CD CORNER : ‘Sound + Vision’ = Bowie Retrospective Set

“We’re going to do what we can with the material that we now do,” an anxious British singer says on a home demo tape that he made in 1969 to showcase his new songs for record executives.

“Some of it has been considered ‘single’ material, but we’ll leave that up to you to sort out. . . . Anyway, the first one is called ‘Space Oddity.’ ”

The artist was David Bowie and the song--the melancholy tale of an astronaut marooned in space--went on to launch one of the most provocative and influential careers of the modern pop-rock era.

The fact that Bowie’s spectacular new “Sound + Vision” retrospective box set begins with this home tape rather than the polished studio version of “Space Oddity” underscores the boldness and ambition of this Rykodisc package.

The set, which is due in stores Monday, is the first installment in Rykodisc’s campaign to introduce in CD all 18 of Bowie’s RCA albums--the most anticipated CD campaign since Capitol began its Beatles CD series in 1987.

RCA released CDs of most of Bowie’s albums in 1984, but the label dropped them from its catalogue the following year when the CD rights reverted to Bowie and his former management company. The new Rykodisc albums--expected to be released at the rate of one or two a month starting early next year--have been remastered for CD and will feature previously unreleased material in most cases.

“Sound + Vision” is both a teasing introduction to what is ahead and a carefully designed summary of an artist who is a cinch to be named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible for induction in 1991.

The package contains three 60-minute discs plus a bonus disc containing three previously unreleased live numbers from Bowie’s 1972 “Ziggy Stardust” tour and his 1980 video of “Ashes to Ashes.” The latter can be seen, of course, only on machines that have CDV or laser capability. The “Ashes to Ashes” audio alone can be heard on any CD player.

A spokeswoman for Rykodisc said the company expects to ship about 100,000 copies of “Sound + Vision” in the CD format (suggested retail price: $59.98), about 40,000 in cassette form ($44.98) and 15,000 in vinyl ($69.98). The bonus disc will only be in the CD packages. The vinyl set costs more than the CD--a rarity indeed--because of the cost of manufacturing six high-grade vinyl records.

Kurt Loder, a former Rolling Stone writer and now MTV’s news anchorman, may be overstating it when he suggests in a 72-page booklet that comes with the Rykodisc set that without Bowie, the ‘70s “might have been a fairly pathetic decade.”

Still, Bowie brought an urgency and ambition to rock in the early ‘70s that established him as the first great rock star of the decade. He re-asserted the importance of ideas and personality in rock at a time when performers were becoming increasingly anonymous.

Most of the more than four dozen selections on the CDs have appeared on record, but there is some unreleased material. The latter includes a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” recorded during the 1975 “Station to Station” sessions.

As these selections show, Bowie was--and continues to be--a frustratingly inconsistent record maker, yet “Sound + Vision” captures marvelously the constant tension of someone struggling to explore his own emotions and distinguish himself as an artist.