David Bowie – Tonight (US 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984

Originally posted January 19, 2012

“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) 5:04

Tonight (Dub Mix) 4:19

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1984	Tonight	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#53
1984	Tonight	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	#28
1984	Tonight	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	#32

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America – V-7846-1/2
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Rock, Reggae

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”

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

January 20, 2016

David Bowie – Blue Jean (US 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984

Originally posted January 20, 8012

“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” Benitez
Written-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

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1984	Blue Jean	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#8
1984	Blue Jean	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	#2
1984	Blue Jean	U.S. Billboard Hot DanceMusic/Club Play	#2

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America – V-7838-1/2
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Producer – David Bowie, Derek Bramble, Hugh Padgham

NOTES:
Album versions can be heard on “TONIGHT”

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

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

January 19, 2016

David Bowie – Loving The Alien (US Ltd. Edition 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1985

“Loving the Alien” is a track from the album Tonight by David Bowie. One of two tracks on the album written solely by Bowie, the song was released as a single in May 1985, nine months after the release of “Blue Jean” as a single, and eight months after the release of the album. The single performed well, reaching No. 19 in the UK. Although released as a single in the US “Loving The Alien” failed to chart.

As a demo track, the song was simply called “1”. Bowie said “‘Alien’ came about because of my feeling that so much history is wrong – as is being rediscovered all the time – and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we’ve gleaned.” He recorded the demo in Montreux, Switzerland. He would later comment that the production on the song undid the power of the lyric, saying he preferred the demo version.

Bowie performed the song on his 1987 Glass Spider Tour. On the Reality Tour in 2003 and 2004, he again performed this song, but this time a stripped down version with only Bowie on vocals and Gerry Leonard on guitar; in the film of the tour, Bowie remarked that this arrangement was perhaps “the way it should have always been done.”

SIDE A:
Loving The Alien (Extended Dance Mix) 7:26
Written-By – David Bowie

SIDE B:
Don’t Look Down (Extended Dance Mix) 4:50
Written-By – I. Pop*, J. Williamson*

Loving The Alien (Extended Dub Mix) 7:13
Written-By – David Bowie

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
Poster: Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: EMI America ‎– VG-7858-1/2
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Single, 33 ⅓ RPM, Limited Edition, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 1985
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Rock, Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Artwork [Album Artwork Concept] – Mick Haggerty
Artwork [Art Direction, Design] – Shoot That Tiger!
Engineer [Assistant] – Alex Haas
Music Consultant – Carlos Alomar
Photography By – Steve Rapport
Producer – David Bowie, Derek Bramble, Hugh Padgham, Hugh Padgham
Producer [Additional Production On Remix] – Steve Thompson
Remix – Steve Thompson And Michael Barbiero*

NOTES:
Includes full color poster
Album versions can be heard on “TONIGHT”

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 18, 2016

David Bowie – When The Wind Blows (Japan 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1986

“When the Wind Blows” is a song from the soundtrack of the film of the same name, performed by David Bowie.

It marked the second contribution from Bowie to a film based on a Raymond Briggs book – he contributed a filmed introduction to The Snowman in 1982. Bowie’s song was the result of a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay, who would work with Bowie in the future, most notably on The Buddha of Suburbia.

The single peaked at UK No. 44, promoted by a video that featured a montage of clips from the film, with Bowie’s animated face overlaid. Since then, the song has become something of a rarity, appearing rarely on reissues and best-of compilations.

Unlike most instrumental B-sides from the 1980s, the instrumental version of “When the Wind Blows” is not simply a version of the song with vocals dubbed, but a completely different orchestral recording.

SIDE A:
When The Wind Blows (Extended Mix) 5:40

SIDE B:
When The Wind Blows (Instrumental) 3:47

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Virgin ‎– 14VA-9019
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Japan
Released: 1986
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Composed By – Erdal Kizilcay
Illustration – Meltdown Limited
Producer – David Richards
Producer, Composed By – David Bowie
Typography – Assorted Images

NOTES:
Taken from the film of Raymond Briggs “WHEN THE WIND BLOWS”

Find the 12″ on DISCOGS

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