David Bowie – “Baby Universal ’97”
The David Bowie archives are releasing an unreleased track from the vaults every week for the next couple weeks. They’ll all be compiled on an EP, Is It Any Wonder?, that’ll be out next month. We’ve gotten three so far — ““The Man Who Sold The World (ChangesNowBowie Version),” “I Can’t Read ’97,” and “Stay ’97” — and today we’re getting the fourth track out of six total.
This week’s song is “Baby Universal ’97.” The song was originally released on the second and final Tin Machine album, Tin Machine II, in 1991, and was co-written with the group’s Reeves Gabrels. Bowie performed it during his Outside Summer Festivals Tour in 1996 and then recorded a new version during his sessions for Earthling.
According to a press release, it was originally slotted to appear between “I’m Afraid Of Americans” and “Law (Earthlings On Fire)” on that album but eventually didn’t make the cut. The same press release provides a quote that Bowie gave about the track before it was dropped from the album: “I thought ‘Baby Universal’ was a really good song and I don’t think it got heard. I didn’t really want that to happen to it, so I put it on this album… I think this version is very good.”
Listen to it below.