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David Bowie / I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016

Last ‘Era’ box set • 13CD • 18LP vinyl

By Paul Sinclair

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David Bowie / I Can't Give Everything Away 2002-2016

Last ‘era’ box set • 18LP vinyl • 13CD • Features Heathen, Reality, The Next Day and Blackstar

A decade after Five Years was announced, Parlophone will release the sixth and final David Bowie ‘Era’ box set. I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 documents the last fourteen years of David’s musical endeavours and adventures.

Despite releasing nothing for around nine years of this period, Bowie still managed to put out four studio albums – Heathen (2002), Reality (2003), The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016) – and as these 13CD and 18LP vinyl box sets demonstrate, there’s plenty of additional live material and non-album tracks available to fill things out.

As well as those four records on CD and vinyl, the I Can’t Give Everything Away box sets include:

MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL (2CDs or 4LPs) – Previously unreleased and recorded on the 18 July 2002. Amongst the 31 tracks are an almost full performance of 1977’s Low. This is also exclusive to the box set.

A REALITY TOUR (2CDs or 3LPs) – Released before, but this is resequenced to “better reflect the set lists of the Dublin shows”. The vinyl version of the album is pressed in transparent blue, as per the original.

RE:CALL 6 (3CDs or 4LPs) – 41 non-album / alternative versions / b-sides and soundtrack songs including some ‘SACD’ only stereo mixes from Heathen. Exclusive to the box.

13CD version of I Can’t Give Everything Away (click image to enlarge)

On LP, The Next Day is actually the 17-track deluxe version (to fill out four sides of vinyl) while the CD edition sticks to the 14-track version. Fear not though, because the three ‘missing’ tracks (‘So She’, ‘Plan’ and ‘I’ll Take You There’) are added to The Next Day Extra E.P. on CD (which is 10 tracks compared to the vinyl version’s seven).

The 4-track No Plan E.P. is also included. This features Bowie’s last three released recordings: No Plan, Killing A Little Time and When I Met You, which were first debuted on stage by the cast of Lazarus. With a running time of 18 minutes (which includes a repetition of the 6 minute album version of ‘Lazarus’) eyebrows might be raised at this being giving this its own disc when the three unique tracks could perhaps have been squeezed onto Re:Call 6. Especially on vinyl where side two of No Plan is ‘etched’.

Re:Call 6 does a good job of rounding up random tracks and includes David Gilmour’s live version of ‘Arnold Layne’ that Bowie sings on, which was issued as a single in 2006 (reaching No 19 in the UK charts).

As mentioned, the Montreux Jazz Festival is exclusive to the box and it’s worth pointing out that the other exclusives in previous boxes (The Gouster, Lodger 2017 Mix, Never Let Me Down 2018 and Dance) have never been issued separately, so the label have kept to their word – so far!

Like the previous ’90s set Brilliant Adventures, I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 is massive 18 LPs on vinyl (the first three were 13LPs, Loving The Alien was 15LP and Brilliant Adventure was 18LP). These vinyl sets are lovely but it does rather show up the limitations of the format when it requires seven records to deliver two live shows.

Also, actual studio albums take up only five of the 18 records in I Can’t Give Everything Away, which is around 28 percent of the content. If you include Toy, Brilliant Adventures had 61 percent studio albums (11 out of 18 LPs), Loving the Alien 30 percent (5 out of 15), A New Career in a New Town and Who Can I Be Now? both 38 percent (5 out of 13) and Five Years 54 percent (7 out of 13). Depending on your point of view, you could say this means more ‘padding’ than ever, or more welcome bonus material. It’s not really Parlophone’s fault that Bowie only made four albums in this period but if they’d skipped A Reality Tour (issued as a 3LP set in 2016) and squeezed the No Plan E.P. tracks onto Re:Call 6, we’d be back down to a more manageable – and more affordable – 13LPs. On the other hand A Reality Tour is excellent, it was Bowie’s last tour, and period live shows have always been a part of these sets (think Ziggy Stardust: A Motion Picture, David Live, Glass Spider, BBC Radio Theatre).

18LP vinyl version of I Can’t Give Everything Away (click image to enlarge)

Surround sound has never been part of the ‘era’ offerings, so I don’t think anyone was expecting 5.1 or immersive audio to be part of this box set, but it’s worth noting that for the first time, studio albums in an era box got 5.1 mixes at the time of release (Heathen and Reality). Re:Call 6 nods in this direction by including some of the unique stereo versions from Heathen SACD but what of the 5.1 mixes? There is an argument that distinguishes between 5.1 mixes that were done decades after the albums came out (Ziggy, Young Americans, Station to Station) and ones that were part of the original release formats. Why shouldn’t these be included? Why is the ‘Loner Remix’ of Reality closer ‘Bring Me The Disco King’ (included in the box) more interesting/important than the 5.1 mix (which is not included). If A Reality Tour is worthy of a second re-release in less than a decade why are these surround mixes of actual studio albums being allowed to languish, out-of-print?

As ever, both box sets come with books. These are 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, with previously unseen notes, drawings and handwritten lyrics from Bowie and photos. There are also “technical notes” about the albums from co-producer Tony Visconti and design notes from Jonathan Barnbrook. The CD box has Japan-style vinyl replica CDs, with the discs being gold. The vinyl box contains 180g vinyl – all black, except for A Reality Tour, which is blue.

I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 will be released on 12 September 2025, via Parlophone.

Tracklisting

David Bowie / I Can't Give Everything Away 2002-2016

Era Box 6 David Bowie / 13CD box set

    • CD 1: Heathen
      1. Sunday
      2. Cactus
      3. Slip Away
      4. Slow Burn
      5. Afraid
      6. Iʼve Been Waiting For You
      7. I Would Be Your Slave
      8. I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship
      9. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
      10. Everyone Says ʻHiʼ
      11. A Better Future
      12. Heathen (The Rays)
    • CD 2: Montreux Jazz Festival
      1. Sunday
      2. Life On Mars?
      3. Ashes To Ashes
      4. Cactus
      5. Slip Away
      6. China Girl
      7. Starman
      8. I Would Be Your Slave
      9. I’ve Been Waiting For You
      10. Stay
      11. Changes
      12. Fashion
      13. Fame
      14. I’m Afraid Of Americans
      15. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
    • CD 3: Montreux Jazz Festival
      1. ‟Heroes”
      2. Heathen (The Rays)
      3. Everyone Says ‟Hi”
      4. Hallo Spaceboy
      5. Let’s Dance
      6. Ziggy Stardust
      7. Warszawa
      8. Speed Of Life
      9. Breaking Glass
      10. What In The World
      11. Sound And Vision
      12. Art Decade
      13. Always Crashing In The Same Car
      14. Be My Wife
      15. A New Career In A New Town
      16. Subterraneans
    • CD 4: Reality
      1. New Killer Star
      2. Pablo Picasso
      3. Never Get Old
      4. The Loneliest Guy
      5. Looking For Water
      6. She’ll Drive The Big Car
      7. Days
      8. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
      9. Try Some, Buy Some
      10. Reality
      11. Bring Me The Disco King
    • CD 5: A Reality Tour
      1. Rebel Rebel
      2. New Killer Star
      3. Reality
      4. Fame
      5. Cactus
      6. Sister Midnight
      7. Afraid
      8. All The Young Dudes
      9. Be My Wife
      10. China Girl
      11. The Loneliest Guy
      12. The Man Who Sold The World
      13. Fantastic Voyage
      14. Hallo Spaceboy
      15. Sunday
      16. Under Pressure
      17. Life On Mars?
      18. Battle For Britain (The Letter)
    • CD 6: A Reality Tour
      1. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
      2. Ashes To Ashes
      3. The Motel
      4. Loving The Alien
      5. Breaking Glass
      6. Never Get Old
      7. Changes
      8. I’m Afraid Of Americans
      9. ‟Heroes”
      10. Bring Me The Disco King
      11. Slip Away
      12. Heathen (The Rays)
      13. Five Years
      14. Hang On To Yourself
      15. Ziggy Stardust
    • CD 7: The Next Day
      1. The Next Day
      2. Dirty Boys
      3. The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
      4. Love Is Lost
      5. Where Are We Now?
      6. Valentine’s Day
      7. If You Can See Me
      8. I’d Rather Be High
      9. Boss Of Me
      10. Dancing Out In Space
      11. How Does The Grass Grow?
      12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire
      13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die
      14. Heat
    • CD 8: The Next Day Extra E.P.
      1. Atomica
      2. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA)
      3. Plan
      4. The Informer
      5. I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)
      6. Like A Rocket Man
      7. Born In A UFO
      8. I’ll Take You There
      9. God Bless The Girl
      10. So She
    • CD 9: ★ (Blackstar)
      1. ★(Blackstar)
      2. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore
      3. Lazarus
      4. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
      5. Girl Loves Me
      6. Dollar Days
      7. I Can’t Give Everything Away
    • CD 10: No Plan E.P.
      1. Lazarus
      2. No Plan
      3. Killing A Little Time
      4. When I Met You
    • CD 11: Re:Call 6
      1. Slow Burn (Single Edit)
      2. Wood Jackson
      3. When The Boys Come Marching Home
      4. Safe
      5. Sunday (Moby Remix)
      6. A Better Future (Remix By Air)
      7. Slip Away (SACD Mix)
      8. Slow Burn (SACD Mix)
      9. I’ve Been Waiting For You (SACD Mix)
      10. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (SACD Mix)
      11. A Better Future (SACD Mix)
      12. Safe (SACD Mix)
      13. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Radio Edit)
    • CD 12: Re:Call 6
      1. Sunday (Tony Visconti Mix)
      2. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Metro Remix Radio Edit)
      3. Heathen (The Rays) (Live In Berlin, 22/09/02)
      4. Hop Frog — Lou Reed Featuring David Bowie
      5. Saviour — Kristeen Young Featuring David Bowie
      6. Isn’t It Evening (The Revolutionary) — Earl Slick Featuring David Bowie
      7. Bring Me The Disco King (Loner Mix) — David Bowie Featuring Maynard James Keenan And John Frusciante (Taken From The Underworld Motion Picture Soundtrack)
      8. New Killer Star (Radio Edit)
      9. Love Missile F1-11
      10. Fly
      11. Queen Of All The Tarts (Overture)
      12. Never Get Old (Single Edit)
      13. Waterloo Sunset
      14. Rebel Rebel (2003 Re-Record) (Taken From The Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle Motion Picture Soundtrack)
      15. New Killer Star (Sessions @ AOL Live Version, 23/09/03)
    • CD 13: Re:Call 6
      1. Days (Live)
      2. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (Live)
      3. Rebel Never Gets Old (Radio Mix)
      4. (She Can) Do That — David Bowie With BT (Taken From The Stealth Motion Picture Soundtrack)
      5. Life On Mars? (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05)
      6. Wake Up (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire
      7. Five Years (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire
      8. Arnold Layne (Live At The Royal Albert Hall, 29/05/06) — David Gilmour Featuring David Bowie
      9. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA Edit)
      10. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) (2014 Version)
      11. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore (2014 Version)
      12. Lazarus (Radio Edit)
      13. I Can’t Give Everything Away (Radio Edit)

Tracklisting

David Bowie / I Can't Give Everything Away 2002-2016

Era Box 6 David Bowie / 18LP box set

    • LP 1: Heathen
      Side 1
      1. Sunday
      2. Cactus
      3. Slip Away
      4. Slow Burn
      5. Afraid
      6. Iʼve Been Waiting For You
      Side 2
      1. I Would Be Your Slave
      2. I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship
      3. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
      4. Everyone Says ʻHiʼ
      5. A Better Future
      6. Heathen (The Rays)
    • LP 2: Montreux Jazz Festival
      Side 1
      1. Sunday
      2. Life On Mars?
      3. Ashes To Ashes
      4. Cactus
      Side 2
      1. Slip Away
      2. China Girl
      3. Starman
      4. I Would Be Your Slave
    • LP 3: Montreux Jazz Festival
      Side 3
      1. I’ve Been Waiting For You
      2. Stay
      3. Changes
      4. Fashion
      Side 4
      1. Fame
      2. I’m Afraid Of Americans
      3. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
      4. ‟Heroes”
    • LP 4: Montreux Jazz Festival
      Side 5
      1. Heathen (The Rays)
      2. Everyone Says ‟Hi”
      3. Hallo Spaceboy
      Side 6
      1. Let’s Dance
      2. Ziggy Stardust
      3. Warszawa
    • LP 5: Montreux Jazz Festival
      Side 7
      1. Speed Of Life
      2. Breaking Glass
      3. What In The World
      4. Sound And Vision
      5. Art Decade
      Side 8
      1. Always Crashing In The Same Car
      2. Be My Wife
      3. A New Career In A New Town
      4. Subterraneans
    • LP 6: Reality
      Side 1
      1. New Killer Star
      2. Pablo Picasso
      3. Never Get Old
      4. The Loneliest Guy
      5. Looking For Water
      6. She’ll Drive The Big Car
      Side 2
      1. Days
      2. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
      3. Try Some, Buy Some
      4. Reality
      5. Bring Me The Disco King
    • LP 7: A Reality Tour
      Side 1
      1. Rebel Rebel
      2. New Killer Star
      3. Reality
      4. Fame
      5. Cactus
      6. Sister Midnight
      Side 2
      1. Afraid
      2. All The Young Dudes
      3. Be My Wife
      4. China Girl
      5. The Loneliest Guy
      6. The Man Who Sold The World
      7. Fantastic Voyage
    • LP 8: A Reality Tour
      Side 3
      1. Hallo Spaceboy
      2. Sunday
      3. Under Pressure
      4. Life On Mars?
      5. Battle For Britain (The Letter)
      Side 4
      1. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
      2. Ashes To Ashes
      3. The Motel
      4. Loving The Alien
      5. Breaking Glass
      6. Never Get Old
    • LP 9: A Reality Tour
      Side 5
      1. Changes
      2. I’m Afraid Of Americans
      3. ‟Heroes”
      4. Bring Me The Disco King
      Side 6
      1. Slip Away
      2. Heathen (The Rays)
      3. Five Years
      4. Hang On To Yourself
      5. Ziggy Stardust
    • LP 10: The Next Day
      Side 1
      1. The Next Day
      2. Dirty Boys
      3. The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
      4. Love Is Lost

      Side 2

      1. Where Are We Now?
      2. Valentine’s Day
      3. If You Can See Me
      4. I’d Rather Be High
    • LP 11: The Next Day
      Side 3
      1. Boss Of Me
      2. Dancing Out In Space
      3. How Does The Grass Grow?
      4. (You Will) Set The World On Fire
      Side 4
      1. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die
      2. Heat
      3. So She
      4. Plan
      5. I’ll Take You There
    • LP 12: The Next Day Extra E.P.
      Side 1
      1. Atomica
      2. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA)
      3. The Informer
      Side 2
      1. I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)
      2. Like A Rocket Man
      3. Born In A UFO
      4. God Bless The Girl
    • LP 13: ★ (Blackstar)
      Side 1
      1. ★ (Blackstar)
      2. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore
      3. Lazarus
      Side 2
      1. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
      2. Girl Loves Me
      3. Dollar Days
      4. I Can’t Give Everything Away
    • LP 14: No Plan E.P.
      Side 1
      1. Lazarus
      2. No Plan
      3. Killing A Little Time
      4. When I Met You
      Side 2
      1. Etching (no audio)
    • LP 15: Re:Call 6
      Side 1
      1. Slow Burn (Single Edit)
      2. Wood Jackson
      3. When The Boys Come Marching Home
      4. Safe
      5. Sunday (Moby Remix)
      Side 2
      1. A Better Future (Remix By Air)
      2. Slip Away (SACD Mix)
      3. Slow Burn (SACD Mix)
      4. I’ve Been Waiting For You (SACD Mix)
      5. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (SACD Mix)
    • LP 16: Re:Call 6
      Side 3
      1. A Better Future (SACD Mix)
      2. Safe (SACD Mix)
      3. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Radio Edit)
      4. Sunday (Tony Visconti Mix)
      5. Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (Metro Remix Radio Edit)
      Side 4
      1. Heathen (The Rays) (Live In Berlin, 22/09/02)
      2. Hop Frog — Lou Reed Featuring David Bowie
      3. Saviour — Kristeen Young Featuring David Bowie
      4. Isn’t It Evening (The Revolutionary) — Earl Slick Featuring David Bowie
      5. Bring Me The Disco King (Loner Mix) — David Bowie Featuring Maynard James Keenan And John Frusciante (Taken From The Underworld Motion Picture Soundtrack)
    • LP 17: Re:Call 6
      Side 5
      1. New Killer Star (Radio Edit)
      2. Love Missile F1-11
      3. Fly
      4. Queen Of All The Tarts (Overture)
      5. Never Get Old (Single Edit)
      6. Waterloo Sunset
      Side 6
      1. Rebel Rebel (2003 Re-Record) (Taken From The Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle Motion Picture Soundtrack)
      2. New Killer Star (Sessions @ AOL Live Version, 23/09/03)
      3. Days (Live)
      4. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (Live)
      5. Rebel Never Gets Old (Radio Mix)
      6. (She Can) Do That — David Bowie With BT (Taken From The Stealth Motion Picture Soundtrack)
    • LP 18: Re:Call 6
      Side 7
      1. Life On Mars? (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05)
      2. Wake Up (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire
      3. Five Years (Live At Fashion Rocks, 08/09/05) — David Bowie With Arcade Fire
      4. Arnold Layne (Live At The Royal Albert Hall, 29/05/06) — David Gilmour Featuring David Bowie
      5. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA Edit)
      Side 8
      1. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) (2014 Version)
      2. ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore (2014 Version)
      3. Lazarus (Radio Edit)
      4. I Can’t Give Everything Away (Radio Edit)

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