David Bowie recorded an Arabic rap on a song remixed by Tony Visconti.
The 73-year-old producer – who worked with the late music legend throughout his career right until his death in January 2016 – has revealed the 1979 track ‘Yassassin’ originally saw the ‘Starman’ hitmaker spit some lyrics, but the ‘Lodger’ album version saw it cut.
Visconti – who produced Bowie’s final record ‘Blackstar’ – says he was very protective about working on old stuff and always wanted to "move forward" with whatever he was doing.
He said: "I found some little gems on the tapes. At the end of ‘Yassassin’, David does a little Arabic rap that didn’t make the record.
"I put it on the mix this time and it sounds wonderful. David was proud of these re-releases, but he didn’t want to get involved.
"There are so many capable people, who could deal with it. He’d hear the final test pressing and say, ‘Great, It’s wonderful. Release it.’ But he always wanted to move on."
Visconti has remixed ‘Lodger’ for the 2017 boxset ‘David Bowie: A New Town (1977 – 1982)’, which is the third in a series spanning the ‘Heroes’ hitmaker’s career, and did it without Bowie knowing, but he approved of it.
He told Uncut magazine: "Over the years, David and I bemoaned how we wanted to remix it. But we never got around to doing it until there was a break in recording ‘Blackstar’.
"I thought, ‘If I don’t do something about ‘Lodger’, it’ll never get off ground. I started remixing it on my own time, without David’s knowledge. When I had five mixes done, I played it to him. He absolutely loved it and gave it the green light."
David Bowie’s Arabic rap
