This Record Store Day, we’ll get two new releases from the David Bowie vaults: Cracked Actor, a 3xLP live album documenting a single show from 1974, and Bowpromo, a small-run promotional EP originally released in 1971, with alternate versions of several classic Hunky Dory numbers.
The material on Cracked Actor comes from Bowie’s Los Angeles performance on the so-called “Philly Dogs” leg of his Diamond Dogs tour–the same show that was captured in part in a BBC documentary of the same name–during which he performed material from both that album and the soul-inflected Young Americans, which was released the following year. The performance came just months after the recording of David Live, Bowie’s notoriously spotty first live album, but features a more R&B-oriented band including Luther Vandross on backing vocals, assembled to perform the new Young Americans material. Cracked Actor was mixed by Tony Visconti, Bowie’s longtime producer.
According to a statement on Bowie’s website, Bowpromo was originally pressed in “very small quantities” as a promotional accompaniment to Hunky Dory. It features alternate mixes of several beloved songs from that album: “Oh! You Pretty Things,” “Queen Bitch,” “Quicksand,” and others. (“Changes” and “Life on Mars?,” however, are notably absent.)
This year’s Record Store Day happens April 22. See the full tracklist for each release below.
David Bowie – Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles ’74) tracklist
Side 1:
Introduction
1984
Rebel Rebel
Moonage Daydream
Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing
Side 2:
Changes
Suffragette City
Aladdin Sane
All The Young Dudes
Cracked Actor
Side 3:
Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me
Knock On Wood
It’s Gonna Be Me
Space Oddity
Side 4:
Diamond Dogs
Big Brother
Time
Side 5:
The Jean Genie
Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
Side 6:
David Bowie logo etching
Bowpromo tracklist
Oh! You Pretty Things
Eight Line Poem
Kooks
It Ain’t Easy
Queen Bitch
Quicksand
Bombers / Andy Warhol Intro