David Bowie: "Memory Of A Free Festival" Single (1970)

David Bowie’s "Memory Of A Free Festival Part 1" backed with "Memory Of A Free Festival Part 2", was released as a 7-inch vinyl single in the UK by Mercury Records (catalog number MF 1135) on June 12, 1970.Initially recorded in September 1969 as a seven-minute piece for his second self-titled album, it was later reworked in March–April 1970 at the request of Mercury Records.

The label believing that the track had a better chance of success as a single than "The Prettiest Star", released earlier in the year. Bowie and Tony Visconti roughly split the track in half, re-recording it so both halves could function as individual songs. A more rock-oriented version than the earlier album cut, this rendition featured guitarist Mick Ronson.

Biographer David Buckley described "Memory of a Free Festival" as "a sort of trippy retake of the Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' but with a smiley lyric". The track was written as a homage to the Free Festival, organised by the Beckenham Arts Lab, which was held at Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham on 16 August 1969.

Released in America, the single was commercially unsuccessful; only a few hundred copies sold. It was also issued in the UK, but was similarly unsuccessful there.

The two-part single version was subsequently released on CD on the EMI/Rykodisc reissue of Bowie's 1969 self-titled album (in 1990), on a 2-CD special edition of that album (in 2009), and on Re:Call 1, part of the Five Years (1969–1973) compilation (in 2015).

Label: Mercury

Country: Norway

Catalogue: 6052 026

Melody Maker August 1, 1970

Review dated June 27, 1970