The David Bowie vaults are gradually being opened up, with two new releases of unreleased material to emerge next month. The bad news, though, is that both are limited editions for the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day on 22 April.
Cracked Actor (Live in Los Angeles 1974) is a three-album set recorded on the Philly Dogs Tour in September 1974, some material from which appeared in the famous BBC documentary Cracked Actor.
The full show appears across five sides of vinyl, with the sixth featuring an etching of Bowie. The album differs from the “official” 1974 Bowie live album, David Live: there is a different band, including backing singer Luther Vandross, and a setlist that includes material recorded for The Gouster, which was finally released last year as part of the Who Can I Be Now? box set.
The other album is Bowpromo, which was originally a promo album from 1971, pressed in tiny quantities. The original disc featured seven songs by Bowie and five by Dana Gillespie, but the reissue features only the Bowie tracks, with new sleeve notes and Bowie prints.
Bowpromo is largely comprised of alternate versions of songs that would later appear on Hunky Dory, as well as a version of It Ain’t Easy, which would eventually appear on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Full tracklistings for both albums are below.
Cracked Actor (Live in Los Angeles 1974)
Side 1:
Introduction
1984
Rebel Rebel
Moonage Daydream
Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing
Side 2:
Changes
Suffragette City
Aladdin Sane
All The Young Dudes
Cracked Actor
Side 3:
Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me
Knock on Wood
It’s Gonna Be Me
Space Oddity
Side 4:
Diamond Dogs
Big Brother
Time
Side 5:
The Jean Genie
Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
Side 6:
David Bowie logo etching
Bowpromo
Oh! You Pretty Things
Eight Line Poem
Kooks
It Ain’t Easy
Queen Bitch
Quicksand Bombers / Andy Warhol Intro