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Iggy Pop / The Bowie Years 7CD box

Box features The Idiot, Lust For Life, outtakes + unheard live material

Iggy Pop / The Bowie Years 7CD box set


In May, Universal Music will issue The Bowie Years, a seven CD Iggy Pop box set that presents Iggy’s 1977 collaborations with David Bowie – both in the studio and live on stage – including classic albums The Idiot and Lust For Life.

Both of those albums were co-written with David Bowie and David produced The Idiot and co-produced Lust For Life with Pop and Colin Thurston (as ‘Bewlay Bros.’). Interestingly, unlike all three of Bowie’s so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’ albums Lust For Life was entirely recorded and mixed at Hansa Tonstudios and in that respect is the only true ‘Berlin’ album from the five records associated with this era.

Despite being full of fairly well known songs – ‘China Girl’, ‘Nightclubbing’, ‘Lust For Life’, ‘The Passenger’ etc. – the two studio albums delivered no hit singles anywhere, save for some success in The Netherlands with ‘Lust For Life’. That song wasn’t a single in the UK until 1996 (thanks to its inclusion in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting), and ‘The Passenger’ was only a B-side (to ‘Success’) but like ‘Lust For Life’ was a hit decades later when used in an advert in Britain.

The Bowie Years includes both albums and a disc of previously unreleased alternate mixes, single edits and an interview with Iggy discussing the recording of The Idiot.


The Bowie Years box set contents. Click image to enlarge.


Alongside the studio output in this box is the live album TV Eye. Released in 1978, this features live performance from The Idiot tour which famously featured David Bowie as part of the touring band (on keyboards and backing vocals). This album was originally collated from from performances in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.

However, The Bowie Years box set features three additional CDs of ‘Live in ’77’ performances. Released for the first time are Live at The Rainbow Theatre, London, Live at The Agora, Cleveland and Live at Mantra Studio, Chicago. These are from the same tour with Bowie in the band.

The box set features newly designed album artwork and comes with a 40-page book written by Michael Hann, with contributions from the musicians who played on the records and fans who talk about the influence the albums had on them.

As well as this box, The Idiot and Lust For Life will also be reissued as 2CD deluxe editions. The Idiot’s second disc is Live at the Rainbow Theatre, while Lust For Life comes with TV Eye. Therefore three discs are exclusive to the box set, the disc with alternate mixes, Live at The Agora, Cleveland and Live at Mantra Studio, Chicago.

The Bowie Years is £56 at the time of writing on Amazon in the UK. That’s a great price. If you have already pre-ordered this at £70 from the uDiscoverMusic store, please be aware that those sets are not signed by Iggy, but rather by poster artist Chris Hopewell. This wasn’t clear originally, which is why I’m mentioning it.

The Bowie Years box and the two deluxe editions will be released on 29 May 2020.







The Bowie Years 7CD box set

CD 1 – The Idiot  

Sister Midnight
Nightclubbing
Funtime
Baby
China Girl
Dum Dum Boys
Tiny Girls
Mass Production

CD 2 – Lust for Life  

Lust for Life
Sixteen
Some Weird Sin
The Passenger
Tonight
Success
Turn Blue
Neighbourhood Threat
Fall in Love with Me    

CD 3 – T.V.Eye Live 1977  

T.V. Eye
Funtime
Sixteen
I Got A Right
Lust for Life
Dirt
Nightclubbing
I Wanna Be Your Dog    

CD 4 – Alternate Mixes & Edits

Sister Midnight – Mono Single Edit
Sister Midnight – Single Edit
China Girl – Single Edit
Dum Dum Boys – Alt Mix
Baby – Alt Mix
China Girl – Alt Mix
Tiny Girls – Alt Mix
I Got A Right – Single
Lust for Life – Edit
Interview with Iggy Pop about Recording the Idiot   

CD 5 – Live At The Rainbow Theatre – London 07/03/1977  

Raw Power
TV Eye
Dirt
1969
Turn Blue
Funtime
Gimme Danger
No Fun
Sister Midnight
I Need Somebody
Search and Destroy
I Wanna Be Your Dog
Tonight
Some Weird Sin
China Girl    

CD 6 – Live At The Agora – Cleveland 21/03/1977  

Raw Power
TV Eye
Dirt
1969
Turn Blue
Funtime
Gimme Danger
No Fun
Sister Midnight
I Need Somebody
Search and Destroy
I Wanna Be Your Dog
China Girl

DISC SEVEN – Live At Mantra Studio – Chicago 28/03/1977  

Raw Power
TV Eye
Dirt
Turn Blue
Funtime
Gimme Danger
No Fun
Sister Midnight
I Need Somebody
Search and Destroy
I Wanna Be Your Dog
China Girl  

THE IDIOT 2CD DELUXE VERSION

DISC ONE – The Idiot

Sister Midnight
Nightclubbing
Funtime
Baby
China Girl
Dum Dum Boys
Tiny Girls
Mass Production

DISC TWO – Live At The Rainbow Theatre – London 07/03/1977

Raw Power
TV Eye
Dirt
1969
Turn Blue
Funtime
Gimme Danger
No Fun
Sister Midnight
I Need Somebody
Search and Destroy
I Wanna Be Your Dog
Tonight
Some Weird Sin
China Girl

LUST FOR LIFE – 2-CD DELUXE VERSION

DISC ONE – Lust For Life

Lust for Life
Sixteen
Some Weird Sin
The Passenger
Tonight
Success
Turn Blue
Neighbourhood Threat
Fall in Love with Me    

DISC TWO – T.V.Eye Live 1977

T.V. Eye
Funtime
Sixteen
I Got A Right
Lust for Life
Dirt
Nightclubbing
I Wanna Be Your Dog

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