SDE Review: David Bowie / Loving The Alien 1983-1988 box set

So Mr Record Company Executive, you’ve done the easy bit. You’ve collected, curated and repackaged David Bowie’s peerless output from the 1970s and sat back as music fans of every virtually every generation were bowled over by the quality of the music, the sheer number of albums and Bowie’s ever-changing image and artistic integrity. Job done.

Your mission now, should you choose to accept it: The 1980s….

On the face of it, this is no easy task. The 80s was a rock ’n’ roll obstacle course apparently designed to trip up all manner of musical legends, and indeed many took a tumble and wouldn’t return to their feet until the decade was all but over. Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and The Who all lost their way to some extent or another and David Bowie certainly found it tricky to navigate.

To make matters worse, for the new box set, Bowie’s best album of the decade, 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) is off limits since, er, that was (correctly) included in last year’s A New Career In A New Town package, while another highlight, 1989’s Tin Machine – isn’t deemed suitable, probably because it’s a 50 minute finger in the air to the era that brought us shoulder pads, mullets and the Filofax and therefore doesn’t really fit.

So that leaves just a five year span (1983-1988) which means three albums: Let’s Dance (1983), Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987). On the face of it not the most promising trio and a million miles away from, say, Low, Heroes and Lodger.

Let’s talk about Let’s Dance. Once all the groundwork had been laid with arrangements and demos worked out in Switzerland with Nile Rodgers, Let’s Dance was recorded in a mere 17 days. For an album that’s sold well over 10 million copies that’s an effort-to-reward ratio second-to-none.

It’s easy, in hindsight, to look back and see Let’s Dance as portentous long-player. One that heralded a new era of slick mediocrity, but although signs were there if you chose to look for them, it was largely celebrated as it spawned monster hits, sounded fantastic and David looked incredible.

Let’s Dance was produced by Nile Rodgers and has old over 10m copies 

But it does rather rely on those MASSIVE singles (‘Let’s Dance’, ‘China Girl’, ‘Modern Love’). ‘Without You’ and ‘Shake It’ are a bit Bowie-lite and while ‘Cat People (Putting Out Fire)’ is a great song, it is of course a re-recording and I’ve never met any Bowie aficionado that doesn’t prefer the soundtrack version (which features on Re:Call 3, from the last box). That leaves you with five songs; the three singles plus ‘Criminal World’ and ‘Ricochet’. If you’ve ever wondered why the song ‘Let’s Dance’ on the album is a rather unnecessarily elongated version (it runs for almost eight minutes) a cynic might conclude that if they hadn’t done that, the record would have been a shade over 36 minutes – rather short for an album (even the six-track Station To Station was longer).

Anyway… at the time this seemed like just another Bowie experiment. David goes ‘commercial’. A toe-dipping exercise into the world of a mainstream artist. But, distracted and seduced by the enormous success, David Bowie forgot to ‘move on’ and with the dial stuck on ‘80s pop star’ the next five years are generally regarded as his creative nadir.

The other point of note is that in Bowie terms, that gap between Scary Monsters and Let’s Dance was a lifetime – over two and a half years – yet David had only five new songs to bring to the table, since ‘Criminal World’ was a cover, ‘China Girl’ had of course featured on Iggy Pop’s 1977 album The Idiot and as mentioned above, ‘Cat People’ had already been written and released, albeit in a different form. David was still writing great songs, but not enough of them and while this largely went unnoticed in 1983 the cracks really showed on 1984’s Tonight.

For that album, guitarist Carlos Alomar was back, having been part of the Serious Moonlight Tour (but not Let’s Dance studio sessions) and he was aware from the outset that it was going to be a challenge. He told SDE “We were really totally unprepared to go into the studio and we both knew it.”

Although commercially quite successful (any album following up Let’s Dance would have been) Tonight is a bit of a mess. David only had two new songs for this album, and brilliant though ‘Loving the Alien’ and ‘Blue Jean’ are, two great songs do not make an album. It’s incredible really, but consider this: In the six and a half years between Scary Monsters and Never Let Me Down there were only seven songs issued on David Bowie studio albums that he wrote alone. In the same six and a half years between Diamond Dogs and Scary Monsters DB wrote 33 songs, on his own, that appeared on his studio albums. Nearly five times more productive.

Hugh Padgham who had co-produced Phil Collins’ first two albums and The Police’s Synchronicity was on board, but initially as just the engineer, a suggestion of Bob Clearmountain’s, who had engineered Let’s Dance but was unavailable to do Tonight. Talking to SDE about it, Padgham said “I thought maybe it would be a little bit of a holiday for me… I can just sit there and make this amazing sounding album and not have all the stress [of producing]!”

Tonight’s co-producer Derek Bramble “wore David out”

The sessions took place in ‘Le Studio’ a facility “in the middle of nowhere”, about 100km north of Montreal and the producer was Derek Bramble, bass player from Heatwave. On the face of it, a strange choice. Padgham speculates that the decision to work with Bramble may have been in part down to Bowie’s penchant for “discovering people” but then cheekily suggests economics may have played a part “I think he probably thought he didn’t have to pay him very much!”. Whatever the motivations, for once, David’s instincts weren’t correct. Bramble contributed to an unexpected (some would say unwanted) reggae vibe with songs like ‘Don’t Look Down’ and ‘Tonight’ but his inexperience created some tension as he insisted David re-sung vocals that sounded fine to Padgham: “I think David was probably the best vocalist I ever worked with. He was stunning. He was pitch perfect… I could see that David was a bit frustrated.” Alomar concurs: “Derek was not an experienced producer and so the methodologies that you use are a little bit different when you are just starting, as opposed to Hugh who was a seasoned producer and knows how to actually get into an artists’ head, without [them] thinking that he’s in their head! I think Derek’s inexperience actually wore David out.”

There was a break in proceedings (perhaps contrived) and Padgham returned to England for a couple of weeks. During this time he was informed that Bramble was off the project and asked if he would like to take over and finish the album with David as co-producer. He agreed, despite acknowledging that inheriting this task was something of a “double-edged sword”. Iggy Pop came in to inject some energy and help complete the sessions but Padgham says “it had become obvious to me that David was almost resigned to finishing the record the easiest and the quickest way possible”.

Incidentally, in an oft-repeated quote, years later David would claim that he was asleep at the wheel and that, for example, the original demo to ‘Loving the Alien’ was so much better than how it turned out on the album. I put that to Carlos Alomar. Did he remember this demo? “Of course I do – it sucked! [laughs]. Totally disagree. The arrangement I put together for ‘Loving The Alien’ was fabulous!”

Tonight did give Bowie his third consecutive number one album in the UK and although ‘Blue Jean’ was a transatlantic top ten hit, Tonight (the single with Tina Turner) failed to reach the top 40 while ‘Loving The Alien’ just about scrapped into the top 20 in Britain. EMI’s desperation showed, with a plethora of remixes spread liberally around the 12-inches, including extended dance mixes, extended dub mixes, vocal dance mixes of various album tracks as well as the single themselves (there were no new songs as B-sides). Some of these remixes are included on the ‘Dance’ disc in the Loving The Alien box set.

While no-one would claim it’s a classic, 1987’s Never Let Me Down was a distinct improvement on Tonight. Songs like the title track, ‘Zeroes’, ‘Time Will Crawl’ and the conceptual ‘Glass Spider’ (after which the tour would be named) had a quality and ambition sorely lacking from most of the album’s predecessor. Bowie had worked with David Richards and multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kilzilcay on Iggy Pop’s 1986 album Blah Blah Blah and retained their services for Never Let Me Down. Carlos Alomar worked on the record again and David’s old friend Peter Frampton was brought in on lead guitar (and sitar).

In terms of commercial success, it was a case of diminishing returns. ‘Day-In Day-Out’ was a top 20 single in the UK, but ‘Time Will Crawl’ and ‘Never Let Me Down’ (both fine songs) stalled at 33 and 34 respectively.

The extended dance mix of Never Let Me Down is not included in the box

Putting these three albums in the Loving The Alien box set doesn’t fundamentally change anything about them. Let’s Dance remains a good album, Tonight is still very uneven and hard to love, and Never Let Me Down is somewhere in the middle. The latter is often described as being ‘over-produced’ – too many layers (like floors of a building), too much going on, too ‘eighties’ – and when David commissioned a ‘re-production’ of ‘Time Will Crawl’ for his iSelect compilation in 2008, fans got an idea of just how much a song from Never Let Me Down could be improved with some tinkering.

Loving The Alien’s masterstroke is to include Never Let Me Down 2018 – an entirely reworked and ‘re-produced’ version of the album that features new instrumentation by Bowie collaborators Reeves Gabrels (guitar), David Torn (guitar), Sterling Campbell (drums), Tim Lefebvre (bass – he played on Blackstar) as well as string quartet with arrangements by Nico Muhly. Mario McNulty has put this together and given that he created that version of ‘Time Will Crawl’ with Bowie’s blessing and David himself expressed a desire to redo the whole album, this is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Listening to the album is a bizarre experience. Familiar, yet changed. A wolf taking off fluffy sheep’s clothing and revealing sharp edges, attitude, and hidden depths. ‘Day-In Day-Out‘ is one of the tracks changed least, but real drums and bass remove some of the digital plasticky-ness of the original. There’s more space and more time to hear and enjoy individual performance. ‘Time Will Crawl‘ is familiar, of course. It’s not identical to the previous ‘MM Remix’ but quite similar.

‘Beat of Your Drum’ starts quite differently and powerfully with strings and drums, bass and guitar. Those honking saxes have gone from the chorus, and the whole thing just sounds classier. Bowie’s vocals are crystal clear and not buried beneath layers of sequencers, drums machines, synths and god knows what else. I must admit I don’t really like this song too much, but it’s a undoubtedly a massive improvement.

‘Never Let Me Down’ is like ‘Day-In Day-Out’ – evolution not revolution. This is a great song and you don’t want to mess with it too much, but the real bass and drums make a world of difference and it ends sweetly with a strings-only fade.

You’ve probably heard ‘Zeroes‘ by now. The new version sounds incredible with all the bombast of the ‘80s removed and is already sounding something like a lost classic. Expect this version to be on future Bowie ‘best of’ compilations.

Because the singles were on side one of Never Let Me Down and side two wasn’t David at his best, I quite often wouldn’t make it to the end of the album! ’87 and Cry’ and ‘New York’s In Love’ weren’t necessarily the biggest incentives… but in some respects it’s the second side of the album where Mario McNulty and team earn their crust, with this 2018 version.

‘Glass Spider‘ is transformed into a spectacular industrial landscape featuring persistent bass, spaced out guitars and thankfully that voiceover at the beginning has been turned down in the mix. With ‘Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)‘ Bowie’s vocals play out against a dubby groove and those rather annoying and trebly rhythm guitars are gone. Mickey Rourke’s ‘rap’ is replaced by Laurie Anderson. This is one of the few instances where I’m not sure if it works entirely. It’s not really a great song, and structurally I’d guess it caused all sorts of problems.

A punky spirit imbues ‘New York’s In Love‘ – those intro backing vocals are gone, as are the ‘catchy’ organ refrains at the end of each line – and blow me down with a feather but I now LIKE ‘87 and Cry‘, a song I has such disregard for that it became shorthand for anything a subpar (“it’s a bit ’87 and Cry’, isn’t it?”). There’s a lean power and a vibrancy to the song now that simply didn’t exist before. It’s actually excellent. ‘Bang Bang‘ benefits in the same way as everything else and Never Let Me Down 2018 comes to an end.

The new Never Let Me Down 2018 looks and sounds great.

The process hasn’t transformed Never Let Me Down into a classic, by any means, but the album is a hell of a lot more fun to listen to and some songs benefit more than others. I’d equate the process to an expert removing layers of grime from an old painting – the key difference being that a jaded and rather uninspired Bowie was complicit in applying this ‘grime’ himself, back in 1987! But the analogy works in as much as Mario McNulty can’t turn base metals into gold, but this process can reveal some kind of inner musical truth. So ‘Zeroes’ sounds amazing, while ‘Shining Star’ just sounds a bit better.

The packaging is very effective for this 2018 version of Never Let Me Down, with the black cover art and an alternate cover shot enhanced with some spot varnishing.

Moving back to the box set in general, Loving The Alien arguably contains the best Re:Call compilation to date, because it’s not just packed with dubious single edits but contains loads of additional songs. The 1980s were quite unusual in that the work David Bowie was doing in between his albums was often better than his own official singles. ‘This Is Not America’ – recorded with The Pat Metheny Group –  has always been, and will always be, amazing. As will ‘Absolute Beginners’, included here in its full length eight-minute version. And the music from the film Labyrinth is great, especially ‘Underground’ and ‘As The World Falls Down’.

To be honest CD 2 of Re:Call 4 (or specifically side 5 of the 3LP set) perhaps tests the patience somewhat. There’s some good stuff like ‘When The Wind Blows’, and B-sides like ‘Julie’ and ‘Girls’, but having already featured the remastered version of the original ‘Never Let Me Down’ and the 2018 version in the box, including all the original vinyl edits of album tracks on Re:Call 4 feels a bit surplus to requirements. Yes, it can be justified by playing the ‘completist’ card but Parlophone haven’t been completist about the 12-inch remixes – you are either a completist or you’re not!

What I am saying is that if the box isn’t going to be a complete gathering of everything released at the time, why bother with these rather tedious edits? Why include the vinyl album edits of ‘Bang Bang’ and ’87 and Cry’ and leave off (for example) the original 12-inch Extended Dance Mix of ‘Day-in Day-Out’? Similarly, I’d have much rather have had the 12-inch Extended Dance Mix of ‘Time Will Crawl’ (not included) instead of vinyl album edits of ‘Shining Star’ and ‘Beat of Your Drum’ (included).

I can understand why this has happened. One of the problems of creating a series of box sets like the Bowie ones Parlophone have issued every year since 2015, is that you end up creating unwritten ‘rules’ that deny the compilers and the product managers at the label flexibility to improvise. One of these rules is that CD and vinyl content must be the same. So while Loving The Alien is ‘only’ an eleven-CD set (one less than Five Years and Who Can I Be Now?) on vinyl it is a 15LP package which is two more than any previous outing. So if Parlophone had added an extra CD of remixes, there’s a good chance that would have meant two extra vinyl records. For a box set that costs £220 as it is on vinyl, that was obviously deemed unacceptable. So why not dump those Never Let Me Down album edits and squeeze a handful of extra 12-inch remixes on Re:Call 4?  The answer is simply because ‘Re:Call’ has established itself as (a-hem) a space for oddities: single edits, non-album singles, B-sides and the like. Shoving a few ad-hoc extended versions is just not cricket. So while I mourn the absentees from the Dance remix CD included in Loving The Alien – and I therefore can’t throw away my cassette singles bought in 1987 (see this feature) – I ‘get’ why they haven’t appeared.

The rest of the box set audio is concerned with live material, namely Serous Moonlight from ’83 and Glass Spider from ’87. I don’t really know why, but I have absolutely no interest in David live in this period. I loved the live albums in the 1970s – David Live to me is an essential document – but these 80s shows, while I might watch them on DVD, as an audio experience they do little for me. The trouble is, live audio takes up five LPs, or one third of the Loving The Alien vinyl box set. If you feel the same as me, that’s a lot of content and expense to ‘write off’.



Finally, in terms of packaging the label have done a phenomenal job. I absolutely love the Japanese-style vinyl replicas CDs which are facsimiles of the original packaging in minute detail. I compared mine with the actual Japanese mini-LP CDs that I bought circa 2007 and they stand up to comparison very well, with only some tiny differences (Let’s Dance has a slightly glossier front cover in the new box set, for example). The hardcover book does a good job of pulling together archive features with new testimony and there’s plenty of great photos, images of tape boxes and the like.

To summarise, as a teenager in the 1980s who bought some of these albums and singles at the time my nostalgia for the period overrides other concerns. By definition, this is the weakest box to date because it contains the weakest albums, but Never Let Me Down 2018, the Dance remix CD and Re:Call 4 make it worth buying (they are all exclusive to the box set, incidentally). The £100 outlay for that, the remastered albums, the sublime packaging and the live material on CD is definitely worth it. The vinyl box is incredibly expensive but if you’ve bought the other sets on the format, you’d be a fool not to continue, especially as the vinyl boxes seem to go out of print and hold their value in a way the CD boxes don’t (see used prices for Five Years).

Of course, I love a box set as much as the next person, but I actually hope Loving The Alien signifies the end of these massive era-spanning sets and the focus moves on individual albums where there is more flexibility and the label can take a pragmatic and not programmatic approach. I’ll warrant there’s a few wiping of brows behind the scenes – they’ve made it through most of the 1980s. Time to trim that mullet and move on.

Loving The Alien [1983-1988] is out now.

Loving The Alien 15LP Box Set

Summary:

• 88 Page hardback book
• Let’s Dance (remastered) (1LP)
• Serious Moonlight (Live ’83) (previously unreleased) (2LP)*
• Tonight (remastered) (1LP)
• Never Let Me Down (remastered) (1LP)
• Never Let Me Down (2018) (previously unreleased) (2LP – side 4 is etched)*
• Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87) (previously unreleased on vinyl) (3LP)*
• Dance (2LP)*
• Re:Call 4 (non-album singles, edits, single versions, b-sides and soundtrack music) (remastered) (3LP)*

* Exclusive to ‘Loving The Alien (1983-1988) LP box’

Detail:

LET’S DANCE

Side 1

1. Modern Love
2. China Girl
3. Let’s Dance
4. Without You

Side 2

1. Ricochet
2. Criminal World
3. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
4. Shake It

SERIOUS MOONLIGHT (LIVE ’83)

Side 1

1. Look Back In Anger
2. “Heroes”
3. What In The World
4. Golden Years
5. Fashion
6. Let’s Dance

Side 2

1. Breaking Glass
2. Life On Mars?
3. Sorrow
4. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
5. China Girl
6. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
7. Rebel Rebel

Side 3

1. White Light / White Heat
2. Station To Station
3. Cracked Actor
4. Ashes To Ashes

Side 4

1. Space Oddity/Band Introduction
2. Young Americans
3. Fame
4. Modern Love

TONIGHT

Side 1

1. Loving The Alien
2. Don’t Look Down
3. God Only Knows
4. Tonight

Side 2

1. Neighborhood Threat
2. Blue Jean
3. Tumble And Twirl
4. I Keep Forgettin’
5. Dancing With The Big Boys

NEVER LET ME DOWN

Side 1

1. Day-In Day-Out
2. Time Will Crawl
3. Beat Of Your Drum
4. Never Let Me Down
5. Zeroes

Side 2

1. Glass Spider
2. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)
3. New York’s In Love
4. ’87 And Cry
5. Bang

NEVER LET ME DOWN (2018) 

Side 1

1. Day-In Day-Out
2. Time Will Crawl
3. Beat Of Your Drum

Side 2

1. Never Let Me Down
2. Zeroes
3. Glass Spider

Side 3

1. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (ft Laurie Anderson)
2. New York’s In Love
3. 87 & Cry
4. Bang Bang

Side 4

• David Bowie 1987 logo etching

GLASS SPIDER (LIVE MONTREAL ’87)

Side 1

1. Up The Hill Backwards
2. Glass Spider
3. Day-In Day-Out
4. Bang Bang

Side 2

1. Absolute Beginners
2. Loving The Alien
3. China Girl
4. Rebel Rebel

Side 3

1. Fashion
2. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
3. All The Mad Men
4. Never Let Me Down

Side 4

1. Big Brother
2. ‘87 And Cry
3. “Heroes”
4. Sons Of The Silent Age
5. Time Will Crawl / Band Introduction

Side 5

1. Young Americans
2. Beat Of Your Drum
3. The Jean Genie
4. Let’s Dance

Side 6

1. Fame
2. Time
3. Blue Jean
4. Modern Love

DANCE

Side 1 

1 Shake It (Re-mix aka Long Version)
(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘China Girl’ 12” single on EMI America 12EA 157 (U.K.) and V-7809 (U.S.) in May, 1983.)

2 Blue Jean (Extended Dance Mix)
(Originally released on 12” single on EMI America 12EA 181 (U.K.) and V-7838 (U.S.) in September, 1984.)

3 Dancing With The Big Boys (Extended Dance Mix)
(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘Blue Jean’ 12” single alongside an Extended Dub Mix of the same, release details as above.)

Side 2 

1 Tonight (Vocal Dance Mix)

(Originally released on 12” single on EMI America 12EA 187 (U.K.) and V-7846 (U.S.) in November, 1984.)

2 Don’t Look Down (Extended Dance Mix)

(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘Loving The Alien’ (Extended Dance Mix) 12” single alongside the ‘Loving The Alien’ (Extended Dub Mix) on EMI America 12EA 195 (U.K.) and VG-7858 (U.S.) in May, 1985.)

3 Loving The Alien (Extended Dub Mix)

(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘Loving The Alien’ (Extended Dance Mix) 12” single, release details as above.)

Side 3 

1 Tumble And Twirl (Extended Dance Mix)
(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘Tonight’ 12” single alongside a ‘Tonight’ (Dub Mix), release details as above.)

2 Underground (Extended Dance Mix)
(Originally released on 12” single on EMI America 12EA 216 (U.K.) and V-19210 (U.S.) in June, 1986.)

3 Day-In Day-Out (Groucho Mix)
(Originally released on 12” single on EMI America 12EAX 230 (U.K.) and V-19239 (U.S.) in March, 1987.)

Side 4 

1 Time Will Crawl (Dance Crew Mix)
(Originally released on 12” single on EMI America 12EAX 237 (U.K.) in June, 1987.)

2 Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (12” mix)
(Originally released on the ‘Never Let Me Down’ digital E.P. on EMI 0094639278954 in May, 2007.)

3. Never Let Me Down (Dub/Acapella)
(Originally released on the B-side of the ‘Never Let Me Down’ (Extended Dance Mix) 12” single on EMI America 12EA 239 (U.K.) and V-19255 (U.S.) in August, 1987.)

RE:CALL 4

Side 1

1. Let’s Dance (single version)
2. China Girl (single version)
3. Modern Love (single version)
4. This Is Not America (The theme from ‘The Falcon And The Snowman’) – David Bowie / Pat Metheny Group
5. Loving The Alien (re-mixed version)

Side 2

1. Don’t Look Down (re-mixed version)
2. Dancing In The Street (Clearmountain mix) – David Bowie and Mick Jagger
3. Absolute Beginners (from Absolute Beginners)
4. That’s Motivation (from Absolute Beginners)
5. Volare (from Absolute Beginners)

Side 3 

1. Labyrinth Opening Titles/Underground (from Labyrinth)
2. Magic Dance (from Labyrinth)
3. As The World Falls Down (from Labyrinth)
4. Within You (from Labyrinth)
5. Underground (from Labyrinth)

Side 4

1. When The Wind Blows (single version) (from When The Wind Blows)
2. Day-In Day-Out (single version)
3. Julie
4. Beat Of Your Drum (vinyl album edit)
5. Glass Spider (vinyl album edit)

Side 5

1. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (vinyl album edit)
2. New York’s In Love (vinyl album edit)
3. ‘87 And Cry (vinyl album edit)
4. Bang Bang (vinyl album edit)
5. Time Will Crawl (single version)

Side 6

1. Girls (extended edit)
2. Never Let Me Down (7” remix edit)
3. Bang Bang (live – promotional mix)
4. Tonight (live) Tina Turner with David Bowie
5. Let’s Dance (live) Tina Turner with David Bowie

Loving The Alien 11CD box set

Summary

• 128 Page hardback book
• Let’s Dance (remastered) (1CD)
• Serious Moonlight (Live ’83) (previously unreleased) (2CD)
• Tonight (remastered) (1CD)
• Never Let Me Down (remastered) (1CD)
• Never Let Me Down 2018 (previously unreleased) (1CD)*
• Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87) (2CD)
• Dance (1CD)*
• Re:Call 4 (non-album singles, edits, single versions, b-sides and soundtrack music) (remastered) (2CD)*

* Exclusive to ‘Loving The Alien (1983-1988)’

Detail:

CD TRACKLISTING

LET’S DANCE

1. Modern Love
2. China Girl
3. Let’s Dance
4. Without You
5. Ricochet
6. Criminal World
7. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
8. Shake It

SERIOUS MOONLIGHT (LIVE ’83)

CD1

1. Look Back In Anger
2. “Heroes”
3. What In The World
4. Golden Years
5. Fashion
6. Let’s Dance
7. Breaking Glass
8. Life On Mars?
9. Sorrow
10. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
11. China Girl
12. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
13. Rebel Rebel

CD2

1. White Light / White Heat
2. Station To Station
3. Cracked Actor
4. Ashes To Ashes
5. Space Oddity/Band Introduction
6. Young Americans
7. Fame
8. Modern Love

TONIGHT

1. Loving The Alien
2. Don’t Look Down
3. God Only Knows
4. Tonight
5. Neighborhood Threat
6. Blue Jean
7. Tumble And Twirl
8. I Keep Forgettin’
9. Dancing With The Big Boys

NEVER LET ME DOWN

1. Day-In Day-Out
2. Time Will Crawl
3. Beat Of Your Drum
4. Never Let Me Down
5. Zeroes
6. Glass Spider
7. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)
8. New York’s In Love
9. ’87 And Cry
10. Bang Bang

NEVER LET ME DOWN (2018)

1. Day-In Day-Out
2. Time Will Crawl
3. Beat Of Your Drum
4. Never Let Me Down
5. Zeroes
6. Glass Spider
7. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (ft Laurie Anderson)
8. New York’s In Love
9. ’87 And Cry
10. Bang Bang

GLASS SPIDER (LIVE MONTREAL ’87)

CD 1

1. Up The Hill Backwards
2. Glass Spider
3. Day-In Day-Out
4. Bang Bang
5. Absolute Beginners
6. Loving The Alien
7. China Girl
8. Rebel Rebel
9. Fashion
10. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
11. All The Mad Men
12. Never Let Me Down

CD 2

1. Big Brother
2. ‘87 And Cry
3. “Heroes”
4. Sons Of The Silent Age
5. Time Will Crawl / Band Introduction
6. Young Americans
7. Beat Of Your Drum
8. The Jean Genie
9. Let’s Dance
10. Fame
11. Time
12. Blue Jean
13. Modern Love

DANCE

1. Shake It (Re-mix aka Long Version)
2. Blue Jean (Extended Dance Mix)
3. Dancing With The Big Boys (Extended Dance Mix)
4. Tonight (Vocal Dance Mix)
5. Don’t Look Down (Extended Dance Mix)
6. Loving The Alien (Extended Dub Mix)
7. Tumble And Twirl (Extended Dance Mix)
8. Underground (Extended Dance Mix)
9. Day-In Day-Out (Groucho Mix)
10. Time Will Crawl (Dance Crew Mix)
11. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (12” mix)
12. Never Let Me Down (Dub/Acapella)

RE:CALL 4

CD 1

1. Let’s Dance (single version)
2. China Girl (single version)
3. Modern Love (single version)
4. This Is Not America (The theme from ‘The Falcon And The Snowman’) – David Bowie / Pat Metheny Group
5. Loving The Alien (re-mixed version)
6. Don’t Look Down (re-mixed version)
7. Dancing In The Street (Clearmountain mix) – David Bowie and Mick Jagger
8. Absolute Beginners (from Absolute Beginners)
9. That’s Motivation (from Absolute Beginners)
10. Volare (from Absolute Beginners)
11. Labyrinth Opening Titles/Underground (from Labyrinth)
12. Magic Dance (from Labyrinth)
13. As The World Falls Down (from Labyrinth)
14. Within You (from Labyrinth)
15. Underground (from Labyrinth)

CD 2

1. When The Wind Blows (single version) (from When The Wind Blows)
2. Day-In Day-Out (single version)
3. Julie
4. Beat Of Your Drum (vinyl album edit)
5. Glass Spider (vinyl album edit)
6. Shining Star (Makin’ My Love) (vinyl album edit)
7. New York’s In Love (vinyl album edit)
8. ‘87 And Cry (vinyl album edit)
9. Bang Bang (vinyl album edit)
10. Time Will Crawl (single version)
11. Girls (extended edit)
12. Never Let Me Down (7” remix edit)
13. Bang Bang (live – promotional mix)
14. Tonight (live) Tina Turner with David Bowie
15. Let’s Dance (live) Tina Turner with David Bowie

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