Changestwobowie redux

On Wednesday I went out armed with a remaining HMV store voucher and some cash from Christmas at least in part because of that store groups current crisis is in 'administration' with the intention of getting the odd thing I'd not got around to.

In June of 2016 I wrote about the vinyl re-issue of the iconic ChangesOneBowie compilation lp - a kind of greatest hits - originally issued in 1976 but on April 13th last year the follow up issued some five years later was also reissued but I hadn't gotten around to getting a copy.

Originally issued in November of 1981 on RCA records, it followed the format of the first volume with a seamless selection of  songs split for lp across two sides with a fairly plain blue rear with a large capitalized tracklisting.

I remember seeing this at a record store I frequented around late 1981/2 looking almost lost around the other major releases of the era and a part of this stems from David having no input into the track selection which has it odd points as it features 1984 from the Diamond Dogs album but not his more recent hit, 1979's Boys Keep Swinging and as this compilation goes back to 1971 for its selection it failed to sum up what mattered in that year so much effected by the "Berlin trilogy" albums (Low,Heroes and The Lodger) and Scary Monsters.

 That was an influence on not buying it until the cd era - have the super rare RCA cd from 1984 - and I wasn't alone as the sales figures were much lower for this than it the first installment.

This is in spite of having the disco remake that is John I'm Only Dancing (Again) that was never on a studio album.

The record was re-issued in both standard black vinyl 180 grams and blue, which like with the re-issued ChangesOneBowie with it being pot luck as to which version you got as there's no indication on the lp jacket
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Mine is the rarer blue vinyl one shown above where you'll see  they have stylized "Bowie" to pass at first sight for the 1980's RCA records logo on the left and the reminder of the typesetting mimics the RCA label of that era.

 The record itself is housed in a smooth-sided card sleeve that is a close replica of the original that removes any reference to RCA Records and his narration on the record of Peter and the Wolf that RCA issued and was advertised originally.

Looking at it in 2018/9, the pair of albums to sum up as well as one might expect his main era and for some of us the soundtracks of our lives nay childhoods even and so sound better than the original editions did.

Whereas on cd the 1993 deleted The Singles Collection sums his career up better to 1987, I think for a vinyl based part nostalgic look these two albums do work well.

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