Just on two years back I wrote a post about a particularly interesting album by David Bowie entitled Station To Station. That blog post attracts more comments than most on this blog.
The album was released in 1976. The album is excellent in its own right and marks Bowie’s transition from his US influenced ‘plastic soul’ period of Young Americans through to the experimentation of the Berlin influenced trilogy of Low, “Heroes” and Lodger. Bowie collaborated with Brian Eno on those albums.
My original post sets out the variations in the artwork that were planned for and finally graced the Station To Station album sleeve. The original artwork incorporated a full colour photograph of Bowie taken on the set of the film, The Man Who Fell To Earth. This artwork, apparently, was not favoured by Bowie and a cropped black and white incarnation of the photograph was utilised instead. That album sleeve is shown below. Some of you may own a copy.
Many fans were oblivious to the existence of the full colour artwork until a copy was published in David Bowie: An Illustrated Record by Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray. The full colour artwork was an impressive revelation at the time and many wondered why the decision was made to go with the cropped black and white photograph.
Full colour printer proofs were produced by RCA in the USA in 1975. Michael Olsen, who was working for Bowie’s record company in 1975 obtained copies of the printer proofs amongst a collection of materials that the company felt was no longer needed. Michael himself commented about this on my earlier post. In addition to the RCA full colour proofs printed in the USA a number of 24″ X 12″ full colour flat mock-ups of the sleeve were produced by RCA in the UK and these were used by sales representatives to market the forthcoming album. One of these RCA UK mock-ups is illustrated below. Promotional posters printed at the time featured the full colour artwork as well.
During the late 1980s one of the full colour RCA proofs was sold or passed to a collector in the UK and it was utilised to produce a counterfeit of the full colour artwork. One could pick up a copy of the counterfeit sleeve for £10.00. As I commented on my original blog post the counterfeits were excellent and nicely reproduce the RCA USA colour proof. They were folded and glued and they were ubiquitous amongst Bowie fans from that time. Some collectors bought half a dozen or more. It was a genuine bargain. One of these counterfeits is illustrated below. I bought two.
Most fans thought that they would never ever get to see a copy of the authentic artwork for the full colour Station To Station sleeve and when the counterfeit turned up it it was a real god-send. We all knew it was a counterfeit but we did not care. It was simply neat to have a copy and thus get an idea of what the full colour RCA sleeve would have looked like if it had actually been officially released.
The counterfeit is a little flawed however. When one looks closely at the artwork it is blurred. The colours do not blend well and appear to be ‘bleeding’. This is illustrated below. The counterfeit is on the left. The official RCA product is on the right.
Well today, Jeff Gold, a famous record collector and dealer commented on that blog post as well. Jeff confirmed Michael’s account of the original colour proofs in the USA and shed light on yet another version of the Station To Station artwork that featured white lettering across the top of the album sleeve. A copy of that proof was placed on eBaytoday. I illustrate that proof below.
This new revelation adds another chapter to the history of this album sleeve. It will surprise many fans.
Finally, in order to confuse all of you further, when the Station To Station album was reissued with bonus tracks by both Ryko and also EMI during the 1990s they utilised the full colour artwork. A Japanese CD reissue in 2007 featured the black and white artwork.
Addendum. This is a photograph of the two late 1908s reproductions and the RCA UK flat mock-up, in the foreground, that I possess. The test pressing of the album is on the right.
Back in November 1985 David Bowie’s record company, EMI, had planned to release a compilation album featuring dance remixes from a couple of Bowie’s recent albums. The name of the album was imaginatively titled Dance [EMI ST-17175]. Each track on the proposed release was to receive additional production and mixing by Rusty Garner and Paul Sabu. The track listing was as follows:
Loving The Alien
Let’s Dance
Shake It
Blue Jean
China Girl
Dancing With The Big Boys
Modern Love
However, the album was withdrawn from EMI’s release schedule and it did not come to pass. No vinyl or CDs were pressed. A number of printer proofs for the sleeve were created. One of these was recently auctioned on eBay. Before all the sleeves for the album were destroyed a few were salvaged and others were used as packaging material for other albums as delivered to retail outlets. These were subsequently passed on to fans.
The sleeve artwork is not that brilliant and it seems that EMI was attempting to recapture the hype that surrounded Bowie in 1983 at the time of his hit album Let’s Dance and the Serious Moonlight Tour. Download a high resolution image of the sleeve.
One of my favourite sites on the Internet is Wolfgang’s Vault. “What is that?” you ask? It is one of the most incredible music sites on the web. It streams live concert audio archives going back 40 or more years. There are concerts by David Bowie, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Blondie, Devo, Allman Brothers Band, Joe Cocker and on and on. There are over 1740 concerts. Check out this listing…
Many of these shows were broadcast live on American radio networks. Some of you may remember the King Biscuit Flower Hour or the Superstar Concert Series? Quite often these radio broadcasts were recorded by fans on to tape and then bootlegged. One of my favourite bootlegs was Resurrection on 84th Street which featured a live performance by David Bowie that was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on the 23rd March, 1976. I bought my copy from Toad Hall’s Rare Records in Victoria via the post. The double album set cost me $11.00AUD.
Anyway, portions of this show are now available at Wolfgang’s Vault. The band for the tour were tight. The shows were powerful. Bowie was really enjoying himself.
Every now and then I surf over to the vault and listen to a gig or two. It is incredible. The two Led Zeppelin shows from 1969 are brilliant.
Tonight I thought I would set up Airfoil on the Mac and play the streamed audio through my stereo via the wireless network. I have been playing my iTunes playlists over the wireless network for a while now. I should have set up Airfoil to broadcast the other audio on my Mac as well a long time ago.
This software is neat. You can select the different nodes on your network and adjust the volume and equalisation of the audio. Works on Windows too.
Caught Devo live in concert last night in Sydney. It was brilliant. To quote their own bio the “band took its name from their concept of “de-evolution” – the idea that instead of evolving, mankind has actually regressed, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society.” Most of the tracks they played during their frenetic gig came from their first three albums. There were quite a few fans wearing the Devo Energy Domes as well as the yellow or white boiler suits.
I was a little surprised when they came out on stage. A couple of the band members looked rather portly in their trademark yellow boiler suits. I have seen David Bowie as well as the Rolling Stones perform live recently and they are holding their own somewhat. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo had put on a little weight, yet his energy levels were enormous. They all performed at a frantic pace. It was such a great show.
I first saw Devo perfom live back in 1982. I had read about the band in a copy of New Musical Express in 1978 and imported their album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! It was simultaneously an immensely enjoyable and challenging album. You hade to be a little eccentric or willing to step outside of your musical comfort zone to get into Devo.
I bought some of their early singles, some live bootleg albums plus their first few official albums after that. I have since sold the bootleg albums on eBay.
You can catch their seminal track, Jocko Homo, live here on YouTube if you wish to sample a live experience from 2007. There is a live audio recording of Jocko Homo dating bac to 1978 on the Devo MySpace page as well. Here are the lyrics for you to digest. What can they teach you in the 21st Century you web 2.0 devotees?
Jocko Homo by Devo
They tell us that
We lost our tails
Evolving up
From little snails
I say it’s all
Just wind in sails
Are we not men?
We are DEVO!
We’re pinheads now
We are not whole
We’re pinheads all
Jocko homo
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O
Monkey men all
In business suit
Teachers and critics
All dance the poot
Are we not men?
We are DEVO!
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O
god made man
but he used the monkey to do it
apes in the plan
we’re all here to prove it
i can walk like an ape
talk like an ape
do what a monkey do
god made man
but a monkey supplied the glue
We must repeat
O.k. let’s go!
Well, is there a lesson for teachers and administrators in there, somewhere?
Addendum 7th August, 2008. Dion, over on The WhimWham has written a great review of the gig with a setlist, photographs, video and an acount of a meeting with the band! Simply brilliant!
This is an aboriginal interpretation of Zorba The Greek. This performance always lifts my spirits. I am always happy to see anyone enjoying life and not taking themsleves too seriously. As the description on the YouTube page explains…
Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy from Milingimbi has been in the Indigenous Media Industry for many years and has been a long-standing member and supporter of the Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association, TEABBA Radio. He has worked Independently in Music and Film for many years also.As the man behind the camera and release of the video, Frank is also representing the dance group who call themselves “The Chooky Dancers”.
Frank has said that he filmed the footage at this years Ramingining Festival on the 30th September 2007 and knew it would be “something special” as soon as he saw the boys rehearsing. “The crowd went wild as you can see in the video, and the classic song Zorba the Greek has now become a hit overnight in the communities and now it seems, everywhere else too.”
I finally purchased Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ latest album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! It has been out since March. I was waiting until I knew I could sit down and simply listen. Here I am sat, next to the cat, alone and free of disturbance. Tracks on the album remind me of the Mercy Seat, Tupelo and songs from Abattoir Blues. Some of the tracks simply rock while others stroll languidly along with a sideways glance across the street if you follow.
I admire Nick Cave. He is an independent beast with a considerable intellect. His lecture series on the Secret Life of the Love Song provide insights for students and songsmiths alike.
Other albums I recommend by Cave if you wish to give him a listen include The Boatman Calls, Nocturama, The Lyre of Orpheus and No More Shall We Part. A couple of my favourite tracks include Into My Arms, Breathless and Red Right Hand.
I was perusing the news section of Bowie’s web site and spotted a couple of photographs of Bowie using a Mac, not unlike the one that I am using to generate this blog post. I am a bit of a fan of the old Bowie and a bit of a fan of the Mac. Seeing both in the same image is a bit of a thrill for this old fart. I have seen photographs of Bowie using one of the coloured iMacs some years back. He was in Moby’s flat at the time. I managed a mention on his web site once. Another thrill for the old fart.
Bowie has been quite an innovative user of the net although he has been quiet of late. Via his web site, which has been around for 14 or so years, he has organised events where fans can contribute to album artwork, select tracks for live albums and even contribute to the lyrics of songs for his albums. One winner even had the chance to sing backing vocals on the track. He was releasing .mp2 files on his web site back in 1996. I had a dial-up connection and any chance of downloading the tracks was impossible so being a rather audacious yet quick thinking individual I drove to the offices of an ISP near my home. I asked if they could do me a favour and download the tracks for me. They did. Not bad, eh? I must have looked so pathetic in their eyes.
I took some photographs of Bowie way back in 1978. I was using a small ‘instamatic’ camera. A friend took some much better photographs with a proper camera. Were you alive then? All of the photographs are here.
David Bowie. Live at the Sydney Showgrounds, November 25th, 1978.
Have you got a tape of this show?
To the webmaster of Bowie’s site, on the off chance that you are reading this, for goodness sake remove those rather unpleasant Google Adverts off the web site.
Well, what’s this video mean to you? I occasionally elicit replies like this at school. I definitely need to rethink my questioning techniques at times. A little more open ended.
It is Sort Of Dunno Nothing by Peter Denahy. I want to make a joke about a popular online bookmarking slash social networking tool in relation to this song however I shall refrain.
Earlier this year I had the good fortune to collaborate on an article about David Bowie. He turned 60 this year and the article focused on 60 rare and intriguing recordings released during his career from 1964 through to the present. The article was published a couple of weeks ago in the Record Collector magazine.
I worked with Ruud Altenburg and Maarten Kwant, both of the Netherlands. We all had a great time writing the article and gathering together the images used throughout. Quite an experience and a further demonstration of the power of the Internet. The three of us have never actually met in person. We met via the web due to our interest in collecting records. Ruud is the creator of the excellent Illustrated db Discography. The article rated a couple of mentions on Bowie’s web site as well.
This afternoon I digitised an old live recording of an Elvis Costello performance at the Shellharbour Workers’ Club in Shellharbour, NSW. He played with a band called the Confederates. The band consisted of Austin De Lone, Jim Keltner, Elvis Costello, Jerry Scheff and James Burton if I remember correctly. It also included Nick Lowe this night. It was the 5th December, 1987.
The performance was brilliant and the crowd went wild. They yelled and bellowed for more and the band played several encores. They ran out of tunes and they played “That’s How You Got Killed Before” once more with different solos. You can hear me putting the cassette recorder away at the end after the house lights went up. My friends encircled me as I hid the recorder before we made our exit. Getting tape decks past security was always a worry. Anyway, have a listen…
Bowie released Station To Station in 1976. The release number was RCA APL1-1327. The album released to the public had artwork with a black and white still from the Man Who Fell To Earth movie. Apparently plans had been made to release a full colour sleeve and some artwork had been undertaken. The colour artwork attracts considerable debate among collectors as to what was printed and what was not printed. It seems that in the UK RCA had 24″ X 12″ flat mock-ups printed. In the USA RCA printed proofs of the sleeve. Some collectors glued the proofs together to make up the sleeve.
This was further complicated in the late 1980s when an English collector obtained one of these US full colour proofs and had counterfeit copies made, possibly by a printing company in Japan. They were then sold by record dealers in England. Occasionally these counterfeits are now sold to unwitting collectors as authentic RCA USA sleeves. I think that is patently unfair. Check out this link for photographs of the UK 24″ x 12″ mock-up and one copy of the aforementioned counterfeit.
Anyway, Ryko reissued the album with the full colour artwork in 1990. Subsequent issues on CD have also included the full colour artwork. This year Toshiba reissued the album as a Mini LP CD with the original 1976 black and white artwork. In many respects the original 1976 black and white RCA album sleeve (especially the UK pressing) in mint or sealed condition would be a valuable acquistion.
Listened to the re-issue of Bowie’s 1975 album Young Americans. It was remixed by Tony Visconti. It sounds brilliant. I was disappointed with some of the remixing done with the Ryko reissue of Young Americans 15 or so years back. I missed the original rippling stereo saxohpone mix on Win for example. This 5.1 remix is luxurious. Win sounds wonderful. I have mixed feelings about the strings on It’s Gonna Be Me. The video stuff from the Dick Cavett show is nice. Why they left off ‘After Today’ from this special edition is a mystery.
Wowie Zowie was an album that my old brother Peter had bought about 1969. I eventually picked up a second hand copy many years later. There are some standout tracks on this compilation from Decca. The album was subtitled the “World of Progressive Music”. Many of these tracks still stand the test of time today. There is material from Savoy Brown, John Mayall, Johnny Almond, Keef Hartley Band, The Moody Blues, Touch and others. Great listening and a real trip back in time, man. Grab them while they’re hot.
David Bowie turned 58 on the 8th January. It was Elvis Presley’s birthday too. Anyway, to celebrate Bowie’s birthday I dug up some old 45RPM singles by a number of different artists including the Beatstalkers, Ronnie Hilton, Peter Noone and Oscar. Bowie had written songs for all of these performers when he was still a struggling artist trying to make ends meet. See the single labels here.
This two album set brought together a collection of rarities from the world of recorded music. The Amazing Kornyfone Record Label was a bootleg record label that produced vinyl albums of rare and hard to find recordings. Artists that were bootlegged by TAKRL included the Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, Bruce Springsteen and others.
The Amazing Kornyfone Record Label operated out of Anytown in the USA and was the brainchild of the late Dr. Terrence H. Tellyfone, Art Gnuvo and Deek Kibard. There is a short history of the TAKRL record label here. A history of bootlegs can be found at the Hotwacks web site. Please check out the entire album and eight page TAKRL discography here.
This is the blog site of John Larkin. I am a secondary school teacher who lives in New South Wales, Australia.
In addition to teaching history I have also been involved in the development and application of educational technologies at primary, secondary, tertiary and corporate levels.
The following links will take you to a constantly updated set of resources and links that are focused upon implementing Web 2.0 and other technologies in the classroom.
