DISC 1:
1.Space Oddity, 2.A Letter To Hermione, 3.Janine, 4.An Occasional Dream, 5.Coversation Piece, 6.Ching A Ling Song (Recorded Spring 1969.Venue Unknown, Possibly Three Tunes Pub, High Street,Beckenham, Kent Or Possibly Clairville Rd.Chealsea), 7.Lover To The Dawn (probably Recorded Spring 1969 also), 8.Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed (Recorded October 20, 1969, BBC Radio at Aeolian Hall Studio 2 and Broadcast October 26 1969 On Dave Lee Travis Show), 9.The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud (Recorded June 20 1969 Trident Studio,London Original B-Side Of Uk Space Oddity 45), 10.Columbine, 11.The Mirror, 12.Threepenny Pierrot (Demo's Recorded For The Looking Grass Murders TV Show, Aka Pierrot In Turquoise. Probably Recorded Early 1970), 13.The Prettiest Star (Recorded Jane 1970,Trident Studio,Original Mercury 45 Version), 14.Conversation Piece(Recorded Jane/July 1969,Trident Studio), 15.Lightning Frightening, 16.London Bye Ta Ta (Recorded January 1970,Trident Studio), 17.Waiting For The Man, 18.The Width Of A Circle, 19.The Superman (Recorded March 1970,BBC Playhouse Theatre Studios. Broadcast April 6, 1970 BBC Sound Of Seventies), 20.Memory Of A Free Festival Part 1, 21.Memory Of A Free Festival Part 2 (Recorded Advision Studio,London April 3,14-15,1970 Recorded On Mercury 45 June 1970), 22.A Song For Merc (Recorded Haddon Hall,Beckenham,Kent May 1970)

DISC 2:
1.Holy Holy (Recorded June 1970 Trident Studios.Recorded From Acetate.Released On Mercury 45 January 1971), 2.Tired Of My Life (Recorded May 1970, Haddon Hall, Beckenham, Kent), 3.How Lucky You Are (Recorded May 1971), 4.Rupert The Riley (Recorded April 23, 1971 Trident Studios), 5.Right On Mother (Demo Probably Recorded Early 1971), 6.Man In The Middle (Recorded June 17, 1971,Trident Studio,Released On B+C Records), 7.Bombers (Recorded June 1971, Hunky Dory Outtake), 8.The Superman 9.Queen Bitch (Recorded June 3, 1971 BBC Paris Cinema Studio), 10.Oh! You Pretty Things, 11.Kooks, 12.Fill Your Heart, 13.Amsterdam, 14.Andy Warhol (Recorded BBC Kensington House Studio September 21, 1971), 15.The Supermen (Recorded June 1971 Triden Stidio, London, First Released On Glastonbury Fayre 1972), 16.Quicksand (Hunky Dory Demo), 17.Eight Line Poem (Alternate Version From BOWPROMO IA-I White Label LP), 18.Amsterdam, 19.Bombers, 20.Kooks, 21.Changes (Hunky Dory Demos), 22.Shadowman, 23.Looking For A Friend (Recorded September 1971 Trident Studio, London), 24.My Death (Recorded October 1,1972,Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts)

DISC 3:
1.Ziggy Stardust (Acoustic Demo Version, Recorded Trident Studio, London, September 1971), 2.Holy Holy (Recorded Trident Studio,London September 1971 Released As RCA 45 B-Side June 1974), 3.Around And Around (Recorded Trident Studio,London, September 1971 Released As RCA 45 B-Side April 1973), 4.Velvet Goldmine (Recorded Trident Studio, London September 1971 Released As RCA 45 B-Side September 1975), 5.Sweet Head(Recorded Trident Studio, London November 1971), 6.Ziggy Stardust, 7.Queen Bitch, 8.Waiting For The Man, 9.Lady Stardust (Recorded January 11,1972 Kensington House Studio,London), 10.All The Young Dudes (Original Demo Version, Recorded 1972 Remixed With Mott The Hoople Backing Track), 11.Oh! You Pretty Things, 12.Queen Bitch, 13.Five Years (Recorded February 8, 1972 for BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, Trident Studio, London, September 1971 Released As RCA 45 B-Side June 1974), 14.I Feel Free (Recorded May 6 Kensington Polytechnic), 15.White Light White Heat (Recorded May 23, 1972 BBC Maida Vale Studio 4, London), 16.Starman (Recorded May 22 BBC Aeolian Hall Studio 2, London), 17.Drive In Saturday (Recorded January 17, 1973 Broadcast BBC TV Russell Harty Plus Show), 18.Jean Genie/Love Me Do (Recorded July 3, 1973 Hammersmith Odeon, London w/Jeff Beck guesting on Guitar) 19.Sorrow 20.Time (Recorded October 18-20, 1973, Marquee, London)

An excellent but unbalanced chronological trip through the David Bowie rise from post-Mannish Boy to the end of Ziggy.  Scorpio has gathered many niche recordings and elusive pieces of the impactful 5 years represented in this 3 disc set. 

With so many sources of recordings compiled in one helping, you need to expect quite a ride in terms of the audio quality - and then you're ready for the ride.  The various early tracks on Disc one are supported by various backing musicians and bands such as Juniors Eyes, The Hype and pinpoint the origins of a great partnership between Bowie and 6-string sidekick, Mick Ronson.  The early compositions are simply all over the board and Bowie fans and collectors have digested this phase of songwriting long ago.  That's why when listening to such an extensive collection of tunes, you really need to be able to roll with the flow and it's especially true here.  Now credit needs to be given to Scorpio for leveling the fidelity-gap between the sources to provide us a somewhat stable experience.  I should say that the label really leveraged the sources well and the audio here is more often than not, excellent.  A good example of contrasting sources is early on disc one between Track 7 "Lover To The Dawn" and Track 8 "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" where you jump from a mono demo tape recording to a nice stereo soundboard BBC broadcast. One thing is for sure, by half-way through disc one you start realizing the influence and direction the Ronson/Bowie collaboration had on the output.  They should have never parted ways! 

The accompanying booklet is very nice and centers around a couple of very early british music industry articles, the first is a published interview presented in the vein of those cheesy pop music rags but is where we get the working title for this set.  Titled "Face to Face with David Bowie / The secret of my lost year..."  The premise for the article title and subsequently, the title of this set, is a series of questions around the fact that David was ontrack to be a Buddhist in the mid-to-late sixties and within a month of becoming a monk and the reality of shaving his head - he had this realization that he wasn't happy and it didn't feel it was right for him.  Anyway, he decided to get away from it all  and joined the Lindsay Kemp Mime Company and nobody actually knew where he was for about a year.  What he apparently learned was that "people are much more important to me than ideas."  The article goes on to talk about his superstitions, influences, fans, writing his own music ,etc.   There is a second article titled "Hype and David Bowie's future" written by Raymond Telford that doesn't really offer much substance in terms of information but appears to be a brief conversation and snapshot of where his performing life was circa 1971-ish and talks about the costumes made from the women in his life and how the audience seems to accept anything he presents.  There is also a cool advertisement from an industry publication for "David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust" that is kind of a cartoon/characature-type. 

Back to the music presented on this nice compilation.  This collection is, in essence, the flipside to what you would expect on a commercial level.  And therein lies the beauty of the underground and fans making there own collection - and sharing.  Even though some of this stuff was available commercially as b-sides or whatever, in this type of format I think the hunting and gathering efforts are part of the beauty.  It should be noted that 90 percent of what is offered here IS NOT available commercially, at the risk of coming off as a hypocrite with my references to "pirate" type offerings from labels like Scorpio (Led Zeppelin matrix mix) and even the Dr. Ebbett's needle-drop offerings of the official Beatles catalog.  This is a different product and should be a supreme example of what fun can be had with the classic rock artist catalogs.  Bowie is a great choice for a project such as this with all the one-off singles, many with the obscure and often strange b-sides not too mention the many chapters of his early career.  All here and all interesting, if not plain fun, to hear.

The package is wonderfully colorful and perfectly represents the material within.  You get that from the scans included above but also the pop nature of the booklet along with the fantastic live shots on the inner Jewelcase panels of The Spiders live help set the mood.  The art direction on this project is dead on and make this enticing just looking at it.  I should mention that the back cover of the booklet displays an array of early Bowie 45 picture sleeves from various countries.  The great looking picture discs replicate the cover art from the front slipcover for Disc 1, the front cover of the jewelcase on Disc 2 and the cover of the booklet with Bowie as Egyptian dog- type of imagery for Disc 3.

Highlights for me include the early '69 live version of "Janine", hearing the early demo of "Threepenny Pierrot" recorded for The Looking Glass Murders TV show - which is an early version of what became "London Bye Ta Ta", and a superb source tape for the final Spiders From Mars performance of "Jean Genie/Love Me Do" from July 3, 1973 at The Hammersmith Odeon with guest, Jeff Beck.  This is the best sounding source I've heard from this show...now where is the rest!?!?!? Great stuff, and you get an idea of the contrast in material.  Whether you're a Bowie completist or just looking for a solid cross-section of early material, Secrets Of My Lost Years 1969-1973 will satisfy what you seek.  Nice job Scorpio.