Album Review: David Bowie – ‘Young Americans (Special Edition)’

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 5, 2007, 15:06 GMT

A portion of the album is identical to the tracks represented on Rykodisc’s 1991 reissue. However, this new special edition features the audio tracks newly mixed by Tony Visconti in 5.1 surround sound.

David Bowie’s 1975 album Young Americans gets a new edition with some nice special features.  It features the original eight tracks that appeared on the original album, including “Young Americans” (like they’d leave that one off), “Across the Universe,” and “Fame (co-written by John Lennon).” 

“Across the Universe” and “Fame” also feature vocals and guitar by the former Beatle and “Fascination” has background vocals by a young Luther Vandross.  The album also features “John, I’m Only Dancing (Again),” “Who Can I Be Now?,” and “It’s Gonna be Me” (in a previously unreleased version with strings) as bonus tracks. 

This portion of the album is identical to the tracks represented on Rykodisc’s 1991 reissue.  However, this new special edition features the audio tracks newly mixed by Tony Visconti in 5.1 surround sound. 

This new edition also adds a DVD with 24 minutes of footage of a Bowie appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.  Bowie performs “Young Americans” and “1984” before sitting down with Cavett for a somewhat uncomfortable interview (or so it seemed to me).  Bowie was supposedly heavy into cocaine at the time and this would explain his thin, ill-looking appearance, but Dick Cavett just doesn’t seem to know what to make of him and asks some pretty lame questions. 

The Bowie collector will have to decide for themselves if these features are going to be a selling point for them if they already have the Rykodisc reissue.  The music sounds great, but the interview is definitely a spaced oddity.

‘Young Americans (Special Edition)’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information.