the only 7" i have of this single is the heavily edited US mono single.

CD issues from Ryko, EMI and now Parlophone use the same stereo sources, but i'd appreciate confirmation of both stereo and mono editions as seen on chas' site.

as chas says of the UK singles, labels state mono but the records are in stereo. there are no timings given, but the CD versions are approx 4 mins for part 1, 3.30 for part 2.

the Netherlands single labels state mono and with no track timings. i would assume a mono fold down of the full-length versions? or another case of stereo records with mono labels?

the Germany single states stereo and gives timings of 4.04 and 3.39. can someone confirm?

finally the Scandinavian variation has neither mono or stereo on the labels, nor track timings. any info on this one welcomed.

thanks to anyone who can help.

Interesting and I had not realised there was confirmation that UK were mislabeled

If someone has Dutch or Scandinavian and can give play I would be surprised now if these are not Stereo.

Strange been Bowie collector since 70s but lived under illusion that the UK Copy (never owned except on stereo bootleg 7") was in mono. Often wondered why bootleggers used a German Copy as the source and now this conjecture is blown out of the water.

A little help:

The UK 45 was issued during a period when 45's were changing from being mono to stereo. The transition took a little time and each company did so in their own time. That is possibly a factor to consider about the mislabelling.

Though not having studied the full complement of releases I've always considered the US promo 45 to be the odd one out - the others contain the full versions.

Finally, I've found Chas to be always reliable and accurate in his commentary on his website.

I have a German copy and two Dutch copies - I played them, and the results were very unexpected indeed!

The German version is stereo, 4.00 for part 1, 3.30 for part 2.

The Dutch version however, is also stereo - but part 1 is 4.40! (part 2 is still 3.30)
Just some extra 'Sun Machine is coming down and we're gonna have party', but still!
Amazing that you can still find things like this on a record that was issued 46 years ago...

Dutch single version on top, Ryko version on bottom:

thank you maarten! yes, it amazes me too how these variations continue to surface. my advice to everyone...play your records!

Nice find.

..... and be ready to eat my own words / assumptions.

Who would have known?

Ok, one more disc to put on the list:

Dutch Memory of a Free Festival 7".


So, Maarten a question:

Is the extra 40 seconds on the Dutch 45 unique to this, or is it part of what appears on the B side?

The latter, unfortunately

Except that "part 2" is essentially everything after the abrupt stop in "part 1". so every edit of "part 1" includes some of "part 2" and the decision of where to fade it seems arbitrary. thus the Dutch issue is the longest option of the uninterrupted full track, with about a minute and a half "missing" (i.e. music that continues past the fade). hopefully other members can come forward regarding other issues to see if there are further variations.

Wow
Great find as now there are 3 different edits of the A side for us avid collectors.

It will be interesting to find out how the Scandinavian compares as this may make the Dutch release even more valuable as a unique edit.

Of course years ago (as I am sure many of you have) I made a homemade edit splicing the 2 at the correct point into one uninterrupted track.

Was it something like my full version of the song?

Listen via Dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tkly7d23grvtes/Memory%20Of%20A%20Free%20Festival%20%28Parts%201%20%26%202%29.mp3?dl=0

Direct download link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tkly7d23grvtes/Memory%20Of%20A%20Free%20Festival%20%28Parts%201%20%26%202%29.mp3?dl=1

No the version you linked is the trendy remix I think!

Anyway is there no one with access to a Scandinavian (Norway) copy as I am kind of interested!

It isn't a remix, it's a straight edit of the two tracks, just one splice to create a complete song.

Sorry my silly humor misinterpreted.
I just liked the sound of trendy remix over trendy edit.

However as aside I am used to hearing music on WAV (on these old mercurys direct from record) and MP3/(remaster?) makes a difference to the sound to my ears.

When I work out which version is the best to work with, i'll re-edit the wav file. I only have the Recall remaster on my PC at the moment.