David Bowie - David Live! Review
Posted by John Malady on 05.21.2005
Plastic Soul is coming for you…again!
Bowie! Do I need to say anything more than that one word to spark a million thoughts from a million different people of every walk of life? I personally don’t think so. David Bowie has been a force in music and pop culture for 3.5 decades and has had more image changes than Joan Rivers has had plastic surgery’s to keep her looking like a piece of plastic.
Most of Bowie’s changes in his heyday of 72-84 were extremely successful and backed by a sharp and decisive wit. In fact, almost all of his experiments from the 70’s actually spawned whole music genres unto themselves (punk, new wave, electronica, and goth rock just to name a few). David Live! and another of his live albums from the 70’s, Stages, have been re-mastered and re-released for a new generation of Bowie fans to hear what they may have missed and give die hard fans a reason to go back and reconfirm why Bowie does IT for them. I happen to be a big fan of both of these albums as well as of Bowie himself but I have chosen David Live! to review this time around.
During Bowie’s Diamond Dogs tour in 1974 David was shedding away the Ziggy Stardust persona left in his look and taking on a new persona as well as a new sound to go with it. The White Duke was his new character and his version of Philly Soul music he dubbed “plastic soul” became the new musical direction he was venturing into. In the modern world of today it is no hidden fact that during this period Bowie was doing insane amounts of cocaine. The White Duke and “plastic soul” seem to confirm this in the images and feelings they produce as words. David Live! was recorded over 4 nights, July 12th-15th , in 1974 at The Tower Theatre in Philadelphia and has never been a critics favorite among his extensive catalogue. I personally do not know why because I have always dug this album.
From the start David Live! either gets you off or turns you off. It is just so radically different than the power riff cock rock bravado of Ziggy and the Spiders from Mars that you have had to either fully accept Ziggy’s death 2 years earlier or be doomed to hold onto the past forever. Guitar whiz, Earl Slick, adds a cleaner style of muscular 6-string attack to Bowie’s band on this album but still gives the leads enough emotional depth that they do not lose their power. Stepping into the GIANT shoes of guitar hero Mick Ronson is not an easy feat but Earl pulls it off with class making some of his solos on the Bowie classics feel like honorary tributes to the mighty Ronson. Bowie’s voice on this set is not as strong as he has proven it can be but it bleeds with such charisma and style that you can hear him changing his direction as an artist vocally while he is performing and that is what makes this album special in my opinion. It takes balls bigger than the Earth as well as an honest approach to your personal art to be able to experiment and change styles in front of a paying audience. Sadly that whole statement is so modern I cried when I wrote it. The value of an artist showing you a need to grow beyond previous work and letting you see and hear it rather than hide it until a new album comes out is priceless. Bowie is asking you to come along for a ride and just like all rides and journeys they are not always smooth. I applaud Bowie for this and I feel that is what so many people have over looked in the past when talking about this album. David Live! getting a new release and with the original order of the set intact is a good thing for a younger generation getting into Bowie but may not be the best place to start unless you are already aware of and have heard his previous material due to it being a transformation in progress type of performance.
Come back for more of my upcoming reviews and projects anytime you feel a fire burning in your loins to read about the rock and the roll. Can you feel it? The American Malady is strong in you and I am proud like a new father.
The 411: For the die hard Bowie fans this is a must own in my opinion because in its purest form it represents what Bowie was all about: Drugs, charisma, talent, music, rock n’roll excess, and Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
