Alternative version of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust slated for Record Store Day

David Bowie would have been 77 today (January 8) – and as is now traditional on his birthday, a new Bowie release has been announced.

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) is essentially an alternative version of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, taken from the Trident Studios 1/4” stereo tapes dated December 15, 1971, which were created for the provisional tracklisting of the final album.

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The tracklisting for Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) runs differently from the Ziggy Stardust album and features four songs that didn’t make the final album. On Side 1, in the place of “Starman” (one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972), is the Chuck Berry cover “Round And Round”, later released as the B-side to “Drive-In Saturday”.

Initially, closing Side 1 of the album was Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam”, which would later appear as the B-side of “Sorrow”.

Side 2 features a re-recording of 1971 single “Holy Holy”, which surfaced as the B-side of “Diamond Dogs” in 1974. Meanwhile, “Velvet Goldmine” was not released until 1975, backing the re-released version of “Space Oddity” that eventually reached No 1.

The cover of the LP features a photo taken at an early Ziggy Stardust-era session by Brian Ward, and the two sides of the inner bags are the fronts of the two Trident Studios tape boxes.

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Trident Studios master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed vinyl cut was by engineer John Webber at AIR Studios, London.

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) will be released by Parlophone exclusively for Record Store Day 2024, April 20. Check out the tracklisting below:

Side 1

Five Years

Soul Love

Moonage Daydream

Round And Round

Amsterdam

Side 2

Hang On To Yourself

Ziggy Stardust

Velvet Goldmine

Holy Holy

Star

Lady Stardust