Bowie Amsterdam

The Man Who Sold The World David Bowie’s landmark entry into the 1970s not only began the collaboration with guitarist Mick Ronson that would continue with such Bowie classics as Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, it kicked off a 10-year run of indispensable albums stretching through 1980’s Scary Monsters.

David Bowie’s 1997 live album LiveAndWell.Com is being released on streaming services for the first time. The album, which was recorded at performances in New York, Amsterdam, Rio De Janeiro, and the United Kingdom during the Earthling tour, was originally released in 2000 via BowieNet, the late singer-songwriter’s pre-Y2K ISP, which doubled as a fan club and an early music-oriented social network. LiveAndWell.Com has been updated with two bonus tracks that weren't on the original release—“Pallas Athena” and “V-2 Schneider”—and it’s the first in a series of ’90s-era Bowie live recordings to be released this year. It arrives May 15 via Parlophone.

The French label Barclay Records, with which singer/songwriter Jacques Brel was associated for most of the 1960s and '70s, released a compilation of recordings of his songs in March 2004 that differs significantly from this U.S. edition. The French version of Next Brel has 15 tracks to the American 12, but that doesn't mean simply that three tracks have been deleted. In fact, there are six tracks on the French album not found on the American one: "If We Only Have Love," by Dionne Warwick; "Amsterdam," by Anne Watts; "If You Go Away," by Emiliana Torrini; "Next," by Gavin Friday & the Man Seezer; "The Desperate Ones," by Nina Simone; and "Seasons in the Sun," by Terry Jacks (a number one hit in the U.S.). But there are also three tracks on the American album not contained on the French one: "Les Flamandes," by French chanteuse Barbara; "Ne Me Quitte Pas," by Nina Simone; and "My Death," by Scott Walker. The deletions and substitutions make for less repetition of songs on the American album.