Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory were heavily imported to the UK as the Ryko's came out some time before EMI started their own releases (I bought the three of them on double LP and loved the clear vinyl..... I didn't have a CD player at the time). The others were a bit random, I have The Motion Picture on Ryko, I have no idea why.
There was also a Ryko promo for Ziggy. My understanding is that the LP was the Ryko master with added surface noise to make the CD sound better . Nice........ "marketing"! "To promote the re-release of the Ziggy Stardust album, Ryko first issued a combined LP and CD Press Kit (Promotional Only) featuring a faux-RCA black vinyl LP with intentional added surface noise (not to be confused with the clear vinyl commercial release) and a picture disk CD inside a plastic pouch in the gatefold jacket" David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
The Ryko press kit for Ziggy was fun. I had a copy myself, back in 1990. Further info and photos here: The Ziggy Stardust Companion - Rykodisc / EMI Re-issue 1990
Impractical, I would have thought, to obtain the stampers from another company. You will notice that they weren’t allowed to use the RCA name on the mock LP labels, never mind the stampers! It is a cute collectors’ item nonetheless.
I had the first 3 albums on double clear vinyl, just got Space Oddity left. I don’t remember seeing any further vinyl releases like the Ziggy and I was a regular visitor to Tower, HMV and Virgin in London at that time. That Ziggy promo vinyl with added surface noise looks great, wouldn’t mind having that. Got the 1990 EMI Pin Ups CD on (reminds me Bowie did a few Springsteen covers) and it sounds great. Original Sound And Vision box out to play next.
I've a feeling in my bones they were available around March 1990 as I did get Hunky Dory on order with its environmentally wasteful Long Box then.
I'll be run off this board for saying it but I much prefer the 1990 EMI Diamond Dogs cd to the West German RCA.
You’re probably right with the WG, but I think the JPN for USA RCA will give it a good run for it’s money
I have the full set of rykos on cd and have always liked them better than the rca's, and i prefer the ryko ziggy motion picture sound track as it has the original wild eyed boy from free cloud,all the young dudes vocal on it!
Are you sure about that? I would have guessed the later Parlophone version without the high vocal part at "really free" was the real live one, as the part doesn't sound as good as the high vocal version on the Ryko
Yes sorry you are right, i have just always preferred the ryko version as it was the first one i heard in the early 80s, even now when i play the new mix i am always waiting for "really freeeeeeeeeeeee" just love the way it flows into all the young dudes!
I guess an advantage to not having particularly sensitive ears, and attending hundreds of loud concerts for twenty years, is that they always sounded fine to me. I have all of them, and enjoy the bonus material and packaging as well as the regular music. I never bought any subsequent Bowie reissue series' and doubt that spending an entire paycheck on RCA CD's would make me enjoy the music any more than I do the Rykos.
That comparison says it all. Earlier is better. I play my Ryko issue Bowie discs with a -2db at 3khz and they sound just fine here.
I have both versions and missed the high "Freeeee" that was in the Ryko version, although I just re-listened to it (on headphones) and think I can hear the high version in the background of the Parlophone version, covered by the deeper vocal. I could very easily be wrong, but why the lower vocal was used when they had the magnificent soaring Ryko version is beyond me.
Bowie had a wonderful way of singing the meter of a song - some of the lines almost have a beautiful skip rhythm - that very few vocalists were able to do.
I still have Space Oddity & The Man Who Sold The World on those clear Rhino pressings. They look great. It's been a long time since I've played them, but I remember them sounding good. I used to have Hunky Dory too, but that had non fill during Changes so it went when I got the CD and an original LP.
Was playing ryko scary monsters today, great sounding cd and love the bonus tracks especially the version of space oddity!
I think Scary Monsters probably had the strongest set of bonus tracks. Crystal Japan is my personal fave, But I also love Panic and the stripped down Space Oddity. Alabama Song... not so much!
This thread led me to some interesting info on the Ryko releases by a guy at Ryko who worked on the project. Here's a link to the first article but I enjoyed all the posts in the bowie-blog, so check them out if you're so inclined. It was 26+ Years Ago Today Part 1 (we'll get there!) — JEFF ROUGVIE
