In 1970 David Bowie released "Memory of a Free Festival," the song was a seven-minute opus for Bowie's second album in 1969, but was reworked in 1970 to be a single at the behest of Mercury Records, who said that Bowie needed a new single. Bowie and Tony Visconti split the track in half, so that both halves were individual songs. The song is best known however as being worked on by future Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson and T-Rex singer Marc Bolan.
The song was written as an homage to the Free Festival, held at Croydon Road Recreation Ground in 1969, and was released in the US in June 1970. Commercially unsuccessful, as it only sold a few hundred copies, the song is nostalgically appreciated by Glam- Rock faithful that collect all things from the godfathers of the genre.
The song is a great look at Bowie and the musicians that would make up the band that recorded his masterpiece "The Man Who Sold The World" and is unicorn find for collectors who can come across an original copy.