Featuring rare, live and unreleased recordings
These days, as tragic as it is when one of our favourite artists die, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t get any new music from them. David Bowie is a case in point: since his death we’ve received a steady stream of unheard music, including his early demos, and he even reportedly wrote a five-year plan for how he wanted his music to be released after he was no longer around.
On Wednesday this week, Bowie would have been 73. To celebrate, Parlophone Records released the first track from a brand new Bowie EP, called David Bowie Is It Any Wonder? The song was a never before heard recording of “The Man Who Sold The World”, and The Guardian reports that there are more on the way.
According to Parlophone, each week they will release a new track from the EP, and each song will be an unreleased version of a song from Bowie’s back catalogue, recorded in the 1990s. They have yet to release the full tracklist.
Ok, so this means that the songs aren’t totally new, but there are two EPs coming in 2020: on April 18, Record Store Day, the label also promises to drop a second Bowie record, The ChangesNowBowie live session, which was recorded in 1996 at rehearsals for Bowie’s 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden. It’s only previously been heard on the Mary Ann Hobbs show on Radio 1, and includes “Andy Warhol”, “Lady Stardust”, and “White Light White Heat”.
In the hours after Bowie died, in January 2016, Spotify reported that streams for his music spiked, going up 2,700 per cent. Sales of his albums in the US rose by more than 5,000 per cent.
For record labels and rights owners, posthumous releases can equal the big bucks. Arthur Russell is an example of an artist who has arguably received more success after his death than in life, while famous albums like Nirvana Unplugged, John Lennon’s Milk and Honey, and Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death are all examples of albums released after their singers’ deaths.
Below is the recording of “The Man Who Sold The World” that was released on Wednesday recorded by Bowie in November 1996.