After being bootlegged by fans for decades, David Bowie’s ‘The Gouster’ is available for you to listen in full below, thanks to its release as part of the new compilation ‘Who Can I Be Now? (1974-76)’, which was released today.
Songs for the album were recorded during Bowie’s blue-eyed soul period in 1974-75. Several tracks from the session, namely ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’ would eventually develop to become a part of the original ‘Young Americans’ tracklist, and others would later be included on reissues for the album over the years – but this is the first time the album and its original versions can be heard in a single place.
Producer Tony Visconti, had previously described the album as “40 minutes of glorious funk, that’s what it was and that’s how I thought it would be”.Fans have speculated that ‘The Gouster’ was actually 10 tracks long and included songs like ‘I Am A Lazer’, ‘Shilling The Rubes’ and ‘After Today’, of which only snippets of Bowie’s versions have previously surfaced onto the internet.
The tracklisting for the album is as followed:
Side 1
1. John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
2. Somebody Up There Likes Me
3. It’s Gonna Be Me
Side 2
1. Who Can I Be Now?
2. Can You Hear Me
3. Young Americans
4. Right