Not long after David Bowie’s death earlier this year, it was revealed that the legendary musician had tens of thousands of unreleased songs hidden away in his archive. The existence of this material is not all that surprising given the artist’s ceaseless creativity, and the fact that he’d been making music until the day he died, leaving us with one of the finest albums of the past decade.
Blackstar, as it turns out, was not Bowie’s final gift to his fans. As reported by Newsweek, he had written in his will exactly how he wanted this vast collection of material to be released after his death. The first collection comes in the form of a new box-set, Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), from Parlophone Records. Diving deep into Bowie’s funky, R&B-inspired era, aka his “plastic soul” phase, this set includes The Gouster, a collection of songs recorded and produced by Tony Visconti at Sigma Sound in 1974. Although it has never been released as a complete album, it served as the foundation for his classic 1975 album, Young Americans.
Along with the rest of this massive box-set, Parlophone has made The Gouster available to stream on Spotify. You can hear a discoed-out version of the Ziggy Stardust track “John, I’m Only Dancing,” and alternate versions of Young Americans tracks like “Young Americans,” “Right,” and more. The Gouster is found on the fourth of nine streaming discs, beginning at number 50 below.
