David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) [Box set #5]

Even if Afraid and Uncle Floyd were originally intended for Toy, it is quite possible that he adapted the tracklist for Toy as he started to work on Heathen.

Once Heathen was released he was suggesting in interviews that more would released as b-sides and then gathered together on an album. And even when he was promoting Reality he was still talking about wanting to release Toy, even if, as he admitted, new work always takes precedence.

 

Giant posterzine, the kids will go nuts !

 

I'm definitely curious if Uncut will have anything "new" for me to learn here.

Sidebar: I am really not a fan of this image of DB they've chosen to promote Toy (also used in the lyric video for "You've Got a Habit of Leaving Me"). They really couldn't come up with anything better?

(Confession: even at the time, I disliked DB's "I'm just a regular guy and this is what I wear around the house" persona he sported c. 1999-2000. Give me the Alexander McQueen Union Jack coat or the artist get-up of Outside or the tailored suits of Heathen any day...)

Than again, it's better than the actual cover of Toy.

 

Ditto. Though the exclusion of Afraid and Uncle Floyd on this 3-disc set (!) has me pondering whether to cancel this too, and just listen to it when fancied on Qobuz. Sick and tired of Parlophone's treatment of Bowie. Would rather spend my money instead on tracking down mint copies of his original LPs now.

 

While some will accuse me of being a helpless Parlophone apologist, I do understand the argument for keeping those two songs in their nascent form off of Toy. They were not even written until the very final stage of the album sessions, during mixes and overdubs at Looking Glass studio in October 2000. So definitely a different vibe from the original "everyone in a room" recordings made at Sear Sound (formerly the Hit Factory), in Hell's Kitchen earlier that summer

Apparently, Bowie wrote "Afraid" from start to finish on Mark Plati's guitar in the Looking Glass studio lounge, while waiting for Plati to finish a mix. They then cut versions of each tune (not quite "live off the floor" like the older songs were), but since there was initially no release for Toy, both got revisited for Heathen the following year, with fresh overdubs and new mixes

My source as usual is the gumshoe work of Chris O'Leary: here's his entry on Afraid

 

Maybe the number of preorders for the box sets is disappointing, because good old Par£ophon€'$ just mailed me on my older email address about them, which they somehow didn't do during the entire BLA campaign, when those mails would've been welcome.

 

You have been very lucky.

Box set 1 for me had a massive gouge at the end of Side 1 of the Space Oddity LP.

Box set 2 had a massive scratch across most of Side 2 of the Station to Station remix disc.

Box set 3 had a scratch on 2 successive copies of the yellow Stage as well as the obvious Heroes issue. The replacement Heroes disc was also noisy throughout much of the quiet instrumental stuff on side 2. I gave up with that and got a replacement from Amazon that was nice and quiet.

Box set 4 had issues in 2 successive boxes with the live Glass Spider album. It was almost as though as the discs had been next to each other in the pressing plant and gouged into one another.

I am undecided on this box set. I have it preordered from Amazon and that is the only place I would get it from as I fully expect to have to mix and match a couple of sets together to get one decent one.

I held off on box set 4 on vinyl for several months for a better price and may do the same with this one. But I think less will have been pressed of this one as Box set 4 was so heavily discounted the following year.

 

The RSD releases have been a little ropey too. It seemed that I'm Only Dancing had more warped than flat discs.

 

Most of the 24 bit dl's have been missing Recall & some of the other scatted collection cd's.

 

You did demand an exchange? That so unacceptable.

 

Yes, I have 4 sets that I am very happy with but they were only like that after merging the contents of 2 or more boxes in each instance.

I would love to get a perfect set and have my fingers crossed for this next one. I would only a vinyl box this large from Amazon because of my previous experience with flaws in the earlier ones.

 

You could probably use that line to sign off all your posts from now on and it would be valid.

e.g. "I just drove past a horrible car crash. . . "

 

Yes I also had zero problems with the first four vinyl box sets. For me though it’s more about companies taking the p***. I’m not biting any more, especially with owning all of it anyway

 

But while people buy the vinyl box sets they’ll keep on fleecing us.
Honestly with having just about every album he released on first edition vinyl I’m not sure why I even started collecting these sets, probably because I’m a Bowie nut! The Cd box sets were the way to go, long as they weren’t brickwalled (not sure as I never read the CD info threads)

 

Far more sensible option

 

It has been said many times. But for me, who does not have any of the albums included in BA, this vinyl box could not come soon enough.
Over all it’s a 100€ more expensive than anticipated.
But look at the second and market:
Earthling alone is 100/150€
Buddha is nowhere to be found
BTWN is around 100€ as well
The BBC radio theater is one of my personnel favourite not because of the performance itself but the memories it brings back.
So it’s still a must have.
I’ve not had any production defect on the previous 4 box sets.

and also I’m a completist.

 

We beat UNCUT to the punch:

Exclusive Interview with Emm Gryner And Competition To Win Signed Copies Of Her New Book & CD!

 

They're taking their time, the site still isn't responsive, so pretty useless on a phone.

 

We?

 

I thought this quote was interesting:

"The album artwork has certainly generated all kinds of discussion amongst the fan base. What was your reaction when you saw it?

I think it’s amazing! It’s just the kind of thing he would have liked. I also feel like Mark had submitted some stuff from notebooks to the label and they ended up using it, so it feels personal. I vaguely remember those photos of the band being taken. We all looks so young and the graphics are so turn of the millennium!"

I guess she's referring to the book.

 

I interviewed her.
Bowie News is not my website though, it's Nick's work.

 

Too bad. I got boxes 1-4 on vinyl but I can’t remember my reasoning at the time. I don’t think they were AAA, so that wouldn’t be it. Or were they? Not likely I’m thinking.

 

This is pretty much where I’m at. I only have a reissue of …hours on vinyl - everything else will be ‘new’.

The final set will be a much harder sell as I have all the albums from it on vinyl. It’ll have to have some pretty spectacular extras to get me to blow £300+ on it.

 

Thanks