The Trident Tapes: The Ziggy Album That Never Was

As Bowie week comes to a close, I have one more album for anyone out there who may be watching/listening that I think is worth sharing, and that is the Trident Tapes record.

Versions of The Trident Tapes started popping up on eBay around 2015, if memory serves, and we decided to pick it up on a whim early on in our collecting days, because it featured a number of tracks that we enjoyed.

This is going to be a short entry, but for those of you who are familiar with various bootlegs and compilations, you may have already heard some versions of these songs, but unless you own the physical record, I doubt that you have heard them sounding like this before. While there isn’t too much overt mystery swirling around this album, (you can still nab one on eBay if you’re lucky for anywhere between $30-$50) we were immediately struck by how clean these masters sounded. Even Rupert the Riley sounds catchy on this version, which is an accomplishment on its own.

In the process of trying to recreate the album for phone/car listening using whatever downloads were available, we were baffled when no amount of scouring the internet could turn up versions that were as good as the ones found on this vinyl.

For comparison, Here is a version of the album that we got off of Soulseek so you can listen to the mixes side by side.

In one of my posts last week, I mentioned The Trident Tapes as being something akin to a secret Ziggy album, and I still stand by that. The quality of his vocals, his energy, and the combination of classic rock and psychedelic elements just adds to the whole experience. Instead of a bootleg full of miscellaneous tracks that didn’t fit in elsewhere, The Trident Tapes feels like its own album with consistent mastering. You will have to listen for yourself to get what I mean.

The full Vinyl rip of the album is available for download on my Dropbox here. A MEGA download link is also here for those who have any difficulty with Dropbox.

Happy Listening!

-E