When David Bowie woke up one morning and realized it was now 1971, he also knew that he was still a one-hit wonder—and with every passing day, let alone passing year, his name was gripping ever tighter to that dire claim to fame.
Yes, he was grateful to “Space Oddity” for at least lifting his head above the parapet and proving that he could write hit songs when he wanted to. At the same time, though, his most recent album — The Man Who Sold the World — showed that he didn’t always want to, and he was still waiting for his U.K. record label to release it, months after it made its American debut.
It was time to get back to the hit songwriting, and the latest box set to roll out of the David Bowie archive, Divine Symmetry (Parlophone), is the story of what happened next.
It is, at least for — again an old warhorse in gray area terms; disc three to the similarly familiar Aylesbury Friars show in September, and another BBC session; disc four to the promotional Bowpromo disc that preceded the release of, some mono singles and B-sides and — representing the bulk of the box’s truly unheard offerings — seven alternative/early versions and mixes that were remixed again for this collection.
