“Sometimes you get so lonely”

For those that follow these releases, it will be no surprise that Be My Wife is the latest in Parlophone’s series of 40th-anniversary Bowie 7" picture discs.

Originally released in the UK on June 17th 1977, Be My Wife was the 2nd and final single from the ground-breaking album Low, the first of the so-called Berlin Trilogy. Despite a promotional video, the single didn’t chart, not helped by the fact that it was almost impossible to view it anywhere in the UK back in 1977.

With echoes of Life On Mars?, the Stanley Dorfman-directed promo was shot in an empty white room, with Bowie using a red Fender Stratocaster as a prop, while half-heartedly miming the guitar part. He somehow manages to appear nonchalant and anguished at the same time, in this bizarre plea for marital union.

The image used on the A Side is from the Be My Wife video shoot, while the AA side was taken during a visit to the studio of Victor Vasarely. Both photos are by Christian Simonpietri and were taken in Paris in June 1977.

Be My Wife is backed with a previously unreleased live version of the Low instrumental, Art Decade, recorded in Perth, Australia in 1978 during the ISOLAR II tour.

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BE MY WIFE LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7" PICTURE DISC

 

A-Side BE MY WIFE (2017 remaster)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti

Mixed by Tony Visconti at Hansa by the Wall

 

AA-Side ART DECADE (Live Perth ‘78)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie

Recorded live at Perth Entertainment Centre, Perth, Australia 15th November 1978

 

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Be My Wife will be released via Parlophone on June 16th 2017.

FOOTNOTE: Victor Vasarely is the artist responsible for the 1968 artwork: CTA 25 NÉGATIF. The image was used as the background for the front cover of the 1969 Philips album, David Bowie, aka Space Oddity.