Listen to New Version of David Bowie’s ‘Zeroes’
A new version of David Bowie’s 1987 song “Zeroes” has been released to tie in with upcoming box set Loving the Alien (1983 – 1988).
It appears on the set’s revamped edition of Never Let Me Down, Bowie’s last album of the ‘80s, which he’d expressed a desire to re-record before his death in 2016. The 2018 album features some of the original studio tracks, while producer Mario McNulty worked with some of Bowie's past collaborators on new parts.
Bowie once described Never Let Me Down as a “bitter disappointment.” He commissioned a new version of the song “Time Will Crawl” in 2008; the full album revamp followed a decade later. “Fast-forward to early 2018, McNulty entered Electric Lady Studios in New York with Sterling [Campbell, drummer], Tim Lefebvre on bass, who was in the Blackstar band and Reeves Gabrels and David Torn on guitars," Parlophone Records noted in a press release. "All of the musicians had a history with David, so were a perfect fit for what now sound like brand new songs.”
You can listen to the new version of “Zeroes” below.
“Stripping this song down to its core revealed a track that could have been right at home on Hunky Dory," McNulty said. "I kept Peter Frampton’s sitar (which was originally owned by Jimi Hendrix), as it still fits against the new guitars from Reeves Gabrels.” “I wanted to put in every cliche that was around in the ‘60s – ‘letting the love in,’ those kinds of lines," Bowie said at the time of the song's original release. "But it was done with affection – it’s not supposed to be a snipe.”
Earlier this week, a snippet of Bowie's first-ever recording, made when he was 16, was released after having been lost for decades. The original tape will be auctioned later this year.