{"id":38811,"date":"1998-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1998-03-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/david-live\/"},"modified":"1998-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1998-03-06T00:00:00","slug":"david-live","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/david-live\/","title":{"rendered":"David Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 1974, David Bowie was having a banner year. His album
\nDiamond Dogs<\/i> had become his highest charting album in
\nAmerica, peaking at number five. (Trivia question: Which two Bowie
\nalbums charted higher, and what was their peak position?
\nE-mail<\/a> me with your
\nanswer.) He had successfully retired his “Ziggy Stardust” persona
\nthe previous year, and was in the process of becoming the Thin
\nWhite Duke.<\/p>\n

That in-between time of metamorphosis was captured on Bowie’s
\nfirst live album,
\nDavid Live<\/i> – which seems to have been recorded not long
\nafter Bowie scrapped a lavish production of a tour in place of a
\nstarker, harsher stage presence. If only this album had been
\nbetter, it would have been a great portrait of the artist in flux –
\nhere, it pictures an artist in trouble.<\/p>\n

Recorded in Philadelphia, Bowie was still musically in
\nDiamond Dogs<\/i> mode – more often than not, he chose to perform
\nmusic that was more introspective and less pop-oriented. While he
\nstill tipped his hat to some of the hits that had helped shape his
\ncareer, sometimes his song selection seems to be questionable. (I
\nreviewed an old copy of the album; I’m aware that when Rykodisc
\nre-released this album a few years ago, two bonus tracks were
\nadded.)<\/p>\n

Admittedly, Bowie does pull some surprises out of his hat on
\nDavid Live<\/i>. He is able to inject a whole new attitude into
\n“Suffragette City” and “All The Young Dudes,” songs which I
\nnormally am barely able to stand on the radio. The same can’t be
\nsaid for “Changes,” a song which gains no new ground with this live
\nversion – then again, it doesn’t make the song any worse.<\/p>\n

Early on, Bowie seems to eschew the more uptempo songs with more
\nmeat on the bone musically. And if this album is an accurate
\nportrait of how these concerts actually went down almost 24 years
\nago, one wondered why Bowie would structure songs that would almost
\ndrive his audience to the point of suicide. Sure, “Rebel Rebel”
\nfollowing “1984” is a step in the right direction, but Bowie sounds
\nlike he wants to get through this number as quickly as possible –
\nit’s definitely missing something. “Sweet Thing” is a definite
\nsnorer – no joke, as I fell asleep in the aisles of the Pierce
\nArchive in the middle of this song on one of my listens to the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n

But Bowie shows just how good he can be on the third side of
\nDavid Live<\/i>. Starting with “When You Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me,”
\nBowie kicks it into overdrive, and actually sounds interested in
\nthe music he’s singing. His selection of Eddie Floyd’s “Knock On
\nWood” is a fun, interesting choice, and the includion of “Diamond
\nDogs” makes me more interested in checking out this album.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Bowie either chooses not to keep the intensity
\nlevel high or he wasn’t able to maintain it himself. Whatever the
\ncase,
\nDavid Live<\/i> finishes on down notes. “Big Brother” (off
\nDiamond Dogs<\/i>) is not a great follow-up selection, while both
\n“Jean Genie” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” pale in comparison to
\ntheir studio versions.<\/p>\n

So what went wrong with this album? First, keep in mind that the
\nlive album is the most difficult thing for any artist to create (I
\ndon’t think anyone ever
\nmasters<\/i> live albums). So, when taken in perspective, Bowie
\nis in good company. But I think it’s more than just the difficulty
\nof creating the live album that is at fault here. Though he was
\nfinally enjoying success in America, Bowie was going through a
\nperiod of career turmoil that would reuslt in the Thin White Duke
\npersona coming forward. Perhaps the ideal time to record a live
\nalbum was not at this time, especially when introducing a different
\nlive show than you originally started with.<\/p>\n

\nDavid Live<\/i> was another American success for Bowie, but as
\ntime has passed, the cracks in the musical wall have become that
\nmuch more evident. This album will probably still please Bowie fans
\nin some fashion, but I don’t think it’s a must-have album for even
\nthe diehard Bowie fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5671],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-38811","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38811"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}