Max Ochester, a record store owner, accidentally found master tapes from David Bowie's 'Young Americans' sessions at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. The tapes include an unheard version of Bowie's 'Fame' with lyrics from Bruce Springsteen's 'It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City', shedding new light on Bowie's 'plastic soul' period and correcting historical accounts.
Max Ochester discovered tapes recorded at Sigma Sound Studios for 'Young Americans,' including an unheard version of a Bruce Springsteen song. He's trying to get the music to the Bowie estate.
Working on a shoestring budget, Ochester brought what he considered scrap tapes to Elm Street with the intention of erasing and taping over them. “We baked them overnight,” a common practice to keep aged — and expensive — analog multitrack tape from falling apart, Ochester said in an interview this week.
They heard Bowie counting off the start of a song which turned out to be the “Fame” music, but with the lyrics to Springsteen’s “Saint In the City.”sessions in November 1974, a time when the Boss was so broke he had to borrow money from WMMR-FM DJ Ed Sciaky to cover the bus trip from New Jersey. “It’s really a proto-’Fame,’” says Aaron Levinson, the Grammy-winning Philly producer teaming with Ochester to spread the word about the Bowie tapes. “They’re working up the groove to ‘Fame.’ You can hear the signature guitar part. But what’s so interesting is Bowie is doingOchester can’t recall the exact location of the estate sale, and doesn’t know who owned the foreclosed home or how the tapes got there.
Ownership of that — the unheard music on the Philly Bowie tapes — will be controlled by Bowie’s record company and music publisher — the Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell publishing, and the Bowie estate.
DAVID BOWIE BRIAN ENO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PHILADELPHIA MUSIC SIGMA SOUND STUDIOS
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