As we noted throughout our 9 weeks of vinyl giveaways, it’s easy to forget that going on 8 years now when TVD was in its year one (as was Record Store Day) the vinyl medium wasn’t “back,” sales weren’t stellar, and indeed record stores were a fading lot. No, worse actually. Shops we’re closing at such a clip, their disappearance literally informed the launch of the site you’re reading at present.
And as we’ve repeated for 9 weeks now—vinyl and record stores go hand in hand. Their shared intrinsic value is the cultural commodity and the bedrock of any local music scene. Don’t believe us though…hit up your locals and the marriage becomes crystal clear.
But we too have been overwhelmed with the resounding popular and prevalent headlines as to vinyl’s big resurgence, yet they also arrive in tandem with far less rosy headlines such as “Starbucks to Open in Former Bleecker Street Records Space”—and worse, some very bad ideas when one advocates for record shops have, of late, become internet fodder. (Seriously, vinyl subscription clubs are the Carson Daly of record collecting.)
As such, picking up with an old TVD favorite, we lined up 9 weeks of vinyl giveaways to count down to Record Store Day 2015 this weekend to redouble our efforts and to underscore the viability and the inherent need for your local brick and mortar record shops to remain the vibrant community touchstone that they intrinsically are. And while we kinda hate hanging out by the mailbox waiting for a record to show up (unless you’ve ordered it from a mom and pop or directly from a label!) we’ve shipped out records for 8 weeks straight as sweet reminders that record stores are literally where it’s at.
And we greet you with a 7″ gem to commence week #9.
“Originally issued in the UK on February 21st 1975, this 40th anniversary disc of ‘Young Americans’ is scheduled to be released 40 years and 2 days on from that date. ‘Young Americans’ was the lead single from the album of the same name, and it gave Bowie another Top 20 45 in the UK. The A-Side of this 40th anniversary edition features Tony Visconti’s 2007 ‘Young Americans’ single mix, which makes its vinyl debut here.
The AA-side (which runs at 33 1/3 rpm), is ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ (with strings). This version was first released as a bonus track on the Young Americans special edition CD/DVD in 2007 and it’s also its first time on vinyl.
The black and white image on the A-Side of the disc is by the famous Hollywood photographer of the 1940s/50s, Tom Kelley. The image is probably more closely associated with the session that produced the cover for the CHANGESONEBOWIE album and ‘Suffragette City’ single in 1976. However, this particular shot was first used for the Italian ‘Fame’ 45 in 1975.
The photograph on the AA-Side was shot by Steve Schapiro, who recently had this to say about working with Bowie and this session in particular: ‘I think Bowie is very smart and I think he has a great sense of images and in coming up with new kinds of images. The first session I did with him started at four in the afternoon and ended at four the next morning when I did that picture of him on the motorcycle, and we used the headlights of a car to light it. He would constantly come up with new costumes and I would pick up my camera to photograph him and it would be an incredible outfit, but he would stop me and say, ’Wait a minute, I need to fix something,’ and he would go to the dressing room and come back 20 minutes later in something totally different. Fortunately, there would be a lot of things he would try on, so we would get a lot of pictures.’”
Enter to win the David Bowie “Young Americans” 40th Anniversary 7″ Picture Disc by citing—and showing us—in the comments below your favorite picture disc. We’ll let the art speak for itself this time out.
We’ll choose one enthusiastic brick and mortar supporter with a North American mailing address for the 7″ a week from today, April 20. Our winner will be notified directly via email.
(Oh, and…in advance of Record Store Day this coming weekend, on Wednesday we launch our biggest vinyl giveaway—perhaps ever. You might want to swing back.)
