David Bowie – Never Let Me Down (US 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1987

“Never Let Me Down” is the title track on David Bowie’s album Never Let Me Down. It was issued as the third single from the album in August 1987, and would be Bowie’s last solo single until 1992’s “Real Cool World”, barring a remix of “Fame” (1990). The least successful single from the album, it failed to enter the top 10 singles chart in any country in the world (its highest placement was number 15 on the US rock chart), and it was Bowie’s last single to chart in the top 40 of the US Billboard Top 100 charts until his 2015 single “Lazarus”.

Bowie performed the song on BBC’s Top of the Pops on 16 September 1987, and it was aired on the first broadcast of the American version of the show.

Bowie described the song as a “pivotal” track for himself, calling it the most personal song he had written for an album to that point in his career. The song is about Bowie’s long-time personal assistant, Coco Schwab. Bowie described their relationship, saying:

It’s platonic. But there is a romance in it, I guess, inasmuch as it’s hard for two people to feel totally at ease in each other’s company for that period of time and not expect too much from each other. Always being prepared to be there if the other one needs someone, you know? There’s not many people you find in life that you can do that with, or feel that way with.

Bowie had started with his own chord structure for the song but wasn’t happy with it, calling it “ponderous and funereal.” Long-time collaborator and co-song writer Carlos Alomar reworked the chords for the song into the final version, which was recorded in one day during the last week of mixing the album at New York’s Power Station studios in early 1987.

The record sleeve and labels show the “Dub” and “Acapella” as two seperate tracks. They are actually one continuous song.

SIDE A:
Never Let Me Down (Extended Dance Remix) 7:02
Never Let Me Down (7″ Remix Edit) 3:57

SIDE B:
Never Let Me Down (Dub/Acapella) 5:59
Never Let Me Down (Instrumental) 4:02
’87 And Cry (Single Version) 4:20

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1987	Never Let Me Down	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#27
1987	Never Let Me Down	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	#15
1987	Never Let Me Down	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	#17

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America ‎– V-19255
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: US
Released: 1987
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock

CREDITS:
Alto Saxophone – David Eiland
Design – Mick Haggerty
Engineer – Steve Hodge (tracks: A1 to B4)
Keyboards [Additional] – Steve Hodge
Lyrics By – David Bowie
Music By – Carlos Alomar (tracks: A1 to B4), David Bowie
Photography By – Greg Gorman
Producer – David Bowie, David Richards
Synthesizer [Additional] – Spencer Bernard

NOTES:
Album versions can be heard on the LP, “Never Let Me Down”

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

January 27, 2016

David Bowie – Heroes/Helden / Heroes/Héros (Germany 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1977

“”Heroes”” is a song by English musician David Bowie, written by Bowie and Brian Eno. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was recorded in July and August 1977, and released on 23 September 1977. A product of Bowie’s “Berlin” period, the track was not a huge hit in the UK or US at the time, but has gone on to become one of Bowie’s signature songs. In January 2016, following Bowie’s death, the song reached a new peak of number 12 in the UK Singles Chart. “”Heroes”” has been cited as Bowie’s second-most covered song after “Rebel Rebel”.

Bowie’s performance of “”Heroes”” on June 6, 1987 at the German Reichstag in West Berlin was considered a catalyst to the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall, similar to that of Bruce Springsteen’s concert at Radrennbahn Weissensee a year later.

In Germany a 12″ single was released which featured the song performed in English and German as well as English and French.

SIDE A:
Heroes/Helden (English/German Version) 6:02
Written-By – Maass*, Eno*, Bowie*

SIDE B:
Heroes/Héros (English/French Version) 6:04
Written-By – Eno*, Bowie*

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: RCA Victor ‎– PC 9821
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM, Single
Country: Germany
Released: 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Art Rock, Classic Rock

CREDITS:
Mastered By – G. F. Pfanz
Producer – Bowie*, Visconti*

NOTES:
Super-Sound-Single
Disco-Remix
Printed in Germany.

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

January 26, 2016

David Bowie – Fashion (US 12″ Promo)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1980

“Fashion” is a track from David Bowie’s 1980 album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). It was released as the second single from the album and was accompanied, like its predecessor “Ashes to Ashes”, by a highly regarded music video.

“Fashion” was the second single from Scary Monsters and the first issued after the album’s September 1980 release. The edited 7″ cut reached No. 5 in the UK, and by hitting No. 70 in America gave Bowie his first chart single there for four years. Bowie performed the song on several tours, and it is included in the 1983 concert film Serious Moonlight. It was featured in the movie Clueless. During the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, “Fashion” was used during a tribute to the British fashion industry in a parade that featured a number of top models from the UK.

According to co-producer Tony Visconti, “Fashion” was the last song completed in the Scary Monsters sessions, its bassline and some of the melody taking inspiration from Bowie’s 1975 hit “Golden Years”. Guest guitarist Robert Fripp contributed a series of harsh, mechanical riffs to complement the band’s funk/reggae arrangement.

The track was noted for its emotionally vacant choir effect, and the recurring onomatopoeia “beep beep” that Bowie had first used in an unreleased 1970 song called “Rupert the Riley”. Another phrase in the lyrics that Bowie borrowed from his past was “People from Bad Homes”, the title track of a 1973 album he recorded with his protégés The Astronettes, which went unreleased until 1995.

References to a “goon squad” coming to town provoked theories that the song actually concerns fascism (“the National Front invade the discos”, inferred NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray). However Bowie played down this interpretation in an interview shortly before the release of Scary Monsters, saying that what he was trying to do was “move on a little from that Ray Davies concept of fashion, to suggest more of a gritted teeth determination and an unsuredness about why one’s doing it”. Biographer David Buckley believed the song “poked fun at the banality of the dance-floor and the style fascists” of the New Romantic movement.

SIDE A:
Fashion (Full Length Version) 4:49

SIDE B:
Fashion (Edited Version) 3:25

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint (company)

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1980	Fashion	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#70

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: RCA Victor ‎– JD-12140
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1980
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: New Wave

CREDITS:
Producer – David Bowie, Tony Visconti

NOTES:
Not For Sale
From the album “SCARY MONSTERS”

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

January 22, 2016

David Bowie – Absolute Beginners (UK 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1986

Released 30 years ago today.

“Absolute Beginners” released on January 22, 1986 was the theme song to the film of the same name (itself an adaptation of the book Absolute Beginners), composed and performed by David Bowie.

Bowie was good friends with the film’s director, Julien Temple (who had worked with him in 1984 on the Jazzin’ for Blue Jean short film), and landed both the supporting role of Vendice Partners, and the deal to record the theme song.

The sessions, at Abbey Road Studios, were set up in a novel way, with a group of session musicians all receiving a card to work at the studio with “Mr X”, who turned out to be Bowie. The sessions were completed rapidly, but the song was delayed due to the problems with completing the film. Virgin wanted the release to tie in with the film’s opening. Shortly after the sessions wrapped, Mick Jagger flew in to record “Dancing in the Street”, which used many of the same musicians. The song fused 1950s-style doo-wop with Bowie’s 1980s sound.

The single reached No. 2 in the UK charts, and No. 53 in America. Bowie has since performed it live on his Glass Spider and 2000 tours. This song featured Rick Wakeman on piano, it was the third time those two musicians worked together, after Bowie’s Space Oddity single and the Hunky Dory album.

SIDE A:
Absolute Beginners (Full Length Version) 8:00

SIDE B:
Absolute Beginners (Dub Mix) 5:38

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1986	Absolute Beginners	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#53
1986	Absolute Beginners	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	#9

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Virgin ‎– VSG 838-12, Virgin ‎– VSG. 838-12
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM, Single, Gatefold
Country: UK
Released: 28 Jan 1986
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock

CREDITS:
Backing Vocals – Janet Armstrong
Baritone Saxophone – Andy Mackintosh*, Don Weller, Gordon Murphy
Bass – Matthew Seligman
Design, Art Direction – Tracy Drew
Drums – Neil Conti
Guitar – Kevin Armstrong
Keyboards – Rick Wakeman, Steve Nieve
Percussion – Luis Jardim
Photography [Back Cover] – Roger Mayne
Photography [© 1986 David Bowie] – Davies And Starr
Producer – Clive Langer, Alan Winstanley*, David Bowie
Saxophone [Solo] – Don Weller
Tenor Saxophone – Gary Barnacle, Paul Weimer*, Willie Garnett
Vocals – David Bowie
Written-By – David Bowie

NOTES:
Comes in a gatefold sleeve.

David Bowie’s title track from the original motion picture musical “ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS”
A Virgin Records 45 RPM Long Playing Record.

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi