You got me spinning…
Thirty five years ago Europeans had their first taste of an official live Bowie release with the issue of the Knock On Wood/Panic In Detroit single as a taster for the upcoming David Live LP.
Issued three months after the Diamond Dogs single in the UK, (06.14.2009 NEWS: DIAMOND DOGS IS THIRTY FIVE YEARS OLD TODAY) this old Steve Cropper/Eddie Floyd standard didn’t seem an incongruous release to my newly-birthdayed 14-year-old ears.
Indeed, the record-buying public was obviously in agreement with me as it was yet another top ten hit for Bowie in the UK, even without a picture sleeve.
As you can see above, in Europe the release was accompanied by some of the very best Bowie picture covers of all time, though, as with Diamond Dogs, the Americans weren’t treated to an A-side release of Knock On Wood at all.
The USA got the studio version of 1984 as a single in July 1974 instead of Diamond Dogs and they got a live version of Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me in October in place of Knock On Wood.
Sales of the single in the UK may have been helped by a forty second preview on an eight track promotional flexi-disc given away with Record & Popswop Mirror shortly after Knock On Wood went on sale.
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