2016 Parlophone
1. John, I'm Only Dancing (Again) (not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a single in 1979);
2. Somebody Up There Likes Me (alternative early previously unreleased mix);
3. It's Gonna Be Me (not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a bonus track on the EMI/Ryko edition of ‘Young Americans’ in 1990);
4. Who Can I Be Now? (not on ‘Young Americans’, first released as a bonus track on the EMI/Ryko edition of ‘Young Americans’ in 1990);
5. Can You Hear Me (alternative early previously unreleased version);
6. Young Americans (same version that ended up on ‘Young Americans’);
7. Right (alternative early previously unreleased version).
The Young American
“The Gouster” Album
Musicians
David Bowie - vocals, guitar, keyboards; Mike Garson – keyboards; Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick - guitars; Willie Weeks and Emir Ksasan – bass;
David Sanborn - saxophone; Andy Newmark and Dennis Davis – drums; Ralph McDonald, Pablo Rosario and Larry Washington - percussion;
Ava Cherry, Robin Clark, Luther Vandross, Anthony Hinton, Diane Sumler and Warren Peace - backing vocals.
Recorded
Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia and Record Plant, New York between August and December 1974.
Released
23 September 2016.
The Sigma Sound Studio sessions in August 1974 resulted in ten songs being recorded - John, I’m Only
Dancing (Again); Somebody Up There Likes Me; It’s Gonna Be Me; Who Can I Be Now?; Can You Hear Me;
Young Americans; Right; Shilling The Rubes; I’m A Laser; and After Today.
The first 7 of these were selected for a new album then tentatively titled ‘One Damn Song’. However, at various
stages of recording other titles for the album had been suggested and one of these was ‘The Gouster’.
When David was interviewed by journalist Robert Hilburn in Los Angeles to discuss the forthcoming ‘David Live’
album, he was more excited to discuss the new studio recordings.
"I really shouldn't do this", teased David Bowie as he walked across the room of his Beverly Hills
hotel suite toward a mound of tape equipment. I had come to talk to him and hear his new live
album (a two-record set from his current United States tour), but there was something else he
wanted to play first.
"This isn't the new album, but the one after it, and the record company doesn't like me to do that.
They want me to talk about the new one, the live one that'll be out soon. But I'm so excited about
this one. We cut it in a week in Philadelphia and it can tell you more about where I am now than
anything I could say."
The full article can be read here.
The tracks were reworked during the November Sigma Sound Studio sessions in November 1974.
