DAVID BOWIE - DAVID LIVE 1974.

David Live is David Bowie’s first official live album, originally released by RCA Records in 1974. Recorded on the initial leg of Bowie’s US tour supporting Diamond Dogs in July of that year (the second leg, a more soul-oriented affair following recording sessions for the bulk of Young Americans, would be renamed 'Philly Dogs'), it is generally held by critics, fans, and Bowie himself alike to be a commercial stopgap lacking in energy.

The album catches Bowie in transition from the Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane glam-rock era of his career to the 'plastic soul' of Young Americans. While the cover featured a picture Bowie in his latest soul threads - baggy trouser suit complete with shoulder pads and suspenders from November 1974 - the music was recorded in July of that year when he was showcasing his two most recent studio albums of original material, Diamond Dogs and Aladdin Sane, as well as selected favourites from Ziggy Stardust and earlier.

The tour was Bowie’s most ambitious to date, featuring a giant set designed to evoke "Hunger City", the post-apocalyptic setting for Diamond Dogs, and his largest band, led by Michael Kamen. For "Space Oddity" (recorded at the time but not released until the album’s 2005 reissue) Bowie sang using a radio microphone disguised as a telephone whilst being raised and lowered above the stage by a cherry picker crane. The tour was documented in Alan Yentob’s Cracked Actor (1975).

Although various issues of the album date the recordings, at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia (actually Upper Darby), from 11-12 July or 12-15 July, 1974, a more recent estimate suggests they took place over 8-12 July. Capturing the music on tape was itself problematic; most of the backing vocals, as well as the saxophone, needed to be overdubbed in the studio later (a fact noted on the original album sleeve as well as the reissue) due to the fact that the performers were often off-mike. Perhaps more saliently, the Tower Theater concerts gave rise to a backstage revolt by Bowie's touring band. Having been informed on short notice that the concerts would be professionally recorded for official release, and that Bowie's management intended to pay them only the standard union fee required for a live recording (a mere $70), the band confronted Bowie an hour before the first show and refused to take the stage unless they received a more reasonable $5,000 fee per member. Though Bowie acceded to their demands, several members of the band (including Mike Garson and Herbie Flowers) have since remarked that the tension of this confrontation was audible in the stilted performances found on the live album.

The finished album has been criticised for Bowie’s "obsessive" rearrangements of the songs and for the strained quality of his vocals. Opinion of the playing is also divided, despite the presence of such acclaimed guests as Michael Kamen, Earl Slick and David Sanborn, as well as Flowers, Mike Garson and Tony Newman from the Diamond Dogs sessions. However some of the interpretations earned praise, such as the upbeat jazz-Latin version of "Aladdin Sane" and the atmospheric instrumental additions to "The Width of a Circle" from The Man Who Sold the World. The record is also notable for including Bowie’s first release of "All the Young Dudes," a song originally given to the band Mott the Hoople for their 1972 album of the same name.

Bowie later commented that "David Live was the final death of Ziggy… And that photo on the cover. My God, it looks like I’ve just stepped out of the grave. That’s actually how I felt. That record should have been called 'David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only in Theory'" (a reference to Jacques Brel, some of whose songs Bowie had covered, and his revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris).

David Live made #2 on the UK charts (the tour had only visited North America) and #8 in the US. "Knock on Wood" was released as a single, reaching #10 in the UK. A reissue of the album in 2005 finally included a complete song list from the original concerts plus a new mix by Tony Visconti, said to be an improvement over the fidelity of previous releases.

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