BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984

“Blue Jean” is a song from the album Tonight by David Bowie. One of only two tracks on the album to be written entirely by Bowie, it was released as a single ahead of the album.

Loosely inspired by Eddie Cochran, the song was an uncomplicated composition, recalling earlier Bowie rockers such as “The Jean Genie,” and is generally regarded as one of the better parts of a disappointing album.

Following the huge commercial success of Bowie’s previous album, Let’s Dance, its singles and the Serious Moonlight Tour, “Blue Jean” was launched with massive promotion. Julien Temple was engaged to direct a 21-minute short film to promote the song, Jazzin’ for Blue Jean. The song performance segment from this was also used as a more conventional music video.

“Blue Jean” was a hit in the UK and America, reaching No. 6 and No. 8, respectively.
The song would remain in Bowie’s live repertoire for the rest of his career, being performed on tours in 1987, 1990 and 2004.

Interviewed in 1987 and asked to compare a track like “Time Will Crawl” to “Blue Jean,” Bowie said “‘Blue Jean’ is a piece of sexist rock ‘n roll. [laughs] It’s about picking up birds. It’s not very cerebral, that piece.”

The flip side “Dancing with the Big Boys,” which Bowie also co-wrote with Iggy Pop, was written and recorded in eight hours as Bowie and Pop egged each other on. In what was described as an “exhilarating rush,” Bowie and Pop “went in [to the studio] with a few bottles of beer and would virtually bellow out anything that came into their heads,” said Hugh Padgham. “And I just recorded it all.” The song is about the “little guy” being crushed by “oppressive corporate structures.” The lyrics were taken from a backlog of unused lyrics; the line “this dot marks your location” was a reference to a “lengthy irritating stay” at a New York Hotel (Bowie had been looking at the hotel room’s fire escape map), and “Your family is a football team” was a reference to the immigrant families working in New York; “the whole family [has] to work together for survival.”

The track elicited this from Bowie:

There’s a particular sound I’m after that I haven’t really got yet; I’ll either crack it on the next album or retire from it. I think I got quite close to it on “Dancing with the Big Boys.” … I got very musical over the last couple of years – trying to write musically and develop things the way people used to write in the Fifties. I stayed away from experimentation. Now, I think I should be a bit more adventurous. And in “Big Boys,” Iggy and I broke away from all that for one track, and it came nearer to the sound I was looking for than anything else.

SIDE A:
Blue Jean (Extended Dance Mix) 5:16
Remix – John “Jellybean” BenitezWritten-By – David Bowie

SIDE B:
Dancing With The Boys (Extended Dance Mix) 7:28
Engineer [Remix] – Jay Burnette*Remix, Producer [Additional 12" Production] – Arthur Baker
Written-By – C. Alomar*, D. Bowie*, I. Pop*

Dancing With The Boys (Extended Dub Mix) 7:13
Engineer [Remix] – Jay Burnette*Remix, Producer [Additional 12" Production] – Arthur Baker
Written-By – C. Alomar*, D. Bowie*, I. Pop*

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

CHARTS:

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America – V-7838-1/2
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Rock
Credits: Producer – David Bowie, Derek Bramble, Hugh Padgham

NOTES:
Album versions can be heard on “Tonight” SJ-17138

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

PW: burningtheground

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BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984

“Tonight” is a song written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop for Iggy’s second solo album, Lust for Life, released in 1977. The song was later made into the title track for Bowie’s own album Tonight.

Bowie re-recorded the song with guest vocalist Tina Turner in 1984 for his album of the same name. The song was recorded as a duet but the single was only credited to Bowie. The original spoken word introduction of the 1977 version, establishing that the lyric is addressed to a lover dying of a heroin overdose, was excised for Bowie’s version because Bowie regarded the introduction as an “idiosyncracy” of Iggy Pop that did not match his own personal vocabulary. Bowie also stated that he didn’t want to “inflict” that part of the song on Tina Turner, either.

The reggae-flavoured song reached only #53 in the UK singles charts (the first ‘current’ Bowie single to miss the top 40 since “Be My Wife” in 1976). In the US the song also peaked at the #53 position on the Billboard Hot 100.

SIDE A:
Tonight (Vocal Dance Mix) 4:29

SIDE B:
Tumble And Twirl (Extended Dance Mix) 5:03
Tonight (Dub Mix) 4:18

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

CHARTS:

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America – V-7846-1/2
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Rock
Credits: Design – Mick Haggerty
Engineer [Remix] – MIchael Barbiero
Photography – Greg Gorman
Producer [Additional Production] – Carlos Alomar, Steve Thompson
Remix – Steve Thompson
Written-By – D. Bowie*, I. Pop*

NOTES:
Recorded in England.
Album versions can be heard on “Tonight” SJ-17138

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

PW: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1982

“Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” is a song by David Bowie. It was recorded for Paul Schrader’s 1982 remake of the film Cat People with producer Giorgio Moroder.

Schrader engaged Bowie for a theme song in 1981, with Moroder having already recorded most of the music. Bowie was to put lyrics to the main theme. The words only had a basic relation to the film. The B-side is a Moroder-only instrumental which featured no input from Bowie.

The song itself, in keeping with the dark tone of the film, has some slight goth rock influences, with Bowie singing in a deep croon while being backed up by a female chorus, a combination that The Sisters of Mercy would commonly employ years later.

Due to Moroder’s contract, the single was issued by MCA. The full-length version appeared on the soundtrack album, and the 12″ single, while a 4:08 edited version was made for the 7″ release. The single reached #26 in the UK, and #67 in the US – Bowie’s biggest hit there since “Golden Years”. It peaked at #1 in New Zealand, remaining there for three weeks. It was also #1 in Norway for seven consecutive weeks, and then returned to the top for a further week.

The single was released three separate times by MCA. First with “Cat People” as the A-side, then again two months later with “Paul’s Theme” as the A-side, and finally in November 1982 with “Cat People” back on the A-side. Notable contribution as orchestrator was made by Hungarian-born composer, Sylvester Levay.

In 1983, Bowie re-recorded the song for his Let’s Dance album. This version was also released as the B-side to the title track’s single release, and performed on Bowie’s Serious Moonlight Tour.

SIDE A:
Cat People (Putting Out Fire) 6:41
Written-By – Bowie*, Moroder*
Performed By- David Bowie

SIDE B:
Paul’s Theme (Jogging Chase) 3:52
Written-By – G. Moroder*
Performed By- Giorgio Moroder

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

CHARTS:

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: MCA Records Ltd. – MCAT 770
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1982
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
Credits: Producer – Giorgio Moroder

NOTES:
Taken from the soundtrack to the film “Cat People”

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 16bit 44kHz using Adobe batch processing
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi PNG format, resized to JPEG format for posting.

PW: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.