Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 1984
2. Rebel Rebel
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Sweet Thing/Candidate
5. Changes
6. Suffragette City
7. Aladdin Sane
8. All The Young Dudes
9. Cracked Actor
10. Rock 'n' Roll With Me
11. Watch That Man

Disc 2:

1. Knock On Wood
2. Here Today Gone Tomorrow
3. Space Oddity
4. Diamond Dogs
5. Panic In Detroit
6. Big Brother
7. Time
8. Width Of A Circle
9. Jean Genie
10. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5415 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-14
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

CD Description
When David Bowie recorded what became DAVID LIVE at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre in July 1974, he had fully made the leap from Ziggy Stardust and landed feet-first into the shoes of the Thin White Duke. Despite announcing his retirement from live performance the year before, Bowie seemed no worse for wear fronting a ten-piece directed by future LETHAL WEAPON composer Michael Kamen and featuring new guitarist Earl Slick and horn player David Sanborn. This 2-CD set finds the chameleonic performer mixing in Ziggy-era classics such as "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" with material from DIAMOND DOGS ("Rebel Rebel", "1984"), ALADDIN SANE ("Cracked Actor") and HUNKY DORY ("Changes"). The fullness of the horn section and the style of his back-up band give this set a soulful tilt powered by Slick's ballsy playing. This, along with a cover of theStax nugget "Knock On Wood", pointed at Bowie's immersion in a Philly soul direction that emerged full-fledged on YOUNGAMERICANS.

Customer Reviews

David's 1st Official live album.
I bought the vinyl double set as a 15 year old on its release in 1974.

This is one of my all time favourite live albums. This is a marvellous re-issue, with the running order in the correct sequence that the concert was originally performed at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia.

A highly recommended purchase - it is beautifally packaged as well, in my opinion this is the better of his two official live releases, although Stage is recommended as well. A brilliant re-issue!

Class of '74
Live albums often mark the end of a phase of an artist's career. In David Bowie's case, it doesn't happen, simply because he's constantly on the move. This album was presumably made when he was touring 'Diamond Dogs', but it doesn't show particularly. The track selection represents an even cross-section of his music to that point. In addition, though Bowie's music could casually be filed under the term 'rock', his band on this recording seem to be tilted more in favour of soul. '1984', which opens the album, hustles along like The Temptations' 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'. Sax provides more colour than guitar. The riff that dominates his hit, 'Rebel Rebel', is here kept in the background.

'David Live' is strong on rhythm; he appears on the sleeve not as quiffed rocker, but as smart soul brother. The first disc runs through some of his better-known songs, but the live interpretations are not always as you heard them originally. 'All The Young Dudes' is slower, almost reverential; 'Suffragette City', a helter-skelter vision of punk rock in the studio, is actually more like a conventional boogie. 'Watch That Man' is, by contrast, more exciting. Indeed, all the songs from 'Aladdin Sane' are performed better here.

Disc 2 delves a bit deeper into the catalogue after what Bowie describes as the 'funnies'. If he's trying to suggest he's embarrassed to cover 'Knock On Wood' or revive 'Space Oddity', it doesn't show in his performnce. It's unlikely that he'd drag out something that he no longer had respect for. What 'David Live' proves is that Bowie is a master of performance: he has flamboyance, stagecraft and soul in spades. It is all class, though it isn't the greatest live album ever made. You sense that, though Bowie has his audience spellbound, there is a some distance between the parties. The adulation doesn't let up, but it is possessed partly by awe. Even so, this is a fine album.

Splitting the atom
Criticisms of the sound and playing on this album are totally misplaced. Apart from anything else, it beats me how anyone could ever think that "music" could result from overlaying countless overdubs, played in the absence of the other musicians and on equipment barely louder than a sparrow chirp. What really makes the difference, however, is Michael Kamen's arrangements, which lift the music onto another plane -- compare the far less interesting (and sonically much tamer) versions on the original albums and the Ziggy live album. This applies particularly to the songs from the Ziggy studio album and Aladdin Sane, the originals of which are quite limp: in Michael Kamen's hands the atom is split and we are witness to a glorious explosion of musical potential, showing Bowie's true greatness (as does his magnificent singing). The incomparable band, too, really allows this music to take flight. I first bought this album when I was 12 years old, and I can see that it had a lasting influence, exposing me at an early age to music's unlimited possibilities. I feel I owe this freeing of perspectives partly to David Bowie and Michael Kamen. This album was the gateway.