The first of Bowie’s live albums. Recorded at the Tower Theatre Philadelphia at shows on 14th and 15th July 1974 on the first leg of the Diamond Dogs tour. By the 2nd leg much of the band had changed, the tour had been renamed the Philly Dogs tour and Bowie was heading toward his next incarnation.

The Diamond Dogs tour stage set featured a city-scape complete with walkways, bridges and platforms from which Bowie would perform and a cherry picker which extended him out over the audiences heads for some songs. The band were meant to be hidden away behind the scenes, unseen, but at times they took great delight in popping into the limelight occasionally.

It has been said many times about “David Live” that, compared to other shows on the tour, the performance was lacklustre. This may, or may not, be explained by a story that tour bass player Herbie Flowers, a very experienced session man, was wandering across the stage at the Tower before soundcheck when he noticed extra microphones around the stage. He immediately went to Bowie/management to enquire if the show was being recorded and if so an extra fee for the musicians in the band would need to be negotiated. A bit of a stand off is said to have occurred before extra payment was agreed, but it had somewhat upset the musicians which may explain the less than spirited performance.

The cover gives us a sight of Bowie’s first great image change since Ziggy Stardust. The hair is still flame red but in a very different style. He’s clad in a powder blue suit with baggy trousers and a short, bolero jacket. He is also very pale and thin, almost skeletally thin, the result of a developing Cocaine habit and living on not much more than peppers and milk ! As Bowie himself later said of the sleeve “And that photo. On the cover. My God, it looks as if I’ve just stepped out of that grave. That’s actually how I felt. That record should have been called ‘David Bowie is alive and well and living only in theory”.

The set itself is made up of songs from all Bowie’s previous 5 albums plus a take on “All The Young Dudes” and a cover of Eddie Floyd’s Southern Soul classic “Knock On Wood”. But the sound is markedly different from previous tours, much more laid back, less of a rock show, funkier, already pointing toward the changes to come on the 2nd leg of the tour and what was beyond that. A 2005 re-issue restored some tracks from the show that had not made it on to the original release, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”, “Space Oddity”, “Panic In Detroit” (which had been previously issued as the B-side to the single “Knock On Wood”) and “Time”.

As a document of the tour it serves its purpose and as the Diamond/Philly Dogs tour never made it out of the US, for the rest of us this was the only way to hear where Bowie was at during ’74 and moving toward ’75. The music journalist Robert Christgau once described it as “quite possibly the best live rock album I’ve ever heard“, high praise but definitely over the top. It’s a nice document of a time and place.

All The Young Dudes - https://youtu.be/A01T8GzcGrs

“Beware the savage jaw, Of 1984”…

Bowie had in the past studied mime and performed a one man mime show based on China’s invasion of Tibet! We’ve already met his Anthony Newly/show tunes incarnation and his gigs were getting more and more theatrical. He’d also appeared in a short film, an ice cream advert and made a fleeting appearance (blink and you’ll miss him) in the movie “The Virgin Soldiers”. There was very obviously a theatrical itch that needed scratching. His big idea now was to produce a stage musical based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”. His big problem was that although he’d started writing it, and the songs for it, Orwell’s widow refused to grant him the rights to produce the show. So what had already been written morphed into “Diamond Dogs”.

“Awoooo” the societal breakdown foretold in “Five Years” appears to have happened in “Future Legend” which lists the horrors occurring in Hunger City (the substitute for Orwell’s London of Airstrip One ?) including rats the size of cats and corpses rotting in the street <shudder>. A cheering crowd (The Dudes ?) and the cry of “this ain’t rock ’n’ roll, this is genocide” leads us into the title track. Much in the vein of “Aladdin Sane” opener “Watch That Man”, a proper rocker.

The next three tracks, “Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)” are effectively one song. It’s a musical all by itself, a look into the rotting heart of Hunger City. Your only chance of a lover is a prostitute, the hustlers, pushers and pimps are now politicians, “The News” has come to pass. The lyric in “Candidate” that goes “My set is amazing, It even smells like a street” hints at the forthcoming tour. This trio of songs also happens to be one of Bowie’s greatest vocal performances as it moves from a deep bass to a soaring tenor, it’s quite breathtaking in places. 

Side 1 closes out with a song that’s very close to my heart. That “Rebel Rebel” features one of the greatest guitar riffs ever put to tape helps. Glam Rock was dying at the end of 1974 and so Bowie gives us one of Glams greatest moments, the big kiss off. I’ve always thought of this as being my wife’s song. She is my Rebel Rebel girl and yes, “hot tramp”, I do love you so x

Side 2 is made up of songs that were clearly written with a view to being part of the “1984” musical; “Rock ’n’ Roll with Me” must have been earmarked for a scene between Winston and Julia and it is, in isolation, a gorgeous ballad; “We Are The Dead” is a direct quote from Orwell’s novel (“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing.”); “1984” and “Big Brother” are pretty self explanatory within the story and “1984” is this albums pointer song, a very funky arrangement pointing the way toward more “plastic soul” to come. It all ends with “The Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family”.

“Diamond Dogs” is a masterpiece (another album I have multiple copies of, just two). On certain days it is my favourite of David Bowie’s albums (on other days it’s others). It’s also a metaphorical full stop on the Ziggy years. He was about to set out on the theatrical and hugely ambitious Diamond Dogs tour and there were big ch-ch-ch-changes afoot…

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) - https://youtu.be/vrfc8c6VkTA

I’m gonna level with ya…I don’t like “PinUps”, I never have and likely never will. When I said at the end of the last entry “Bowie was about to make some of the greatest music of his career” this isn’t it.

“Aladdin Sane” had been released to critical acclaim, Bowie was a huge star. The “Ziggy Stardust” tour was over and the last stand had been made at the Hammersmith Odeon on 3rd July 1973. Bowie’s statement from the stage that night

"Of all the shows on this tour this show will stay the longest in our memories, not just because it is the end of the tour but because it is the last show we'll ever do." (or something very close to that)

must have come as a shock to the band as he hadn’t told anyone ! Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder were VERY pissed off at what had and how it had happened.

“PinUps” was recorded at the Château d’Hérouville, an 18th century château come recording studio near Paris. Mick Ronson and Mike Garson were invited to take part. After Cream’s bass player Jack Bruce turned Bowie down and following some peacemaking from Ronson, Trevor Bolder came along too. Session man Aynsley Dunbar played drums, Woody Woodmansey was not invited.

The album is a selection of cover versions of songs from the Mod heydays in mid 60’s London (and I’ve already opined that I don’t think Bowie was very good at picking songs to cover) featuring songs from The Pretty Things, The Kinks, The Easybeats, Pink Floyd and other such luminaries. To me it has only 2 redeeming features. The first is the cover of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain”, taken at a slower pace than the original and featuring Bowie’s asthmatic sax. The second didn’t emerge until 17 years later when an expanded re-issue included the previously unreleased version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Growing Up” (which I believe was recorded during the Diamond Dogs sessions (?) so has no place here anyway).

“PinUps” is Bowie treading water. I find it utterly forgettable.

(Interesting side note, this and his next album are credited not to David Bowie but just Bowie.)

Growing Up - https://youtu.be/xwPKvT-1APg