David Bowie - An Alternate Hunky Dory (1972)

Over the years 'Hunky Dory' has been re-appraised and re-evaluated, and is now considered to be of David Bowie's very best albums, but when it came out back in 1971 he was pretty much an unknown quantity, and so had to do the rounds of the radio stations to promote it. On his visits to shows hosted by Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris and John Peel he played tracks from the album for sessions to be broadcast on the shows, and over time he recorded versions of nearly all the songs from it. As well as the sessions recordings, there's also a demo of 'Quicksand' out there, and an alternate mix of 'The Bewlay Brothers', and although he never recorded 'Life On Mars' for a radio session, he did tape a rehearsal of it at Earl's Court for a film by Mick Rock in 1973, and so if we add them all together we end up with an alternate look at an iconic album from the 70's. On the rehearsal for 'Song For Bob Dylan' for the John Peel show, Bowie let George Underwood take the vocals, but apart from that most of these are contemporary versions of the songs recorded at the time the album came out. None of these recordings are drastically different from those on the album, but there are subtle differences here and there, so it's worth a listen.  

UPDATE - I have a confession to make, which is that I seem to have completely mis-read the notes which accompanied the 'Life On Mars' video that I found, which I though was part of a film made by Mick Rock at Earls Court in 1973. It actually turns out that it was the promo video for the single release, which was filmed by Mick Rock backstage at Earls Court in 1973. The recording is therefore the studio version, and I did think that it was extremely close to the original, and now I know why. In order to keep the spirit of the album, I've substituted it with a live version from the Boston Music Hall in 1972, which is a superb quality recording. If you've already downloaded it then here is the track to replace in your folder, and links are updated.   

Track listing 

01 Changes (Johnnie Walker Lunchtime Show session 22/05/1972)
02 Oh! You Pretty Things (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 21/09/1971)
03 Eight Line Poem (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 21/09/1971)
04 Life On Mars (live at Boston Music Hall 01/10/1972)
05 Kooks (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 21/09/1971)
06 Quicksand (Demo London 1971)
07 Fill Your Heart (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 21/09/1971)
08 Andy Warhol (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 21/09/1971)
09 Song For Bob Dylan (rehearsal for John Peel session 1971)
10 Queen Bitch (Bob Harris Sounds Of The Seventies session 18/01/1972)
11 The Bewlay Brothers (alternative mix 30/07/1971)