David Bowie fans can expect “new” music from the famed singer in the coming years, according to his longtime friend and collaborator Tony Visconti, the Independent is reporting .
Bowie died in January of this year at the age of 69, having lost his battle with liver cancer — an illness which he’d kept a secret from his fans. His death came just two days after his 69th birthday, and two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar , which Visconti describes as Bowie’s “parting gift” to the world.
January 9th, 2016: David Bowie – Blackstar https://t.co/SUNg0C5bKE pic.twitter.com/GbObAuCUc4
— Oh No Not Adam (@blackholes) June 3, 2016
As with any album, far more tracks were recorded for Blackstar than made the final cut. And those tracks, and perhaps hundreds of others cut from other Bowie albums released throughout the decades, are lying around, waiting to be released to the public.
Bowie’s friend and collaborator Tony Visconti would like to be the one to release those tracks.
Tony Visconti Demonstrates Eventide’s Tverb: David Bowie’s producer shows off the plug-in… https://t.co/NifvddP2ty pic.twitter.com/FG5otFDTlu
— sonicstate (@sonicstate) May 23, 2016
Speaking to the Evening Standard , Visconti said that he’s been in talks with Bowie’s management company about finding, dusting off, and releasing all of that music.
“I haven’t heard those songs yet. I might actually have to help his managerial company to find them.”
In fact, finding the unreleased David Bowie tracks may be easier said than done; those tracks could be on laptops, thumb drives, and in any of the multiple studios in which Bowie has recorded.
“I have an idea where he might have recorded them but there is also a lot of unreleased material from many albums.”
Once Visconti has found, archived, and polished off those lost tracks, the next step is getting them out to the public.
“I think it’s logical that over the next few years you’re going to hear a lot of stuff that you haven’t heard before… there’s going to be some great Bowie stuff coming out.”
Just when that new David Bowie material will be coming out is not really clear; in January rumors swirled that some unreleased tracks would be coming out around Christmas, but those rumors have not yet been confirmed.
If the unreleased David Bowie tracks wind up getting released, it would not be the first time that a musician’s music has been released after that musician’s death. In fact, according to a 2011 Business Insider report, some of the most iconic albums in Rock & Roll history have been released long after the artist’s death. Some of those albums include Janis Joplin’s “Pearl” and Jimi Hendrix’ “Cry of Love.”
However, not every bit of music released after an artist’s death will be favorably received by the music-listening public. According to a 2010 Maxim report, some posthumous music releases have been downright awful , including a 1984 John Lennon and Yoko Ono album, Milk and Honey (1984), which, other than the Top 10 hit “Nobody Told Me,” was filled with outdated recording techniques and far too much Yoko.
Similarly, whoever is in charge of Tupac Shakur’s music library continues to release albums of his unfinished material, some of which contained mostly guest performers and very little Tupac.
Besides David Bowie, Prince, another music legend who died in 2016, is also rumored to have a “vault” of unreleased music , according to Entertainment Weekly . Prince himself said that he didn’t always release his best work for his studio albums, although when — or even if — fans will hear any of that unreleased music remains to be seen; as of this writing, the Prince estate is still tied up in court, and it could be months or years before all is said and done.
As of this writing, it is not clear how much new David Bowie music will be released.
[Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images]
