David Bowie’s Long Lost Album, The Gouster

David Bowie’s long-lost album from 1974, The Gouster, was finally released on September 23rd and is part of the new Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976) box set.

David Bowie was a glam rock singer who was popular in the 1970’s. He was known for all his different looks and different styles of music. His most popular songs were The Man Who Sold the World, Rebel Rebel, Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans, and Space Oddity. He also sang with Queen in the song Under Pressure. His most recent album is Blackstar, which was released a few days before his death. Bowie died on January 10th, 2016.

The Gouster was greatly inspired by the TV show Soul Train. Because of the show, it was based on “an attitude of pride and hipness” says Bowie’s music producer, Tony Visconti. The goal was to create a “killer soul album”. Soul Train was a TV show that featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip-hop artists that first aired in 1971 and ended in 2006.

The album was one of the smaller ones he produced, only having 7 songs on it. The songs were John, I’m Only Dancing (Again), Somebody Up There Likes Me, It’s Gonna Be Me, Who Can I Be Now?, Can You Hear Me, Young Americans, and Right. The album contains songs that were from the album Young Americans and special editions of that album. The songs aren't the same as the ones on the album. Some are “funkafied” and altered in a different way.

The album was basically a draft of Young Americans. Although The Gouster has fewer songs than the album it turned out to be, it is longer. Young Americans, which contains 8 songs, is about 35 minutes long while The Gouster is 40 minutes long.

Compared to Bowie’s other music The Gouster is relatively normal. The Gouster is significantly less glossy than its final version, Young Americans. The Gouster went a completely different direction from his other albums. It was no longer disco and was just a pure soul album. Soul music incorporates elements of rhythm and blue and gospel music while disco is a genre of dance music that contains elements of funk, soul, pop, salsa.

The album was created in 1974. It was created when he settled in at Sigma Sound Studios. The vibe of the album is greatly influenced by the mostly black band that he was with. The musicians all helped Bowie in the making of the “plastic soul” album.

The album name, gouster, was “a type of dress code worn by African American teens in the ‘60s, in Chicago”. Gouster is actually pronounced differently than how it seems, the word rhymes with foster. The name of the album influenced the music and the vibe it was based around which was “pride and hipness”.

There is no known reason why the album wasn't released until now. It’s thought that it could have been because of the influence of John Lennon on Bowie’s music. All the songs were previously released but it was on Young Americans and they're not the same at all. All the songs have a different feel than they previously had. We will never know why Bowie left The Gouster and changed it into Young Americans.