Parlophone

ParlophoneFull details have been revealed about the recently announced David Bowie vinyl singles box set Spying Through a Keyhole (Demos and Unreleased Songs).

The collection, which consists of four seven-inch vinyl discs of mostly rare demo recordings that Bowie made during the late 1960s, will be released on April 5.

The box set features a total of nine tracks that are being released on a physical format for the first time, although they were briefly made available via streaming services in December 2018.

Most of the recordings feature just Bowie accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. Among the tracks are two demo versions of David’s classic tune “Space Oddity,” one of which is an excerpt believed to be the first-ever recording of the song. The other version features Bowie performing the song as a duo with his early musical partner John “Hutch” Hutchinson.

Other songs featured on Spying Through a Keyhole are demo versions of such early Bowie songs as “In the Heat of the Morning” and “London Bye, Ta-Ta.” The box set’s title comes from the lyrics of a previously unknown song that appears on the collection, “Love All Around.”

Each disc features a label that reflects the way Bowie would send his demos to record companies and music publishers, with handwritten song titles. All tracks are in mono, and the singles play at 45 RPM.

The box set also comes packaged with a print of a 1968 photo of David taken by veteran rock photographer Ray Stevenson. The collection’s cover features a pic of Bowie snapped by Stevenson at the same time.

You can pre-order Spying Through a Keyhole at DavidBowie.com.

Here is the box set’s full track list:

Single 1
Side 1: “Mother Grey” (demo)
Side 2: “In the Heat of the Morning” (demo)

Single 2
Side 1: “Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe” (demo)
Side 2: “Love All Around” (demo)

Single 3
Side 1: “London Bye, Ta-Ta” (demo)
Side 2: “Angel, Angel, Grubby Face” (demo version 1)

Single 4
Side 1: “Angel, Angel, Grubby Face” (demo version 2), “Space Oddity” (demo excerpt)
Side 2: “Space Oddity” (demo – alternative lyrics) — with John “Hutch” Hutchinson

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