A distorted, goateed David Bowie appears in the rare video for “Repetition,” a 1997 version of the Lodger track. The song appears on his upcoming LP ChangesNowBowie, a Record Store Day 2020 release.
Titled “Repetition ’97,” the video was filmed at the Earthling tour rehearsals in Hartford, Connecticut, by Tim Pope. “Johnny is a man/And he’s bigger than you,” Bowie sings over an acoustic guitar. “And he could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse/He could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse.”
ChangesNowBowie was originally recorded by the BBC in honor of the late singer’s 50th birthday, on January 8th, 1997. The sparse, mostly acoustic renditions of his songs, which also include “Aladdin Sane” and the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat,” were recorded at New York’s Looking Glass Studios in November 1996.
“Repetition ’97” follows an unreleased version of “The Man Who Sold the World,” which also appears on the six-track EP Is It Any Wonder. A “Live Eno Mix” of the song also appears on the EP, as well as an acoustic version of “I Can’t Read,” “Stay,” “Baby Universal,” and “Nuts.” The songs were rolled out on a weekly basis in January.
ChangesNowBowie will be released ahead of Record Store Day on streaming services on April 17th. Record Store Day 2020 was originally slated for April 18th but was rescheduled to June 20th due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bowie’s I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74), a previously unreleased live album chronicling his mid-Seventies, will also be released for the event.