David Bowie - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: ChangesNowBowie, BBC, Rentals Studios, New York City, 1-7-1997

I could be taking a risk posting this album, we'll see. Just a few days ago (as I write this in November 2023), I posted a David Bowie BBC album compiling various 1990s sessions. A few days after that, it got taken down due to some unknown copyright violation. So this one may well be taken down soon, we'll see. (Get it while you can!) To reduce my risk of having things taken down here, I posted this album on YouTube earlier today. It got past the copyright violation check over there, so that's a good sign, at least.

Bowie probably had the roughest stretch of his music career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when his albums were not well received by critics and his sales went way down. But he'd bounced back somewhat by the time of this concert, with the better received albums of "Outside" in 1995 and "Earthling" in 1997. 

This music comes from a big Bowie special on the BBC called "ChangesNowBowie." It was recorded just two days before a special fiftieth birthday concert in New York City with many guest stars, also broadcast by the BBC. (I'll be posting that next.) But this is quite different from that concert. It was performed by a small band, but in semi-acoustic mode. There were no guest stars. Also, the song list is rather unusual for him in the 1990s. All but two of the songs date from 1972 or earlier. Another song, "Repetition," is from the late 1970s. Only "Shopping for Girls" came from the 1990s, and even that was from 1991 (the album "Tin Machine II") instead of something promoting his latest album. Furthermore, many of the songs chosen were only occasionally played by him even back in the 1970s, instead of the usual big hits. 

The BBC special included interview sections between the songs, with lots of talking. However, in my opinion, interviews don't have a lot of replay value, so I've cut all that out and stuck to just the music. If you search the Internet, it's not that hard to find the rest.

This album is 32 minutes long. That's pretty short for an album. I could have tried to add some extra songs, but I decided not to, as this holds together as a single performance, with an overall acoustic sound.

01 The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie)
02 The Supermen (David Bowie)
03 Andy Warhol (David Bowie)
04 Repetition (David Bowie)
05 Lady Stardust (David Bowie)
06 White Light-White Heat (David Bowie)
07 Shopping for Girls (David Bowie)
08 Quicksand (David Bowie)
09 Aladdin Sane (David Bowie)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15928016/DavidB_1997_BBSessonsVol9ChangsNwBwieRentlsStdiosNwYrkCty__1-7-1997_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in New York City on January 10, 1997, three days after this.