David Bowie – Young Americans Vinyl

The album saw Bowie broaden his musical horizons once more, embracing what he called ‘Plastic Soul’ and would give Bowie his first number one single in the U.S., ‘FAME’, co-written with John Lennon and Bowie’s then guitarist, Carlos Alomar.

The album was partly influenced by the ‘Philly Sound’ and recorded in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound studios during a break in the DIAMOND DOGS tour with a band that featured amongst others Bowie stalwart Mike Garson on keys, along with the late Luther Vandross on vocals and David Sanborn on saxophone.

During the Tony Visconti produced sessions at Sigma Sound, Bowie immersed himself in soul music and created a new persona called The Gouster, a slang term for a hip street character. An early version of the album using this title was issued on the boxset WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974-1976).

This new pressing of YOUNG AMERICANS was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Record Plant master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.