David Bowie - "China Girl"

This is a question that has puzzled me for many years, and I have finally found examples to make it easier for me to explain. There seems to be two different short (single?) versions of "China Girl." Both seem to be similiar except for the final guitar note.

Exhibit A:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qjTStVY6Hk

Listen to the end guitar note starting at around 3:53


Now... I present Exhibit B:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uZETFSmOxE

That same guitar note should be there at 3:53 but it's missing.

Over the years I've heard both of these versions, although the one I remember most from "back in the day" was "Exhibit A." Which one of these was the single version? I really want to find "Exhibit A" on CD, but all I ever seem to run into is "Exhibit B" or the full length album version.

That's an interesting observation. Those "additional" guitar notes are not anything unique; it's just a matter of where the edit was placed on the LP version. The Rykodisc version has the edit placed a few seconds later than the 45 version. So, unless there were two different 45 versions, the Rykodisc version would be an "improper attempt at re-creating the 45 version."

RichM921 wrote: But the "additional guitar notes" version (for lack of a better term right now) appeared on the original censored version of the video. So I wouldn't call it an improper edit if that version was around when the song was released. Perhaps it's a "video version"?

Are we sure about this? I've seen many instances where the video audio was extremely poor quality, so someone dubbed over it with a higher quality sound file. Someone could have easily replaced the audio track. Also, it seems odd that they would've used a different version of the song for the censored and uncensored vidoes, given that the two edits are practically the same.

I checked dozens of "China Girl" versions on You Tube and and they seem to have the different edit. I doubt that a user re-dubbed it, but perhaps this came from a Rykodisc VHS/DVD which subbed the track on their release?

You may be right, I won't rule out that this "different" edit didn't exist in 1983, even though I thought it did. The only Bowie album I ever owned was the "The Singles 1969-1993" collection, which did happen to be on Ryko. Maybe that album had that version and that's what I'm remembering?

RichM921 wrote: I checked dozens of "China Girl" versions on You Tube and and they seem to have the different edit. I doubt that a user re-dubbed it...

I just listened carefully to the "Exhibit A" version (the one with the improper Rykodisc edit), and that video has without a doubt been dubbed over with a different audio track. For one, David Bowie's lips don't even come close to matching the audio track. Also, there is virtually no "hiss" that would be found if it were taken from a video tape. By contrast, the "uncensored" video with the correct 45 version has lots of hiss reduction applied, and the audio is in sync with the video. I'd be willing to bet you that all of the dozens of YouTube copies with the "different" edit are all from the same bogus dubbed-over source.

Edited by aaronk