluxe set on 20th September, 2010.
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
Non Album Singles, Single Versions and B-Sides.
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))[/tracklisting]

12CD Box Set
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwan-20
CA - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwanca-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwan-21

13LP Box Set
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwan-20
CA - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwanca-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwan-21

New David Bowie Box Set to Include Unreleased Album 'The Gouster'
"Its meaning was attitude, an attitude of pride and hipness," Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti says of album title.

A new David Bowie box set is in the works. The follow-up to last year's Five Years (1969-1973) box set, the forthcoming Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) will include Bowie's complete unreleased album The Gouster. The album morphed and eventually became Young Americans.

The set is due out on Parlophone, but a release date and full track list has not yet been revealed. As Pitchfork points out, longtime Bowie collaborator and friend Tony Visconti wrote the liner notes for the upcoming set. An excerpt was unveiled via Bowie's official Facebook page. "Gouster was a word unfamiliar to me, but David knew it as a type of dress code worn by African-American teens in the Sixties in Chicago," Visconti explains in the excerpt. "But in the context of the album it's 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."
Visconti goes on to discuss his and Bowie's love of soul and says that with The Gouster they "sure as hell wanted to make a killer soul album." This led to a fresh take for "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)," which was recorded in 1974 and was supposed to be the lead song on the album's original track list. It was later released in 1979. Visconti describes the song as an "outrageous brand new, funkafied version of David's classic."
In addition to housing The Gouster and Visconti's liner notes, Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) will also feature on the sleeve a previously unpublished picture from the original The Gouster album photo session.
See the original track list for The Gouster and read more from the liner notes excerpt below.

SAY HELLO TO THE GOUSTER
“Can I be real?”
The follow up to Parlophone’s award-winning box set, David Bowie - Five Years (1969 – 1973), will be David Bowie - Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976). (More of which, next week)
Exclusive to the set is The Gouster, which is previously unreleased as a complete album. Featured on the sleeve for this box set version, is a previously unpublished picture from the original photo session for the album.
Here’s how The Gouster’s tracklisting looked before it morphed into Young Americans.
Side 1
1. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
2. Somebody Up There Likes Me
3. It’s Gonna Be Me
Side 2
1. Who Can I Be Now?
2. Can You Hear Me
3. Young Americans
4. Right
As we say, watch out for full details and the release date of David Bowie - Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976) next week.
We’ll leave you with an excerpt from Tony Visconti's excellent notes on the album, taken from the box set book.
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“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.”
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +
‪#‎WCIBNBox‬ ‪#‎WhoCanIBeNowBox‬

I'm going to be on the fence on this until I see how much Diamond Dogs & Station To Station material is included. I really dislike Young Americans.

Were any of these songs re-recorded for Young Americans, or is this just the recordings we know in a different order?

From books I've read lately, there are numerous re-recordings & also different mixes with different overdubs. Same basic feel, based on the books.

I thought you would be all over this Geff.

Bump with lots of release details now added at the top of the thread. Awaiting Amazon links.

There are a few Bowie albums I really don't like:

Young Americans (I still own the current DE)
Buddha Of Suburbia
Black Tie White Noise (though I bought the 3 cd version anyway)
Never Let Me Down (other then the B-Side Julie; again I bought the deluxe version anyway)
Labyrinth
Much of the pre Space Oddity Decca/Deram recordings (with some exceptions)

Bump: The boxes are now up for pre-order at Amazon USA.

12CD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwan-20

13LP
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwan-20

I want a track list! This & the Ian Hunter box are going to be expensive.

Click where it says "Tracklist: Show" in the first post.

Thank you! I think I'll only need this if there is a hi-res edition.

The CD and vinyl boxes are now listed for pre-order in Canada and the UK as well. (At the time I'm posting this, the Amazon Canada prices are best.)

12CD Box Set
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwan-20
CA - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwanca-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IRHZO4O/?tag=imwan-21

13LP Box Set
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwan-20
CA - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwanca-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IRI05CO/?tag=imwan-21

Geff, what can you tell me about the Ian Hunter box?

Here's the thread for it, Sprinter:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=98387

Thanks Linda!

This and Five Years hit a really rare spot on my personal BigBoxRespons-o-meter: They appear to have plenty of treats for the supercommitted Bowie fan while not having anything that I personally "need" to have.
Most box releases these days leave me feeling anxious and annoyed: I want SOMETHING in the box but don't want to pay a huge price to get that something along with a bunch of stuff I don't care about (that will still take up space in the ever-shrinking apartment of my ever-growing family).

Bless you, Bowie boxmeisters, for putting out a desirable product that I am not interested in!

Doubt that I will feel the same about the Berlin Years box.... (please include Scary Monsters and Scary demos!!!!)

I agree, I'd likely be in for Stage- Scary with rarities.

For me there's 2 problems with this box:

1. I already have the vast majority of the material.

2. Most of the rarities are Young Americans out-takes, & YA is my least favorite Bowie album.

Rhino is offering a download now. Unfortunately, it's only available through I-Tunes (Apple MP3).

I wrote Rhino asking about hi-res; we'll see if they write back.

Apple doesn't really do MP3 IIRC, so it's most likely AAC or ALC.

Hoping for/expecting hi-res. The last one did come out in hr EXCEPT Recall (The important part....) I'd really like Diamond Dogs, David Live, S2S & Nassau in hr. I don't really care about Gouster or other YA out takes.

http://theseconddisc.com/2016/07/25/let ... september/

There are two hi-res editions: 192kHz/24 bit and 96kHz/24 bit. Neither of these editions will contain the alternate mix versions of David Live or Station to Station or the Nassau concert or Re:Call album.