Divine Symmetry

excelent

This is a marvelous, expansive set with extensive mining of Bowie's recording activities leading up to the recording sessions for 'Hunky Dory' and shortly after prior to the release of 'Hunky Dory', the album.Apart from a few omissions this collection gathers most of Bowie's songs he had been working on to completion or otherwise prior to signing with Tony DeFries' MainMan company on 1st August 1971.The sessions log notes conflict in some cases with previous published assumptions, therefore, revision is clarified with accuracy on the who, what and when's.This collection does not, however, include any recordings with side projects such as Arnold Corns, Peter Noone, The Micky King All Stars and Dana Gillespie.CD1 contains 12 demos recorded at Radio Luxembourg Studios, London, 2 from his hotel room at the Holiday Inn in San Francisco and 2 from home at Haddon Hall, Beckenham.The collection kicks off with a much improved sound quality recording of the previously-on-bootleg-only 'Tired Of My Life', now determined as having been demoed at the end of the year, late 1970, rather than the May 1970 date and perhaps that factor now explains exclusion from 'The Width Of A Circle' collection from last year. It's also been confirmed that this is a solo effort and Mick Ronson is not involved.'How Lucky You Are', another bootleg-only track, has also been determined as being recorded four or five months earlier than previously thought and again being a solo effort as one Micky King is not on backing vocal.'King Of The City' is a genuine new find solo effort from Bowie's home at Haddon Hall. Also included are 2 of the several songs taped in a San Francisco hotel room.These demos are what they are and not intended to match that of the sonics of 'Queen Bitch' from 'Hunky Dory'.CD2 features the BBC Radio 1 In Concert with John Peel, from June 1971, now as complete as possible with 9 songs in mono and with 7 of the songs also presented in stereo form. Only 5 songs had been previously released on the 'Bowie At The Beeb' collection of 2000. It's a proper feel-good gig, with everyone seemingly having a good time.CD3 features the entire 7-song session recorded for the Bob Harris show at BBC Radio 1, September 1971, in high quality stereo and the first Bowie BBC session to be in stereo (the first was a trial run back in 1964 with The Rolling Stones). This is so worth hearing as it's such an excellent standard of recording.For unknown reasons this session had previously been virtually ignored with only 'Kooks' seeing general release on 'Bowie At The Beeb', although 'Oh! You Pretty Things' did see the light of day on the Japan release version and 'Andy Warhol' had been included in edited form on the 'BBC Sessions' sampler on the NMC label issued back in 1996.Continuing with a rare as hen's teeth gig recording from Friar's, Aylesbury in not too bad quality, albeit with a few drop outs and repairs here and there. But none of that lessens from the chance to actually get to hear this and with Bowie in the formative stages of going out with much of a whole new canon of material with his relatively new band. Bowie gives each song an introduction and a few of them are killer funny. It's kind of unreal in at last being able to listen to this properly.The remaining material within this set is all of high quality recording offering variants and contemporary remixes and the best of all the stereo material in this set is collated on the Blu-ray Audio disc.However, it's worth noting that for reasons unknown the versions of 'How Lucky You Are' and 'Shadow Man' both featuring Rick Wakeman on piano and recorded during the 'Hunky Dory' sessions have not been included.The hard-back photo book is absolutely top-notch, complete with high quality facsimiles, press cuttings etc. The extra of Bowie's "Student Note Book" is his personal log of things to do, scraps of ideas and even some record of accounts, for instance, he earned £55 for playing Glastonbury, but had to spend £10.50 of it on car recovery service. As you do.All in, this whole package is an absolutely excellent edition.

MY Fave Bowie Album, so to hear all the extras on here is mind blowing. A MUST for ALL Bowie Fans - a lot of material I haven't heard before and ALL in wonderful perfect quality. BUY IT - you wont be disappointed!

Oh my, Oh my.I really did not expect it to be so big and heavy - that's just to begin with.This is the companion set I always wanted and wished for, I would say Hunky Dory is up there in my top 5 of Bowie albums - Christmas and birthday all in one!Listening to the original album (2015 remaster) in HD has opened my ears. You can hear the depth and all of the many layers. I have never heard 'The Bewlay Brothers' with so much clarity. There is so much throughout the album that previously sounded muddied but is now so clear.The oxidisation of the original master tape is still present on 'Changes' and 'Oh! You Pretty Things' - not shied away from - it even says on the photo of the master tapes box that it is degrading, way back in 1971.'A Divine Symmetry' (An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory' is interesting and it works.The collection is a heavily comprehensive collection of tracks - It would have been good to have the demo of 'Rupert The Riley' but it is what it is.The original ending version of 'Life on Mars?' is hilarious! Good old Mick Ronson. You will never unhear this when you listen to the ending of the album version - he has the last word! In 96Khz it is very clear.It's also good to have the stereo version of 'Lightning Frightening', this gives it a whole new meaning and it also feels longer - I also have the mono version with fade in from the Rykodisk expanded edition from way back when.The 'book' is in keeping with the Remastered box sets and Width of a Circle as far as style and layout go. Lots of input from Ken Scott. The copy of David's notebook is a very nice touch although very difficult to fathom in parts - large parts are his accounts and payments. His sketches are cool - way ahead of his time with clothing design.Overall, I am happy with the quality of this set. This is the one I was hoping for, and the GREAT package really makes it. Now I understand the price - if you factor in the price of a large hardback book.I had to pre-order this for fear of missing out - the remastered box sets are disappearing from sale as 'new' or are now at extortionate prices from some sellers, even as 'used'. The 'Five Years' box set is now almost unavailable and where you find it the price is ridiculous.Just remember DB's estate have sold his music rights so any bona-fide profits go to Warner Music. Although I am happy to continue buying these releases I will not pay crazy prices for it from re-sellers.

If you're a true Bowie fan then you must get this boxset. A few tracks I'd never heard before and one I recognised from Scary Monsters that Bowie wrote back in 1971. My only bug bugbear is the blu-ray of music. Because there is no movement onscreen whilst the music is playing my TV screen saver cuts in cuts the music off so I still haven't been able to play that disc all the way through properly. It would have been nice to have had the lyrics slowly roll up the screen to prevent the screen saver cutting in.

Lets start with a warning this set is expensive but it does have the feeling of quality if you can afford it ..buy it ..its a large heavy hard bound book with the 5 discs of material in slipcases and came with a facsimile copy of Bowies own notes from the archive ...most of the material has been available via the many bootlegs over the years but the restoration here is very good indeed gathered is a fascinating picture of the compiling of this legendary album ...the demos , live material and alternate mixes are obviously overkill for the casual listener and this is not the set for you ..its good to see the estate producing such great product and hopefully all of Bowies material will be treated like this ..obviously there are one or two omissions ..Rupert the riley is not here and the Glastonbury set which may exist in full ..it is well researched with superb pics of all the stuff you want to see ...it goes beautifully with the conversation piece set which is similar format ...