David Bowie's Is It Any Wonder? EP is released today with the final track, "The Man Who Sold The World" (Live Eno Mix) now available as the final installment from the set that has been released gradually over the past six weeks.
The six-track EP will also be made available on 12” vinyl and CD with an alternative tracklisting including "Fun" (Clownboy Mix), as well as mrch bundles available exclusively here.
The Live Eno Mix version of "The Man Who Sold The World" is based on the fairly radical trip-hop reworking performed on the Outside World Tour. Longtime Bowie collaborator Brian Eno reshaped, overdubbed and mixed this live recording of the song at Westside Studios in London on 30th October 1995, recalling the session in his diaries: “I added some backing vocals and a sonar blip and sculpted the piece a little so that there was more contour to it.”.
The track features backing vocals by Eno, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, Peter Schwartz on synths, Zachary Alford on drums, Carlos Alomar on guitar and Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals.
Here is a breakdown of each track on the Is It Any Wonder? EP...
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (CHANGESNOWBOWIE VERSION)
This version of the classic track is taken from the 9-track session ChangesNowBowie, recorded for radio and broadcast by the BBC on David’s 50th birthday on 8th January, 1997. The broadcast featured an interview with David by Mary Anne Hobbs interspersed with specially recorded birthday messages and questions from the likes of Scott Walker, Damon Albarn, Bono, Robert Smith and many more. This mostly acoustic session was a stripped-back affair featuring some of David’s favourites of his own compositions
STAY ’97
Stay originally appeared on the Station To Station album in 1976 and was released as a single in the US in August of that year. The previously unreleased 1997 re-recording of "Stay" began at The Factory in the Dublin Docklands during the pre-Earthling tour rehearsals while David, Mark Plati and Reeves Gabrels were preparing the backing/sequencer tracks before the rest of the band arrived, and the rehearsals started in earnest. David wanted to ‘update' some of his live show staples so they would sit well sonically with the Outside/Earthling material. The recording was completed later, potentially for use as a ‘B-side’, and mixed at Right Track Recording studios, New York in May/June 1997.
I CAN’T READ ’97
"I Can’t Read" originally appeared on Tin Machine’s eponymous debut album in 1989, and was a staple in the band’s live set. In the autumn of 1996, during the mixing stages for Earthling, David re-recorded the track – which, at one stage, appeared on a mastered version of the album. A second version, featuring minor chords and a darker sound for the chorus, was recorded for Ang Lee’s film The Ice Storm. The full-length version appeared on a single in 1998, while an edit featured on the film’s soundtrack album in 1997, both released by VelVel Records. While the song’s third incarnation, "I Can't Read '97", was David’s preferred solo version, it was ultimately cut from Earthling and replaced at the last minute with "The Last Thing You Should Do".
BABY UNIVERSAL ’97
With lyrics by David and music co-written by David and Reeves Gabrels, "Baby Universal" was initially recorded by Tin Machine for Tin Machine II. Released as the band’s penultimate single in October 1991, it was performed during the final Tin Machine US television appearance on Saturday Night Live. "Baby Universal" was regularly performed on Bowie’s Outside Summer Festivals Tour in 1996. The version now being released as "Baby Universal ’97" was originally re-recorded for the Earthling album, originally intended to be sequenced between "I’m Afraid Of Americans" and "Law (Earthlings On Fire)". The song was ultimately removed from the final album master, but David was very fond of this version and before the track was dropped was quoted as saying, “I thought Baby Universal was a really good song and I don’t think it got heard. I didn’t really want that to happen to it, so I put it on this album… I think this version is very good.”
NUTS
The unreleased semi instrumental "Nuts" was jointly written by David, Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati. It was recorded during the final Earthling sessions in November 1996, the same session during which "The Last Thing You Should Do" was written and recorded. Both songs were being recorded as bonus tracks but then, at the last minute David swapped out "I Can’t Read" (released as track two from this streaming EP on 17th January) with "The Last Thing You Should Do". However, "Nuts" has remained unreleased until now.
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