A BIRTHDAY GIFT TO CELEBRATE BOWIE

Today (1/8) would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday and to celebrate, the folks at Rhino Records have announced a limited-edition Record Store Day vinyl release.

Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth) is taken from the Trident Studios quarter-inch stereo tapes dated 12/15/71, created for the provisional track list of what would become The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Besides the different running order, the new set features four songs that didn’t make the final album.

In the place of “Starman,” one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Round And Round,” which was eventually released as the B-side to “Drive-In Sunday” in 1973. Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam” closes side one; it would later appear as the B-side of “Sorrow,” also in 1973.

Side two features “Holy Holy,” which surfaced as the B-side of “Diamond Dogs” in 1974, and “Velvet Goldmine,” which wasn’t released until 1975.

Waiting in the Sky was cut on a customized late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Trident Studios master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed vinyl cut was by engineer John Webber at AIR Studios in London.

Record Store Day this year is on 4/20. We expect sales figures—which we’ll be tracking on our new chart—to be higher than ever.