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2023 Albums Thing #037 - David Bowie “Rare”

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A compilation released by RCA in 1982. I guess by now they knew he was leaving so decided to make some money out of him. In fairness when this was initially released it was chock full of stuff that many of us had never heard before or had been released before. 

I’m not going to go through it track by track (if you want to know everything that’s here and where it came from have a look in the comments here https://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/pl45406) but I do want to highlight a couple of things. 

The record opens with “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola” an Italian language song sung over the backing track to “Space Oddity”. It is not, as you might think, a translation of the Major Tom story but a completely new lyric written by Italian lyricist Mogol (real name Giulio Rapetti) with lines that translate back to English as:

 My mind has took flight, A thought, just one

I walk while the city sleeps, Her eyes in the night

White lights in the night, A voice which speaks to me, who will be?

Tell me, alone boy, where are you going,

Why so much pain?

You have lost a great love, no doubt

But the city is filled with love

The title itself translates as “Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl” and is the story of a lonely boy and girl who meet on a mountain top !

The other great track one “Rare” is “Helden”, an English/German version of the full length album version of “Heroes”. It works perfectly and actually adds something to the song. The lyric “We can be heroes, just for one day” is sung as “Wir sind dann helden, Für einen tag” and sounds perfectly right. There is also a French translation single “Heros” which is just wrong ! It sounds like the vocal was tacked on as a complete afterthought and it sits very obtrusively in the mix, whereas “Helden” just fits.

An album for the Bowie nerds (raises hand and nods).

Helden - https://youtu.be/0PsWL6u_P6s

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