David Bowie: ChangesOneBowie (RCA) David Bowie will return to Britain later this year, he told the audience at Wembly Empire Pool in London on Saturday - the climax to a week of concerts that reaffirmed Bowie's status as one of the most significant rock artists of the seventies.
....And Carlos Alomar, Bowie's rhythm guitarist, confirmed: "It seems that we're going to be doing some more gigs in the States and David wants to cut a new album fairly soon. David has the new album planned and all the songs are together. It's just down to him, when he wants to record.

"And then, after that, he wants to come back to Europe later this year."

....Bowie, meanwhile, has compilled a greatest hits LP called "ChangesOneBowie." The album to be released on May 21, features -

Side one: "Space Oddity", "John I'm Only Dancing", "Changes", "Ziggy Stardust", Suffragette City" and "The Jean Genie".
Side two: "Diamond Dogs", Rebel Rebel", "Young Americans", "Fame" and "Golden Years".

The mysterious vacuum behind the mask behind the mask behind . . .

I GUESS that one of the main functions of any greatest hits album is to explain to anyone who isn't a hard core fan exactly what all the fuss is all about
....I've always had a sneaking suspicion that David Bowie isn't at heart a rock and roller. He always appeared to be more like a strange auteur actor who used the medium of rock to perform a self scripted and orchestrated on-going drama.
....The motive behind this drama isn't always clear. Certainly it constantly contributes to the greater glory of David; the question is, does it really go any firther.
....If Bowie did set out to use rock and roll as a means to build himself into a superstar he has benn immeasurably successful. He has become one of the 70s leading rock innovators without actually innovating. To be totally uncharitable, his work is wholly derivative.
....Bowie's talent lies in the way he juxtaposes what has already been done. His sources range over and beyond rock and roll. His knowledge of popular media is like a well stocked card index, and he has an instinct for formuals that will grab the mass imagination.
....Before you Bowie fans reach for your knives, let me hasten to add that this kind of eclecticism is a perfectly valid form of art. Problems only occur when that eclecticism ranges into potentionally dangerous areas. The current flirtations with the trapings of fascism, always latent in Bowie's presentation but now looking increasingly overt, raises a moral problem. If the means of getting a crowd response involves unpleasant, violent or even deadly side effects, does the artist have to take the responsibility for the results? Is he actually in control, or just a part of the power/energy feedback circuit?
....The Rolling Stones faced the results of their Stanist period at Altamont, and hurriedly backed away. On another level, the Nazis faced the results of their crowd appeal at the post-war Nuremberg trials, and many were hanged.
....Back at the album, the opener is "Space Oddity". The record - selected, compiled and titled by Bowie - is presumably some kind of summation of his creer so far, and I gues the post-pepper "Oddity" is as good a place to start as any. This rather lightweight curio was after all, Bowie's first chart success.
....This is followed by a previously unissued version of "John I'm Only Dancing". There's almost a feeling of Lennon about the track, except it's decanted in such a limp gay bar environment that it's hard to believe.
...."Changes" seems strategically placed as it marks the start of the Big Time in Bowie's career and leads, on the album, into "Ziggy Stardust", the first fully formed Bowie persona.
...."Suffragette City" follows, and the idea begins to form that Bowie's songs are actually a kind of totem, a prop for his personality experiments. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's a detachment between Bowie and the subject of the song. It's kind of alien to the real core of rock and roll. Maybe that's why it became the anthem of the New York glitter/rough trade junior faggots.
....With a riff handed down from the best British R&B, the theme develops in "The Jean Genie" (is it about Iggy Stooge?). It's interesting that even in the context of this track Bowie never actually allows himself to cut loose with raw power, a thing that's hard to resist over this riff, believe me.
....Side two finds Bowie's apocalyptic-vision in full swing. "Diamond Dogs" seems to be the start of the plunge into gratutous paranoid visions. Perhaps a better phrase is counter-soul, a needless dwelling on the ugly side of the human spirit. Try playing Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long" immediatly after this an you'll see what I mean.
....It's possible that "Rebel Rebel" is the most sympathetic and human track on the whole album: a single and afectionate contact between trick and trade in the middle of the commercialised lust. Certainly the weekend amateur, teen transvestites in their sister's frocks saw it as their ultimate celebration.
....Suddenly with "Young Americans" we are presented with another change. The detachment is stripped away with make-up.
....The imagery isn't clear, but for the first time Bowie seems to be observing rather than monopolising the central role. Even so, even if, as I assume, "Young Americans" is a post-Vietnam song, its observation has the kind of perverse objectivity that can be found in movies like the "Night Porter".
....The objectivity slips away on both "Fame" and "Golden Years", to be replaced by the kind of soul cliches that James Brown has passed off for years as a substitute for thought.

...."ChangesOneBowie" is by no means a complete document.

When "ChangesOneBowie" was released last year it got reviews that mostly commented on its lack of adventure as a greatest hits package. But no-one seems to have picked up on the fact tgat the review copy they recieved quite probably had a version of "John, I'm Only Dancing" that was different to the original single version.
...."John, I'm Only Dancing" came out as a single in Britain only in 1972 - American RCA reportedly being worried by its, ahem, risque lyrics - but another version was recorded apparently for inclusion on "Aladdin Sane" and when "ChangesOne Bowie" was issued the initial pressing carried that second version, which as well as a word change feature sax, probably by Ken Fordham, which wasn't on the single cut. John Walker wrote in "Trousers Press" ("America's Only British Rock Magazine"): "The first version sounds positively anemic compared to this ill-fated Aladdin Sane track."
....But don't rush to check your copy of the album yet because only a few copies got outside the RCA office - the later generally available version features the ordinary single cut of "John".
....So what happened? The full story is still not fully certain but a reputable source who used to work at RCA tld me: "The first pressing only ever got as far as the warehouse racks. It never got into the shops. When it was withdrawn, 'men in suits' went around all the offices at RCA and got back all copies of it. In fact, there were other differences too. 'Space Oddity' had a different ending and a lot of the tracks sounded as though they'd been remixed. It's also certain that it was Bowie who rejected it and had it recalled."
....If you want to check your copy to see if it's one of those common or garden varities or one of those potential collectors items, the only way to tell is by the matrix nr - the letters and numbers scratched on the run off track in the centre of the record. On the first pressing, it's RS 1055A-2E and on the later pressings it's RS 1055-5E. Happy hunting.

Collection of Bowie's best, both in the single vein as well as his most popular cuts over the years. Runs from the rock oriented material he first began to break through on a mass level with the disco oriented cuts he has enjoyed such success with in recent months. One cut released only as a single in this country also included, the decadent British hit, "John, I'm Only Dancing." Kind of LP that should receive some diso programming as a result of artist's recent acceptance in that area, as well as strong radio response. Solid, hard rockers still show as artist's best work. Best cuts: "Space Oddity," "John, I'm Only Dancing," "Changes," "Jean Genie," "Rebel Rebel," "Fame," "Suffragette City." Dealers: Artist has developed into a genuine superstar over the past few years.