Melanie Gomez
After David Bowie’s passing eight months ago, fans can finally hear his seven track album, The Gouster, in which Bowie recorded during studio sessions in 1974.
The long-lost songs off of the album are now part of a new 12-album compilation box set titled Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), which was released on Friday, Sept. 23rd by Parlophone Records.
In the liner notes, producer Tony Visconti explains the title saying, “’Gouster’ was a word unfamiliar to me but David knew it as a type of dress code worn by African American teens in the ’60s, in Chicago. But in the context of the album its meaning was attitude, an attitude of pride and hipness. Of all the songs we cut we were enamored of the ones we chose for the album that portrayed this attitude.”
He continued saying, “David had a long infatuation with soul as did I. We were fans of the TV show Soul Train. We weren’t ‘young, gifted and black’ but we sure as hell wanted to make a killer soul album, which was quite insane, but pioneers like the Righteous Brothers were there before us.”
You can now listen to the new box set on Spotify and Apple Music. The Gouster begins at track 50 (disc four).
