Trying To Get To You

Friday, August 03, 2007

Bootleg Friday: David Bowie, 1974


Today’s episode of Bootleg Friday is a very great and interesting David Bowie show from the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles from September 5, 1974. It’s from the Diamond Dogs tour and what you hear is a Bowie in transition from the glam of the Ziggy Stardust era to the soul and funk explorations of that would result in the release of Young Americans the following year. (And you can hear his fascination with soul in the cover of Eddie Floyd’s “Knock On Wood,” which isn’t anything particularly good, but I’m including it for historical purposes.) His band for this tour is a pretty amazing one, consisting of studio vets like Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, Michael Kamen, David Sanborn as well as Luther Vandross on backing vocals. Toni Basil (of “Mickey” fame) handled the elaborate stage show and choreography.

I’m a Bowie fan, but I’ve never worshipped at his altar. There are albums of his that I love (Ziggy, Station To Station, about half of Hunky Dory), but to me, he’s always been a fascinating fraud – an artist who has neither a ton of emotional depth or soul, yet one who’s done an incredible job of taking on different styles and personas to create something utterly modern and glossy in the most appealing (and sexy) of ways, which I believe is why his appeal endures so strongly. But he did write "All The Young Dudes," and for that alone, he's a legend in my book.

Download: “1984” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Rebel Rebel” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Moonage Daydream” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Suffragette City” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “All The Young Dudes” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Rock N’ Roll With Me” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Knock On Wood” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “The Jean Genie” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA
Download: “Rock N’ Roll Suicide” 9/5/74, Los Angeles, CA

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, I would like to listen to this but only get an "access denied" message with these links.

Ben Lazar said...

Thanks for the tip, Eli.

All taken care of.

The Fabulous Galdstoner said...

I would check the code for the link to Suffragette City. I got it to work but only by copying and pasting the link and then altering it.

Ben Lazar said...

Thanks for letting me know - Suffragette City has been fixed as well.

Gonzo said...

Hi There,
Tried to download the Bowie tracks but got an error message, file not found.
Would like to hear these tracks
Cheers
Gonzo

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, none of the links work fro any of the Bowie tracks.

Anonymous said...

Hi, all those links do not work anymore....can you reactive them ?
MArch 20, 2010.

Thank you, Raymond from Montreal.

HippieGirl said...

There's one song he did in the 80s, called Dancing in the Street with Mick Jagger, the video for that is kinda funny, because David seems like he's just having fun doing the video and Mick looks like a hyperactive kid on caffeine the way he was dancing, lol