David Bowie — ‘ChangesNowBowie’ Album Review
Record Store Day 2020 was supposed to have taken place on April 18th 2020, but due to the recent pandemic and social distancing, it unfortunately resulted in the day being pushed back to June 20th this year. The day was set to see millions of vinyl lovers come together to chase down a plethora of new and exclusive releases from their favourite artists, and only a few thousand are available globally. The race was supposed to be on!
One of those exclusive releases was going to be ‘ChangesNowBowie’, to be released on CD and vinyl by Parlophone Records, which comprises of 9 acoustic tracks recorded around the time of Bowie’s 50th birthday celebrations. It was originally broadcast by the BBC on January 8th 1997, along with birthday messages from Bowie’s inspirations and musical peers, but has been previously unavailable as any kind of physical or digital release until now. Despite the album not being available physically until June 20th, their has been a digital release made available on streaming services to tide fans over until the rescheduled Record Store Day.
The David Bowie Estate also released a new EP titled ‘Is It Any Wonder?’ in anticipation for the album, which features new versions of Bowie and Tin Machine songs recorded in 1997. The EP opens with an acosutic version of Bowie’s own ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, which opens the ‘ChangesNowBowie’ release, as well as a live version of ‘TMWSTW’ remixed by Brian Eno. Tracks from the EP were released over the course of a few weeks before the whole EP was released itself, on March 20th this year.
Over the past few years, the Bowie Estate has re-released the compilation albums ‘ChangesOneBowie’ and ‘ChangesTwoBowie’ on standard black and exclusive clear vinyl. When buying these albums, you’d never know if there was a clear or black pressing in the sleeve which made your purchase more exciting with anticipation building to unwrap the sleeve. I assume that the new Record Store Day release has been given its title as a play on the compilation release titles, especially as the album acts as an acoustic compilation of some of Bowie’s favourite tracks from his career up to that point. It was produced in conjunction with Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati. Gail Ann Dorsey joins them on backing vocals and bass duties, with a black and white portrait of Bowie as the cover photo of the release, which was taken by Albert Watson in 1996.
To coincide with the release, a stripped back and trippy music video of Bowie performing his song ‘Repetition’ was released again; it was originally released after Bowie passed away on Tim Pope’s website as he recorded and directed the video, but it was sadly took down at some point. I’m now really happy the video has finally been given a more official and widespread release, as it soon became of of my all time favourite Bowie videos. It kind of alludes to what later happened in Bowie’s 2013 music video ‘Where Are We Now?’ with the effect of projecting Bowie’s face onto himself, which also added an unnerving quality to the video beside the song being about domestic abuse. You can view the video below.
Side One
Perhaps Bowie loved the unplugged Nirvana cover from 1993 of ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ so much, that he took inspiration from it himself, leading him to sit down with his fellow musicians to record his own stripped back version of the 1970 classic. What I love most about the ‘ChangesNowBowie’ version is how the guitar, which opens both the song and album, gives off such a feeling of a Middle Eastern sitar twang. When Bowie’s vocals come in, his vocals are softer in contrast to the louder acoustic guitars playing behind him; further back in the mix we can hear Gail Ann Dorsey’s warm bass playing.
Next is an acoustic version of ‘Aladdin Sane’, which I was really sceptical about hearing as the original studio version has such iconic piano playing within it. It would be hard to replicate that for a new stripped down version of the song, especially if they don’t have the original piano player to play the same piano parts. There are some solos in music that can just not be recreated or covered, and in my opinion, the ‘Aladdin Sane’ solo is one of those. On this version we can hear Gail Ann Dorsey backing Bowie’s vocals alongside lead guitar playing that adds a new take to the song, as well as a piano solo toward the end of the song. Mark Plati’s piano playing doesn’t ruin the footprint left by the original studio version, but instead adds his own interpretation of the solo.
A cover of ‘White Light/White Heat’ by The Velvet Underground is next, and when I first heard it, the song completely subverted my expectations of what an acoustic album both should and could be. The song has been covered by Bowie since very early on in his career, such as the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ film and soundtrack, but I haven’t really paid any attention to it until now. I’m kind of glad that I left it until now to hear one of Bowie’s covers because, like I say, it blew me away. The bass is thick and constant in the background with a distorted lead guitar over it. The song does feature drums, but only in the form of a simple, steady kick drum. Despite having a whole band and the presence of a distortion pedal, the song still manages to sound acoustic in its own special way. This song just proves that Bowie is always an innovator, finding clever and interesting takes to add to things we’re all familiar with.
‘Shopping For Girls’ was originally released on the second Tin Machine album, which is a rock group side project David Bowie focused on during the late 80s and early 90s. I was again unfamiliar with this song as I haven’t heard the two Tin Machine albums and thought it might be a cover of an Iggy Pop song, as he and Bowie both frequently collaborated. I ended up really loving this song because the keyboards in the background not only made it stick out from the rest of the album, but because Mark Plati’s synth playing also gave it a dreamier, synth pop edge. In a way the song kind of reminds me of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood song ‘Relax’. While researching this song, I also found out that it was written about child prostitution in Thailand, which really unnerved and surprised me because of its serious subject matter. I never picked up on this the first time I heard the song as I was focusing on the instrumentation more.
Side Two
By this point of listening to the album is when I realised just how many deep cuts from Bowie’s early career are included on this release. I feel like the first three songs of the album includes more of the well known Bowie songs, his cover of ‘White Light’ included, before going Bowie’s own personal favourites. I think that by this point, the most recent track in Bowie’s discography would have been ‘Shopping For Girls’. A new take on the track ‘Lady Stardust’ follows, which is more stripped back than the original 1972 version from the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album, with the original featuring a lot of piano and acoustic guitar. This new iteration brings in a slow and steady drumbeat to go along with the band’s playing, but again it doesn’t detract from the acoustic version. I especially love Bowie’s vocals on this song as they really add a level of passion to the track.
Returning back to Bowie’s album from 1970 is an acoustic version of his song ‘The Supermen’, which references a concept called “the Supermen”, which was established by Friedrich Nietzsche. Much like with ‘Lady Stardust’, it was nice to hear Bowie digging so deep into his catalogue and getting a sense of his personal favourite songs from his career. The version here is perhaps one of the few pure acoustic songs on the album, with no effects or extra instruments added to it. But the vocals and acoustic guitar adds a darker and gloomier feel to the track, which I feel go along well with the songs subject matter and what surrounds it.
I think that the version of ‘Repetition’ included on this album is slightly different from the audio from the Tim Pope video, which made me feel a little sad because I thought that this track would be exactly the same as the video audio. But that’s just a personal thing specific to me and doesn’t change my feelings for either versions of the song. Bowie’s vocals are much more passionate in comparison to his more deadpan and emotionless studio version from the 1979 ‘Lodger’ album (click here to read my own review on the album). One thing that also adds to this version is the slightly distorted lead guitar, which makes the song feel a lot more electric than the studio version, while still managing to maintain the space and emptiness of an acoustic track.
It had me so excited when I saw that ‘Andy Warhol’ was included on the album, because it’s also one of my all time favourite Bowie songs beside ‘Repetition’. After the early 70’s it felt like Bowie abandoned the song, but when he was cast in the role of Andy Warhol in the 1996 film ‘Basquait’, he resurrected the song and started playing a much heavier and industrial version of the song. This version isn’t as heavy as the ‘White Light’ cover unfortunately, which I think would have worked well as it could have translated the song’s performances of the time into a unique amalgamation of heavy and acoustic. But I’m not arguing with this song. It means a lot to me and any version of it is welcome, especially as Bowie seemed to have favoured the song enough to revisit it again for his 50th birthday celebrations.
Closing out the release is ‘Quicksand’, which is another song that really shocked me upon hearing it. When I sit and listen to ‘Hunky Dory’ and it comes to ‘Quicksand’, I would normally only focus on the chorus of the song. This version takes away all distractions from the original song and leaves you listening to just guitar, bass and singing, which is a perfect opportunity to hear what Bowie is talking about. It was strange but also interesting to hear Bowie talking about Crowley, Himmler and “Churchill’s lies”, giving the song a feeling of being one of the earliest songs of Bowie referencing stuff like the Occult and Nietzsche’s “the supermen” again. It gives the album a mystical, thought provoking and maybe even slightly controversial close to ‘ChangesNowBowie’.
Final Thoughts
I really love the entire album and feel really lucky that we were able to hear it early. I really hope that come June 20th, I’m able to flock to my nearest record store in a desperate attempt to beat the scalpers and grab a copy. Highlights of the album for me are ‘White Light/White Heat’, ‘Shopping For Girls’, ‘Repetition’ and ‘Andy Warhol’ but of course I love every track. The only two that don’t really resonate with me are ‘Lady Stardust’ and ‘The Supermen’, only because I don’t listen to them unless I sit and listen to their respective albums. I’m not saying the songs are bad by any means, it’s just that those songs aren’t my personal favourites.
I would highly encourage everyone who likes David Bowie to check out the album while they still can, and if you’re a Bowie record collector, then I hope you head to a record store near you this June. I wish you luck in your search!
