New Box Set Features Previously Unreleased David Bowie Album ‘The Gouster’

A new box set David Bowie – Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976) will include The Gouster, a previously unreleased David Bowie album originally recorded in the mid-1970s. The new collection follows Parlophone’s David Bowie – Five Years (1969 – 1973) which was issued last year.

Described by producer Tony Visconti as “40 minutes of glorious funk,” The Gouster features some songs that were later included on Bowie’s 1975 LP Young Americans. It also features an extended, funky reworking of his 1972 single “John, I’m Only Dancing. Here’s more from Visconti on The Gouster from the box set’s liner notes:

Gouster was a word unfamiliar to me but David knew it as a type of dress code worn by African American teens in the ‘60s, in Chicago. But in the context of the album its meaning was attitude, an attitude of pride and hipness. Of all the songs we cut we were enamored of the ones we chose for the album that portrayed this attitude.

David had a long infatuation with soul as did I. We were fans of the TV show Soul Train. We weren’t “young, gifted and black” but we sure as hell wanted to make a killer soul album, which was quite insane, but pioneers like the Righteous Brothers were there before us.

So The Gouster began with the outrageous brand new, funkafied version of David’s classic “John, I’m Only Dancing,” a single he wrote and recorded in 1972, only this time our version sounded like it was played live in a loft party in Harlem and he added (Again) to the title. It wasn’t the two and a half minute length of the original either.

We maxed out at virtually seven minutes! With the time limitations of vinyl (big volume drop with more than 18 minutes a side) we could only fit two other long songs on side one, “Somebody Up There Likes Me” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” both about six and a half minute songs. We had hit the 20-minute mark. Technically that worked because “It’s Gonna Be Me” had lots of quiet sections where the record groove could be safely made narrower and that would preserve the apparent loudness of side one.

Side two also hit the 20-minute mark with “Can You Hear Me” saving the day with its quiet passages. Forty minutes of glorious funk, that’s what it was and that’s how I thought it would be.

The photo used for the box set (seen below) is from the original recording sessions and had previously not been published. More details regarding David Bowie – Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976), including the release date, are expected next week.

The Gouster Tracklist

Side One

1. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
2. Somebody Up There Likes Me
3. It’s Gonna Be Me

Side Two

1. Who Can I Be Now?
2. Can You Hear Me
3. Young Americans
4. Right