The first part is him at the party and the second is the early morning after reflection . It's always been this - described so from interviews way back .

Although nobody has said so, I take it that the shared view is that this is an integral part of the song and not just an intro. In that case I wonder why Bryan didn't treat it as such in his re-working. Perhaps he just hadn't got round to cutting this section of the song before the project was abandoned.

I think the first part of the original didn't suit the groove in the later version of the song.

There is live version from the '79 tour on a CD bootleg called 'A Song For Europe' that has a groove similar to the 'Horoscope' version (in a 1979 sort of way) and maybe Ferry felt that the 'groove' orientated era of his writing/recording was the right time to re-make and re-model Mother Of Pearl.

The later version was originaly intended for the film Basict Instinct. I am not sure if it was recorded specifically for this movie and that may have determined the approach to this re-recording.

http://www.vivaroxymusic.com/songs_326.php

J.O'B.

Thanks for clearing that one up John

I really must refer to the other sections of VRM more often before firing out my posts because the answers are often lying there

I try not to compare different versions and listen to each recording on its own merits.And I like this version. It has a nice groove. The official released version can be heard here. Correct speed and nice clear percussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3dtrMi8b54