My comrade Iann Robinson forwarded this little find on Facebook, and it's the type of thing that's liable to blow someone's mind, if it's legit. As the story goes, here's Bowie covering Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
The story so far...
A chance meeting in 1983 had David Bowie, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook chatting away over beers in the Kings Arms in Salford. “…So we were all there just having a laugh and we joked that he should come n have a jam with us, then next minute - well, it was the next day actually, but i didn’t expect he’d definitely come by - and we were in the practice rooms and we were playing Love Will Tear Us Apart and I was like, f%$k we’re playing Love Will Tear Us Apart with David Bowie singing, this is crazy. We never released it - Bowie took a recording of it, and just layered some more vocals on for fun, sent it back to me…”
Want to hear it? Click here.
ADDENDUM: `Tis another hoax. Chris O'Learly of Bowie Songs writes....
Just to re-emphasize this point (as i was asked about this on Twitter), and to quote Tom Baker in City of Death: This is a fake.
not only is the singer one of the shoddier DB impersonators I’ve ever heard (the guy who sings on the fake Bowie “Penny Lane” is much better) but the backstory just makes no sense. Bowie’s “Serious Moonlight” tour ran from May to December 1983 and he was barely in the UK at all during it. Before that he was mixing/mastering Let’s Dance in NYC and rehearsing for the tour in the US. He also didn’t live in the UK at the time. So the idea that he’d be hanging out randomly in Salford in ‘83 is…not likely.
Could it have been after a New Order gig? Ok: Here’s a list of them in ‘83. The only ones that make any logistical sense are the two Manchester gigs. July 20? No, Bowie’s in Philadelphia then. So that leaves Jan. 26.
So in order for this to be real, you have to believe that Bowie takes time off from finishing Let’s Dance to fly to Manchester to see New Order at the Hacienda, then he hangs with them in Salford afterward and (he’s still there a day later?) goes to the “practice rooms” with them and cuts this. And his presence at the Hacienda isn’t noted by any of the music rags at the time, nor has this meeting ever been mentioned in any Bowie or New Order bio.
But people will believe what they like, so I’m sure this thing will circulate for the rest of the century.
Oh well, there you have it. Too bad. Here's a bit of vintage Dave to soften the blow...
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