“Back into the funhouse, music is sublime”
You’re no doubt getting a bit used to this and are expecting the final track of the Is It Any Wonder? streaming EP. Well, that track is The Man Who Sold The World (Live Eno Mix), originally released as a single in 1995, when it was coupled with Strangers When We Meet.
The Man Who Sold The World (Live Eno Mix), will be available where you are as the calendar turns to Valentine’s Day, Friday 14th February.
The even better news is that the Is It Any Wonder? EP will also be released on 12” vinyl and CD through the Bowie Official Store on Friday 20th March, with the CHANGESNOWBOWIE version of The Man Who Sold The World replaced by Fun (Clownboy Mix). Here's the tracklisting:
SIDE 1
Baby Universal ‘97
Fun (Clownboy Mix)
Stay ’97
SIDE 2
I Can’t Read ’97
Nuts
The Man Who Sold The World (Live Eno Mix)
To sum up, here's the schedule:
~ Complete 6-track ‘IS IT ANY WONDER?’ streaming EP available Friday 14th February.
~ Limited Edition ‘IS IT ANY WONDER?’ physical EP on 12” vinyl and CD released Friday 20th March. (Pre-order details will be posted here tomorrow, Friday 14th February.)
~ ‘CHANGESNOWBOWIE’ LP and CD to be released on Record Store Day, Saturday 18th April.
Keep reading for the full press release.
#BowieIIAW
DAVID BOWIE IS IT ANY WONDER? STREAMING E.P. OF UNRELEASED & RARE MATERIAL
’THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD’ (LIVE ENO MIX) AVAILABLE NOW THE LAST OF SIX TRACKS RELEASED OVER SIX WEEKS
PHYSICAL FORMATS WITH ALTERNATIVE TRACKLISTING TO BE RELEASED VIA DAVIDBOWIE.COM EXCLUSIVELY ON MARCH 20th
Parlophone Records is proud to announce ‘THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD’ (LIVE ENO MIX), the final instalment of DAVID BOWIE’s IS IT ANY WONDER? streaming EP of six unreleased and rare tracks released over six weeks.
With this rare version of one of the most iconic Bowie songs of the last 50 years, the IS IT ANY WONDER? EP is now available to stream in its entirety. The six-track EP will also be made available on 12” vinyl and CD with an alternative tracklisting including ‘FUN’ (CLOWNBOY MIX).
Now available for the first time since its 1995 release, ’THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD’ (LIVE ENO MIX) was previously issued as a double A-side green vinyl 7” single and CD single in various territories with the Outside version of ’Strangers When We Meet.’ The Live Eno Mix version of this classic song is based on the fairly radical trip-hop reworking performed on the Outside World Tour. Longtime Bowie collaborator Brian Eno reshaped, overdubbed and mixed this live recording of the song at Westside Studios in London on 30th October, 1995, recalling the session in his diaries: “I added some backing vocals and a sonar blip and sculpted the piece a little so that there was more contour to it.”.
The physical formats of IS IT ANY WONDER? on 12” vinyl and CD will feature ‘FUN’ (CLOWNBOY MIX) replacing ’THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD’ (CHANGESNOWBOWIE version), leaving the CHANGESNOWBOWIE version exclusive to the CHANGESNOWBOWIE LP and CD to be released on Record Store Day, 18th April.
'FUN’ (CLOWNBOY MIX) originated as a modern revamp of the Bowie classic ‘Fame’, performed under the name ‘Is It Any Wonder?’ during David’s ‘club set’ on the Earthling tour.
The basic backing and sequencer tracks were worked at the Factory in Dublin docklands during pre-tour rehearsals in early 1997. A live version of ‘Fame,' recorded at the Amsterdam Paradiso on 10th June, 1997, was further worked on by Mark Plati and Reeves Gabrels at Looking Glass Studios in New York and mixed at Sony Music Studios in New York in February 1998. At one point the live version of ‘FUN', as it was now being called, was considered for inclusion on the BowieNet exclusive Liveandwell.com album and appeared on early reference masters. Referenced in interviews by Reeves as ‘Funhouse’, the song further developed lyrically and musically and, by the time Danny Saber created the Clownboy mix in May 1998, it was a completely new piece of work written by David and Reeves and featuring no elements of ‘Fame’. The Clownboy mix has previously only appeared on a BowieNet subscriber exclusive CD-ROM in 1998 and on Virgin Records in-house CDR’s along with four other Clownboy mix variants.
‘THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD’ (LIVE ENO MIX) is produced by David Bowie, and mixed by Brian Eno. The track features backing vocals by Eno, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, Peter Schwartz on synths, Zachary Alford on drums, Carlos Alomar on guitar and Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals.
‘FUN' (CLOWBOY MIX) is produced by David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati. It was recorded by Steve Guest and Mark Plati and was mixed by Danny Saber at Ocean Way Recording May 1998, the mix was engineered by John X. The track features David Bowie on vocals, Zachary Alford on drums, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass/vocals, Mike Garson on piano, Reeves Gabrels on guitars/vocals and Mark Plati on keyboards/programming.