Previously unheard David Bowie performances, recorded nearly 50 years ago at Philadelphia’s famed Sigma Sound Studios, were recently discovered in an estate sale, writes Dan DeLuca for The Charlotte Observer.
Max Ochester, the owner of Brewerytown Records, who specialized in uncovering Philadelphia’s soul music past, purchased 15 boxes of reel-to-reel tapes during a Montgomery County estate liquidation in 2022. The boxes were labeled with names such as The Intruders, Billy Paul, and The Ebonys, all of whom helped define the Sound of Philadelphia during the 1960s and 1970s.
Two years later, he finally started to sort the boxes and listen to the recordings. At one point, he and Toby Seay, director of the Drexel University Audio Archives, heard Bowie’s voice singing the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s “Saint In the City” to the music of “Fame.”
They realized that the recording proves that “Fame,” which was previously associated with New York, was actually born at Sigma, and is part of the famous musician’s Philadelphia story.
“It’s really a proto-Fame,” said Aaron Levinson, a Philadelphia producer. “They’re working up the groove to Fame. You can hear the signature guitar part. But what’s so interesting is Bowie is doing Springsteen over this!”
Read more about David Bowie’s newly discovered recordings in Philadelphia in The Charlotte Observer.
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