David Bowie CONVERSATION PIECE

While I am sometimes pleasantly surprised, the fact is I *never* expect outtakes to be as good as the released material. it's sometimes unpolished, unfinished, and the core catalog if so welded to my memory and expectations. Still, I love to hear it all. In fact, I downloaded much of the material from Conversation Piece when it was released on Vinyl, and I think it's great. Is it polished like what was found on vinyl at the time? No. But it's great nonetheless.

 

To be fair, no we will not see any new Bewlay Brothers, that would also be totally unrealistic to expect. However, we got Sweet Head, Candidate (Demo), Who Can I Be Now, It’s Gonna Be Me and Some Are, on the RYKO reissues. Those tracks are IMO on par with what went on the respective albums. That Bowie really held those tracks in the archives for so long, could mean there are a few surprises waiting for release down the line.

 

I am looking forward to 2025 when we will hopefully hear I Am a Lazer and Shilling The Rubes. They have potential (maybe with a bit of a polish from TV) of being really good tracks. Also holding out for some more tracks from the Blackstar sessions..

 

you've taken me a bit too literally there, i was just going for some perspective. you can make a case for the two Young Americans outtakes, definitely, and "Velvet Goldmine" is a personal favourite, but we know why those tracks were held back, and they were issued in Bowie's lifetime (only "Velvet Goldmine" against his wishes, way back in '75). it's been almost thirty years since the Ryko bonus tracks were issued and nothing unearthed since then has really measured up. Bowie knew what was good enough and we're only hearing unheard music now because he's no longer here to say no.

 

I just wonder will we ever get ALL the early stuff?

 

I doubt we will ever see the Ernie Johnson tape released or the demos that were recently put up for auction as these will all be in private collections?

 

Tony Visconti's orchestration for It's Gonna Be Me springs to mind as a good quality recent-ish discovery. Different takes of After Today and the other Young Americans outtakes as mentioned by MrBitey above sound like they're of good quality. I don't think anyone can say Ernie Johnson would not be a worthwhile release - people all have different tastes and I know I would enjoy listening to it, as I will the unheard tracks on Conversation Piece. I'll never turn my nose up at previously unreleased Bowie material - even his poor tracks are worth a listen (except maybe Tonight with Tina Turner). I even like Right On Mother.

 

I am just happy there ARE loads of unreleased tracks still out there, even though we may never get Ernie Johnson or Pu55ycat e.t.c, it's good to know there are others we may still get to here. Me personally I love 60s Bowie so this box is great.

 

I wonder if the song 'Black Hole Kids' which was a ziggy outtake was ever recorded? I know he was planning to do it for a 2cd edition of the album back in 2002.

 

I have really enjoyed the previously unreleased tracks featured on Clareville, Spying & Mercury Demos. By comparison, most of the Next Day Extra and No Plan tracks are redundant to me. Looking forward to hearing the upcoming demos from Conversation Piece.

 

To be honest I am just glad of ANYTHING NEW.

 

next year TMWSTW sessions...

 

Or maybe a new album with pre and post blackstar demos?

 

How come "Even a Fool Learns to Love" is not in the box set. I believe there is demo.

 

there's at least more 20 unreleased songs from the 60's in the archives, Summer Kind of Love, Bunny Thing,***** Cat, Your Funny Smile, Ernie Johnson Opera(10 songs),Even a Fool Learns to Love, The Gravedigger,Back to Where You've Never Been, Ching a Ling with Tony Hill vocals and more...

 

To be fair, most of those songs were recorded in 1966-67 instead of the 1968-69, which seems to be the scope of Conversation Piece. But I am curious about Ernie Johnson and the Turquoise version of Ching-a-Ling.

 

Maybe a new DEFINITIVE version of his 67 debut with at least most of the missing 60s material would be a good idea?

 

Perhaps in exactly the same annual/temporal, as opposed to album, style as Conversa Piece seems to be in.

 

I am curious to see how they would do this one. Is there known to be enough material to make into a four or five disc set?

Even with some of the 2 disc sets that they released in the 2000's they seemed rather thin on the ground in terms of extras.

We are of course assuming that they will do a similar set to Conversation Piece for each album!

 

It was clear when Conversation Piece was first announced that this series of releases was to be based on years, not on albums. While at first sight this does seem to amount to the same thing, until considering Pin-ups for example, it does offer a slightly wider scope for extras

 

Apparently there are loads more songs in the archives so I think maybe we'll be getting a lot more sets with extras in?

 

yes, there's a lot of stuff to release and finally we are hearing some mithologycal tracks

 

It's just a shame that the earlier, pre Space Oddity, mythological tracks aren't being released as well.

 

I would like more 60s Bowie. I thought mother grey e.t.c. we're great

 

i don't see any Decca/Universal releases in the upcoming months, apart colored vinyls and unimaginative reissues