Rebel Rebel
	Produced by Bowie
	Released on February? 1974
	UK CHART POSITION #5 . . . US CHART POSITION #64 (charted June 1, 1974 for 8 weeks)
	Find it at GEMM
DJH0-0287 wo. picture sleeve [high resolution scan]

M arch 30, 2004: The acolytes in white shuffle off the stage to polite applause, and the ceremony begins. In the audience are aging hipsters, self-conscious of thinning hair and swelling bellies, waiting for the ageless one to arrive. Both sides know the score: he sings and everyone is young again. It was my first time at a magic show of this magnitude. Sure my hair stood on end a little with Yes, Tull and Rush, but this was different. This was Bowie. All of that charisma, all of that talent, all of those memories wound tightly into a single persona like a bomb ready to burst. And when he kicked off the night with “Rebel, Rebel,” the one song I most wanted to hear from those heroic lips, I did. I was walking on air the rest of the night as he intertwined the old and the new, unfailingly interesting in any setting, stepping back from his own momentous opus to admire the work of local heroes The Pixies (“Cactus”) and Modern Lovers (“Pablo Picasso"). In closing he opened the sacred sarcophagus of Ziggy, time having healed the old wounds. To think that I’d held off seeing my childhood hero for fear I’d be disappointed. Oh me of little faith! It was everything I could have asked for. When he waved goodbye at the end of the night, I felt my hand instinctively wave back -- there was just that kind of connection with him all night. Thank you, Linda, for an evening I’ll never forget. As for the single “Rebel Rebel,” it’s actually a radical remix of the elpee version, with distorted chorus and guitar, and a running time under three minutes. Disconcerting after having grown so familiar with the elpee version (which is the one they play on the radio all the time and put on compilations). You’ll find a few half-baked anomalies like this in Bowie’s singles (the edited version of “Young Americans” comes to mind), and I’m always surprised Rykodisc didn’t think to tack them onto the CD reissues.

TRACK LISTING

1. REBEL REBEL
2. QUEEN BITCH
   
   US 7-inch single
   
1. REBEL REBEL    (Bowie)    2:58
2. LADY GRINNING SOUL
   
   AUS'L 7-INCH EP track listing
   
1. REBEL
2. QUEEN BITCH
3. SORROW
4. AMSTERDAM

CREDITS

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