Thirty-seven tracks of Bowie goodness, taken from Bowie’s session recordings between 1968 and 1972. Between these years, Bowie underwent an number of musical transformations, and this collection charts this journey brilliantly. The first section of the first disc contains songs from the outskirts of his back catalogue, the pre-‘Space Oddity’ days. Though generally neglected, these are great tracks, or at least great versions – light hearted, but well constructed, arranged and performed. The next set, the ‘Space Oddity’ era stuff is slightly earnest singer-songwriter stuff, but again, done well. The second half of the first disc is ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ era recordings, and they drag a little, truth be told. They’re fine, but they tend to go on for longer than they need to.The second disc is the more instantly recognisable, consisting almost exclusively of tracks from ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’. In a sense, that makes it the more interesting of the discs, as these are the songs that first defined the artist. At the same time, these songs are so familiar to anyone interested enough to listen to this correction, that they capture the attention less than disc one. Either way, there are some great performances of some fantastic songs here, whether they’re well known or not.
Altogether, they make for an extremely good collection of recordings. Happily, the compilers have also elected to keep some of the surrounding chat from the radio broadcasts. This is very much of its time, but it’s great to hear, even if John Peel sounds like he’s fighting off some kind of sleeping tablet overdose. Bowie himself comes across as chatty and witty, though slightly nervous. The only real regret you have listening to this, is that Bowie didn’t return to the BBC that much through the rest of the decade – some sessions from the late 70s would have been a joy to hear, but in reality, his next BBC sessions were with Tin Machine, and it’s unlikely that anyone would really want them released now.
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