Produced By David Bowie, Arranged by Tony Visconti Astronettes : Ava Cherry, Geoff MacCormack, Jason Guess, Lead Vocals Musicians: David Bowie, Mike Garson, Aynsley Dunbar, Herbie Flowers, Mark Prichard, Luis Ramirez Recorded & Mixed Electric Ladyland Studios New York 1974 during Young Americans Sessions
The Astronettes’ sessions were recorded in London between Dec ‘73 and Jan ‘74. Are they easy to mistake for Young Americans outtakes? No so sure myself, though songs like I Am Divine was ‘recycled’ to become Somebody Up There Likes Me.
I love these pieces because Bowie doesn’t even have to be singing to know it’s a Bowie song. You can just tell by the production, arrangements and melody. That’s genius right there.
So many songs... why didn’t they all make it onto the LP? John I’m Only Dancing (Again) It’s Gonna Be Me Who Can I Be Now? Shilling The Rubes I Am A Lazer After Today I Am Divine It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City Footstompin’
Sometimes less is more :) - I'm glad that I am a Laser got reworked to Scream like a baby on Scary Monsters, John I'm only Dancing got to be a single, but It's gonna be me and Who can I be now has the most soulful vocals he ever did !!!
All the outtakes & finished 'bonus tracks' to this LP should've been the actual LP along with the title track, 'Win', 'Right', 'Can You Hear Me' & 'Fame'. It would've been a stellar Bowie LP! The famed bonus tracks along with the '75 remake of 'John I'm Only Dancing' is Bowie really being a pop star of the first order! I love 'Young Americans' but it should've had all of these songs on it... All hits, all great! Bowie is great in '75!
Amen to that! These are brilliant outtakes that could have made the album. Who Can I Be Now? It's Gonna Be Me After Today I Am Divine It’s Hard To Be a Saint in The City & John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)
This was recorded at Sigma Sound in 1974 for Ava Cherry Album the male vocalist is Geoff McCormick bowies childhood friend and backup singer on the Diamond Dogs Tour.
No disrespect to John Lennon, but the Young Americans/Gouster stuff Bowie recorded before Mr L got involved is much more interesting. Gouster is incredible and I'm Divine is a revelation: it's these recordings that make me realise what he was trying to do, rather than the involvement with Lennon. How things get shaped, eh.
@@vegrock57 That's right, the Astronettes stuff (which includes this and everything later released on 'The People From Bad Homes') was recorded in December '73 and January '74, so quite concurrent with Diamond Dogs! But it IS frustrating that for the 'Young Americans' album, Bowie second-guessed heartfelt gems like 'It's Gonna Be Me' and 'Who Can I Be Now' out in favour of 'Across the Universe' and 'Fame', both of which (as iconic as 'Fame is) detract from the album's concept.
@@user-li3fr8jl3b I'd say the focus was on emulating smoother, intimate Philadelphia Soul music with a live-in-studio emphasis and verbose, Springsteen-influenced lyrics. 'Fame' is this jerky funk outlier from that idea, it's undeniably the dumbest song on the album, while 'Across the Universe' is cringey and just got included because Lennon played on it. Even Visconti thought that. I just think saving those two for later and including some of the earlier songs would have unified the sound of YA and improved it.
This fits YOUNG AMERICANS concept. Some measures remind me of SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKE ME, another observation on what might be called American Success. F SCOTT F would trumpet BOWIE's writing as a triumph.
i'm assuming this turned into somebody up there likes me, the instrumental breaks have the same progression and riff. also in somebody up there, there's the lyric "he's so divine"
Let you guys know LA 1974 live show being released for this years record store day, this is the same show as strange fascination bootleg, remastered and in its full glory.
That's not Bowie on lead vocals. It's Geoff MacCormick, a friend of David's. That detail's directly from Tony Visconti, who did some string writing for the album.
He could have trotted out a couple more Aladdin Sanes to diminishing ends, but he took on soul, an 'inferior' form of music according to many English listeners in those days, and did it as well as Aretha Juke Box Queen.
Was this the track 0, on Ava's album, wasn't even on the track listing as I recall though I might be wrong. I know I kept the cd because of the Bowie track , its knocking about somewhere in the piles of the "What were you thinking " cds and vinyl I've amassed over the decades.
Yes, but the title is not misleading since composer is still the author of the song. Like music by Beethoven, while it's actually played by London Symphony Orchestra. I don't know a lot of details about this song, it's directly from a bootleg album of "rare" songs, so I appreciate if someone can share some information. And I'm not picking on you, just some watchers seem confused, and I wanted to clear that! ;) Geoff was the backing vocalist, right?
Originally intended for 1974 album Young Americans. Although it didn't make the final cut , it appeared on Ava Cherry's People From Bad Homes Composer: David Bowie Performed by: The Astronettes (vocals by Geoff MacCormick)
The time when one could look forward to Bowie's previously unreleased songs ended more or less when he reissued his major works (i.e, up to and including "Lodger") on CD for the first time.This is just more unrelenting tedium that spoils the original memory of those early and really exciting days.
Produced By David Bowie, Arranged by Tony Visconti
Astronettes : Ava Cherry, Geoff MacCormack, Jason Guess, Lead Vocals
Musicians: David Bowie, Mike Garson, Aynsley Dunbar, Herbie Flowers, Mark Prichard, Luis Ramirez
Recorded & Mixed Electric Ladyland Studios New York 1974 during Young Americans Sessions
Thank you for info Bob!! .. at the 'Young Americans' album he had many music material, and fantastic!! 👍
The Astronettes’ sessions were recorded in London between Dec ‘73 and Jan ‘74. Are they easy to mistake for Young Americans outtakes? No so sure myself, though songs like I Am Divine was ‘recycled’ to become Somebody Up There Likes Me.
@@tonypradioshow2569 Apart from the title phrase this song shares little to nothing with SUTLM. Which section was recycled?
Shame that Lennon was ever involved yet he got big money hit from Fame. And the awful Across the Universe is a wonderful Beatles song.
I love these pieces because Bowie doesn’t even have to be singing to know it’s a Bowie song. You can just tell by the production, arrangements and melody. That’s genius right there.
Wolfe
How cool was this god
That's probably because this became Somebody Up There Likes Me from Young Americans.
So many songs... why didn’t they all make it onto the LP?
John I’m Only Dancing (Again)
It’s Gonna Be Me
Who Can I Be Now?
Shilling The Rubes
I Am A Lazer
After Today
I Am Divine
It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Footstompin’
some of them were got into The Gouster, one of Bowie's forgotten albums. But tbh, these songs that you mentioned are bangers
And ‘Jimmy Crack Corn’!
Sometimes less is more :) - I'm glad that I am a Laser got reworked to Scream like a baby on Scary Monsters, John I'm only Dancing got to be a single, but It's gonna be me and Who can I be now has the most soulful vocals he ever did !!!
Because you can only fit so many tracks on a vinyl LP, due to technical limitations.
well it took fifty years but now we all know that Young Americans SHOULD HAVE BEEN A DOUBLE ALBUM!
I hear "Somebody Up There Likes Me" in sections of this song.
A man from a different place and time , fell to earth for us to enjoy. RIP David. 👽
Now he's with the StarDust in the sky! ✨✨✨✨✨👩🎤
Never ever again will we be blessed with someone like David
All the outtakes & finished 'bonus tracks' to this LP should've been the actual LP along with the title track, 'Win', 'Right', 'Can You Hear Me' & 'Fame'. It would've been a stellar Bowie LP! The famed bonus tracks along with the '75 remake of 'John I'm Only Dancing' is Bowie really being a pop star of the first order! I love 'Young Americans' but it should've had all of these songs on it... All hits, all great! Bowie is great in '75!
Songs like this prove Bowie's still the Best!
This album has something to tell to the history of music...
Amen to that! These are brilliant outtakes that could have made the album.
Who Can I Be Now?
It's Gonna Be Me
After Today
I Am Divine
It’s Hard To Be a Saint in The City
& John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)
The album was pretty fuckin good anyway, but with David, more is always better
omg been lookin x this song , since I was seventeen 14 years ago.....Heard it once ❤❤💗💗💗
Like the song, wish it was bowie singing it though.
Thanks for upload
Oh, it's you again...
Aw man. I wish this song made the cut. It's fantastic.
This was recorded at Sigma Sound in 1974 for Ava Cherry Album the male vocalist is Geoff McCormick bowies childhood friend and backup singer on the Diamond Dogs Tour.
for The Astronettes?
No disrespect to John Lennon, but the Young Americans/Gouster stuff Bowie recorded before Mr L got involved is much more interesting. Gouster is incredible and I'm Divine is a revelation: it's these recordings that make me realise what he was trying to do, rather than the involvement with Lennon. How things get shaped, eh.
Sounds more like the Diamond Dogs period. Many musicians here from the Diamond Dogs sessions!!
@@vegrock57 That's right, the Astronettes stuff (which includes this and everything later released on 'The People From Bad Homes') was recorded in December '73 and January '74, so quite concurrent with Diamond Dogs! But it IS frustrating that for the 'Young Americans' album, Bowie second-guessed heartfelt gems like 'It's Gonna Be Me' and 'Who Can I Be Now' out in favour of 'Across the Universe' and 'Fame', both of which (as iconic as 'Fame is) detract from the album's concept.
would be better if they combined The Gouster and Young Americans, but I know it would be long -like 1. Outside-
@@elrabeechum5180 So what was the concept of Young Americans exactly?
@@user-li3fr8jl3b I'd say the focus was on emulating smoother, intimate Philadelphia Soul music with a live-in-studio emphasis and verbose, Springsteen-influenced lyrics. 'Fame' is this jerky funk outlier from that idea, it's undeniably the dumbest song on the album, while 'Across the Universe' is cringey and just got included because Lennon played on it. Even Visconti thought that. I just think saving those two for later and including some of the earlier songs would have unified the sound of YA and improved it.
Most talentfull sexiest man ever lived.
The True Starman ! 🎉
Thank you David Bowie for giving us your Love and the Magic or your Music R.I.P .❤❤❤💐💐🌹🌻🌹
So happy that I found this piece of Bowie history I love it already
I would love to hear it with david's voice ❤️️ miss him so much
Ah,the joy of stumbling on a great bowie song ....
SOUL SOUL! I LOVE THIS SONG GEOFF AND BOWIE GENIUS
New to me Bowie!!! Far out!
Just amazing stuff by my idol
I miss him so much.
Wanker
Love on ya
Excellent,❤😊
yes you are my sweet David!!!!
Sí! Mi dulce Daivid!
Wow.. Geoff had a really great voice!
And was a great lycrist.check out rock n roll with me lyrics
At least the chord sequence and bass line survived for Somebody Up There Likes Me!
! Thanks for posting:)
This is amazing!! Geoff sounds great!
This fits YOUNG AMERICANS concept. Some measures remind me of SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKE ME, another observation on what might be called American Success. F SCOTT F would trumpet BOWIE's writing as a triumph.
Wow love this pitty was an out take
i'm assuming this turned into somebody up there likes me, the instrumental breaks have the same progression and riff. also in somebody up there, there's the lyric "he's so divine"
Geoff MacCormick singing.
Yes, (Astronettes), look at the credits!! 👍
So this became Somebody Up There Likes Me?
Pretty much
imo...
Yup. I feel it only at the end... However, always loved this track, independently
great song!!!
One word genius
Would love to have the multitracks for this and give it a proper mix.
Decent tune! Not on the Who can I be now release though which is a bummer.
***** I have to say I was dissapointed by it overall. It could have been so much better. And two versions of David Live etc. Just a con.
If that is BOWIE singing I am a dutchman!
Thanks, didn't know.
Let you guys know LA 1974 live show being released for this years record store day, this is the same show as strange fascination bootleg, remastered and in its full glory.
...have been listening to it ALL DAY!!!
BEAUTIFUL
And don’t forget he did ‘Jimmy Crack Corn’ which would have been great on the album!
🤣
yes,so fine..so divine
74, the year he could have turned protodisco.
read the description: vocals by Geoff MacCormick
you can hear it s a kinda rehearsal ( approximative mix) but the song had a massive potential . shame they left it off.
I *gotta* have more cowbell !
WAS THIS ON THE REELS FOUND LATELY?
That's not Bowie on lead vocals. It's Geoff MacCormick, a friend of David's. That detail's directly from Tony Visconti, who did some string writing for the album.
snappy number. The album could have used some more upbeat songs.
Probably Jason Guess, with Ava Cherry and Geoff McC - the Astronettes, Bowie's backing group for the 1980 floor show.
The Astronette first and last album
this song reminds me to "footstoming"...devine is bowie and his voice in all songs.
its a fun song--would have been perfect for Philly Dogs. You can easily imaginge DB doing his Bruce Springsteen broken larynx vocal
He could have trotted out a couple more Aladdin Sanes to diminishing ends, but he took on soul, an 'inferior' form of music according to many English listeners in those days, and did it as well as Aretha Juke Box Queen.
Gotta pat brits on the back for stupidity. God save the queen.
Divine, he was really divine
It'd be great with a decent mix.
NOT BOWIE SINGING - it's Geoff MacCormack (Warren Peace)
Was this the track 0, on Ava's album, wasn't even on the track listing as I recall though I might be wrong. I know I kept the cd because of the Bowie track , its knocking about somewhere in the piles of the "What were you thinking " cds and vinyl I've amassed over the decades.
Would you like a hairstyle like his, or would you like to have some of what's left on ground after he visits barbershop? :D (pls never mind)
Do you think the divine refrain was possibly used o young Americans album track somebody up there likes me?
noooooo, geoff sounds good here
Geoff MacCormack singing ?
It's not David Bowie though.
I think you're right. Glad he kept working on it until it became "Somebody..."
I want his hair !
Yes, but the title is not misleading since composer is still the author of the song. Like music by Beethoven, while it's actually played by London Symphony Orchestra. I don't know a lot of details about this song, it's directly from a bootleg album of "rare" songs, so I appreciate if someone can share some information. And I'm not picking on you, just some watchers seem confused, and I wanted to clear that! ;)
Geoff was the backing vocalist, right?
not bowie. not even close. how could anybody think so? baffled, am i.
+Knox Bronson Nobody that knows their stuff thinks this is Bowie. Its from the Astronettes album, with Warren Peace (Geoff McCormack) singing.
thats david 's voice, just not mixed the way it sometimes is.think live.
+paul turner Nope
+paul turner no, it's not Bowie, it's Geoff McCormack (Warren Peace) on the Astronettes album.
Originally intended for 1974 album Young Americans. Although it didn't make the final cut , it appeared on Ava Cherry's People From Bad Homes
Composer: David Bowie
Performed by: The Astronettes (vocals by Geoff MacCormick)
This track just makes me want to cut a mean rug !
the piano is very diamond dogs.
this sounds totally like a bowie song haha
It is a Bowie Song 🤷♀️
Definitely a black dude singing.
2:29 - Bowie here, "oooooooooo"
Nope Geoff MacCormack is white
timmy47 You are correct.
Vocals by Geoff MacCormick.
sorry I didn't find tbe desxription first.
Nice song and great pics, but who is the singer? not Bowie
Geoff mccormack
The time when one could look forward to Bowie's previously unreleased songs ended more or less when he reissued his major works (i.e, up to and including "Lodger") on CD for the first time.This is just more unrelenting tedium that spoils the original memory of those early and really exciting days.
Mira is ...
some people with ears of cloth on here
diamond dogs
thats not bowie sining
Wrong informatrion
that is bowie childhood friend
The Astronettes
Is it Bowie singing ? NO !
Does not sound like Bowie's voice to me either.
Who is the singer here?
Don Dokken.
English accent, the only English guy in the room. Pretty powerful, must be him
Nope It's Bowie's old mate from the UK Geoff MacCormack *(Warren Peace)
Crispin Coulson I stand corrected. He's a good singer though
Not Bowie (+ not Mike Garson either). M
this isn`t Bowie,not in a millon years
does anyone else hear 1984 here?
Somebody up there likes me demo....imo
Not Bowie singing this
not bowie
+Greg Johns Bowie wrote it and produced it.
now that I understand. The inflection is bowie all the way but it's missing his voice.
Greg Johns It's Bowie's old school friend Geoff McCormack, or Warren Peace as he was also known,who's singing.
I like it. should have been on the album!
What’s wrong with you people!
Shite
Would be great if Bowie was singing this, this guy is awful!
You don't know what awful is