I was listening to Billy Sloan’s show on BBC Radio Scotland last night and he played a previously unreleased version of Bowie’s I Can’t Read which is set to be released on a new compilation due out on Record Store Day called CHANGESNOWBOWIE. He then followed it up by playing a cover of Absolute Beginners. Almost immediately I was like “woah, this is pretty good. WTF is this?!”
To my utter amazement, when it finished Billy revealed it to be Steve Harley. My gob was truly smacked. That was NOT the name I was expecting to hear at the end of it. I don’t know whose name I WAS expecting…but it wasn’t Steve Harley’s. But hats off to him. It’s a wonderful version.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the link to Billy’s show. Absolute Beginners plays about 48 mins in. Give it a listen and see what you think.
It’s a track on Harley’s upcoming release called Uncovered. I’d be intrigued to hear the rest based on this track.
Link to the show can be found below.