Artist: David Bowie
Title: Sound+Vision
Year Of Release: 1989
Label: Rykodisc RCD 90120/21/22/RCDV-1018
Genre: Rock
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log,scans)
Total Time: 62:59 / 62:36 / 59:52 / 12:20
Total Size: 1.51 GB


In 1989, not all major artists had their catalog available on CD, and one of the most notable absences was David Bowie. When the format was in its infancy, RCA had issued several of his classics, but those pressings were notoriously awful and were pulled from the market in 1985 when Bowie acquired the rights to the recordings. Sharp businessman that he is, he took the catalog to market, and after an intense bidding war, he chose to reissue his classic work through Rykodisc, an independent CD-only label that had earned acclaim for its work with Frank Zappa's catalog. Instead of dumping all the discs on the market at once, the titles were slowly rolled out, beginning with a series-encompassing Sound + Vision, a three-CD/one-CD-ROM box set released to great fanfare in the fall of 1989. At the time, box sets were all the rage, following the template of Bob Dylan's Biograph -- an exhaustive career overview that offered all the basics, peppered with some revealing rarities. Upon its release, Sound + Vision was reviewed as if it belonged to this tradition, when it really inverted the formula, offering a series, not career, overview by showcasing alternate versions and rarities, along with album tracks, with a few familiar hits tossed in here and there to provide context. This was a tantalizing way to begin a reissue campaign, and it did receive gushing reviews -- the CD-era publication Rock & Roll Disc breathlessly claimed "Suffice to say that the sound quality will give your ears an orgasm" -- but once the reissue series completed and once Ryko lost the rights to the catalog, Sound + Vision looked more like a curiosity, an artifact of its time, than a major statement.


Tracklist:

Sound+Vision I

01. Space Oddity (Previously Unreleased Original Demo) (5:10)
02. Wild-Eyed Boy From Freecloud (Rare B-Side Version) (4:51)
03. The Prettiest Star (Single Version) (3:11)
04. London Bye Ta-Ta (Previously Unreleased Track Recorded 1970) (2:36)
05. Black Country Rock (3:33)
06. The Man Who Sold The World (3:57)
07. The Bewlay Brothers (5:23)
08. Changes (3:35)
09. Round And Round (B-Side From Ziggy Sessions) (2:41)
10. Moonage Daydream (4:39)
11. John I'm Only Dancing (Aladdin Sane Outtake) (2:43)
12. Drive In Saturday (4:30)
13. Panic In Detroit (4:25)
14. Ziggy Stardust (Live From Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture) (3:16)
15. White Light White Heat (Live From Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture) (3:57)
16. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (Live From Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture) (4:30)

Sound+Vision II

01. Anyway Anyhow Anywhere (3:09)
02. Sorrow (2:53)
03. Don't Bring Me Down (2:08)
04. 1984 Dodo (Previously Unreleased Track Recorded 1973) (5:29)
05. Big Brother (3:21)
06. Rebel Rebel (Rare Single Version) (3:01)
07. Suffragette City (From David Live) (3:51)
08. Watch That Man (From David Live) (5:08)
09. Cracked Actor (From David Live) (3:30)
10. Young Americans (5:12)
11. Fascination (5:46)
12. After Today (Previously Unreleased Young Americans Outtake) (3:50)
13. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City (Previously Unreleased Track Recorded 1975) (3:49)
14. TVC15 (5:31)
15. Wild Is The Wind (5:58)

Sound+Vision III

01. Sound And Vision (3:05)
02. Be My Wife (2:58)
03. Speed Of Life (2:47)
04. Helden [German Version Of Heroes, 1989 Remix] (3:40)
05. Joe The Lion (3:07)
06. Sons Of The Silent Age (3:20)
07. Station To Station [Live From Stage] (8:51)
08. Warszawa [Live From Stage] (6:53)
09. Breaking Glass [Live From Stage] (3:36)
10. Red Sails (3:45)
11. Look Back In Anger (3:08)
12. Boys Keep Swinging (3:19)
13. Up The Hill Backwards (3:16)
14. Kingdom Come (3:45)
15. Ashes To Ashes (4:24)

Sound+Vision Plus

01. John I'm Only Dancing (2:40)
02. Changes (3:20)
03. Supermen, The (2:45)
04. Ashes To Ashes (3:35)