"Spying Through A Keyhole"

7″vinyl singles box set of nine previously unreleased recordings from the era during which Space Oddity was first conceived.

The title ‘Spying Through A Keyhole’ is a lyric taken from the previously unknown song, Love All Around, and though most of the other titles are known, these versions have never been officially released until late 2018. Most of the recordings are solo vocal and acoustic home demo performances, unless otherwise stated.

The photography that adorns the box front and the print inside is by Ray Stevenson and was taken in Tony Visconti’s flat in the summer of 1968.

The design of each single label is presented to reflect the way David sent many of his demos to publishers and record companies, featuring his own handwritten song titles on EMIDISC acetate labels. The singles themselves are all mono and play at 45 r.p.m.

Due to the nature of some of the solo home demos where Bowie accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, the recording quality isn’t always of a usual studio fidelity. This is partly due to Bowie’s enthusiastic strumming hitting the red on a couple of the tracks, along with the limitations of the original recording equipment and tape degradation. However, the historical importance of these songs and the fact that the selections are from an archive of tracks cleared for release by Bowie, overrides this shortcoming.