David Bowie's roundly maligned, nazi cocainey live album, STAGE: Classic or Dud?

my favorite part is how the beat for what in the world is slowed down and made way funkier

I never heard this but it seems classic and I plan to listen to it soon.

ummmmmmmmmmmm, 'roundly maligned'? i really had no idea

It didn't exactly get great reviews at the time of its release

I had small but fatal problems with Hugo Wilckin's book. "Truth according to 95% of all respondents" is routinely conflated with "as Angela Bowie told it", and it comes across as a mishmash of fact and fiction. To me, any way. I'm not calling Angela a liar, in fact, her autobiography is probably the best read on Bowie to date, but it is way OTT.

Anyway Stage rules. If there's a roundly maligned live album in David's catalogue that deserves re-appraisal it's the Ziggy Stardust OST

I used to have 'Stage' as a double LP and never listened to the Ziggy cuts. Always sounds like Bowie was in a hurry to get them over. I vacillate between 'David Live' and 'Santa Monica 72' as my fave Dave live album. OTM about ZS:TMP being under-rated, it's solid, put together as it is from the three (?) Hammersmith Odeon shows. The Brel and VU covers especially are great. Angela's autobio is a good read as well, especially since most Bowie related books are dry facts, at least until Keeping Ahead of The Dame's book gets published.

The Ziggy tracks on Stage are kind of a drag. The original double album has it all Ziggy tracks on side 1, then Young Americans/Station to Station stuff on side 2. I guess the record company just wanted to put out something that had the populist Bowie rather than the weird stuff he was coming up with at the time. It wasn't till side 3 and 4 that you got the recent songs. The songs also faded out between tracks (no linking crowd noises), which is weird for a live album. I'm not surprised that reviewers at the time didn't give it so much attention.

The 2005 reissue totally rearranges the tracklisting, putting Low/Heroes stuff at the front (and adding extra songs e.g. Be My Wife). Crowd atmosphere links the tracks. It's a completely different experience, and CD 1 in particular, which I mentioned above, is insanely good.

The revised running order threw me when I was listening for the Bowie poll -- I had the original vinyl practically memorized back in high school.

I'd never heard it until the CD reissue (and even that listen was inspired by this thread). I like it as much as anything else from this era of Bowie.

only heard the santa monica'72 bootleg (the officially released version) a few weeks ago despite having it in the archive since its release.

damn .. thats a good'un.

never been too overly fussed with stage/live, but i will try them again.

but for the real 'WTF is this' audio experience - has anyone actually listened to the audio cds (i.e. both of them!) that come with the release of the Spider tour DVD ..

truly dreadful.

I haven't ever seen any footage or heard any recordings of the Serious Moonlight tour.

?

I loved the Gail Ann + Reeves line-up of the 90s, though, and feel honestly that I might not have seen Bowie at his youngest but I've seen him at his best

plenty of footage on YouTube, goon. A good tour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O59CD81UAzw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O59CD81UAzw

His 50th birthday gig is a decent listen, lot's of special guests.

Yep. Highlights: Reed-Bowie doing "Queen Bich," Bowie, Gabrels, and Dave Grohl slashing away at "Seven Years in Tibet.

I loved the Gail Ann + Reeves line-up of the 90s, though, and feel honestly that I might not have seen Bowie at his youngest but I've seen him at his best

― flamboyant goon mayor denuded (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, May 28, 2013 3:33 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've only seen him once, on the earthling tour. + mike garson! that album was p bad, but they did sound really good.

I dig Stage, and it's my go to when I feel like listening to the Berlin era tracks. Was his best live record until the Nassau show was released on the Station To Station reissue. That record is amazing.

Man, I saw the Meltdown Festival gig in London, all of Low then Heathen, it was ace and to cap it all I was in the seat right across the aisle next to Eno.

Man this Serious Moonlight Station to Station vid is great, shows what kind of a jerk I am for preferring healthy+banal Bowie to drugged-out+exciting Bowie, thanks Alfred.

Fuccck this is my favourite song ever

Earthling is kinda bad but I think "Dead Man Walking" is good enough to make the whole treacherous experience worth it

and wouldn't you know it: the Bowie blog's there now http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/category/earthling-1997/

earthling is not bad.

tis of its time.

love the album on headphones ..

let me take this sad occasion to revive my very favorite ILM bowie thread!

i pulled this out today, the revamp. it's very very very good.

was jamming this over the weekend - kind of amazing that (visconti claims in the liners) it is overdub free. ridiculously tight band. and perfectly recorded too.

I really need the full version of this, I just have the OG 2LP

The reissued version is on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3WmFXvoEvGcV793mtaTeUc

Oh, this was plonked into the "Zeit" box set, yeah?

Along with "Heroes", "Low" and "Lodger"

Thought it was OK..

you would

"What in the World" on here blows the studio version out of the water. Those Belew licks!

the video is awesome too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpg_7t7rpWE

love this little bit here:

http://i.imgur.com/5VdkxxS.gif

That looks like Robert Mitchum

This is great, despite the entire band's appaling, dgaf dress sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClDO1_dH0DU

and my appalling spelling

Man, Dennis Davis doesn't get enough credit. He navigated Bowie's twists and turns as deftly as any of his collaborators. Like Alomar, Davis embraced whatever Bowie threw at him.

Was thinking the same thing yesterday about George Murray.

Yeah, totally. I've read interviews/remembrances this week from Alomar, Eno, Visconti, Rodgers, Belew, Garson...but nothing from the rhythm section of Bowie's (arguably) peak years. I'd love to hear Davis' and Murray's recollections of working on those records.

(and holy crap, just realized that's Davis on "Master Blaster (Jammin')." 1980 was a pretty good year for Davie)

Totally forgot Roger Powell was in this band.

That's the violinist? From Hawkwind? The one who looks like Dylan and Scarlett Rivera had a child and he traveled back in time?

Came across this video yesterday and was wondering who he was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Ch2LUzYfg

That's the violinist? From Hawkwind? The one who looks like Dylan and Scarlett Rivera had a child and he traveled back in time?

...who played with Utopia and on various other Rundgren-related things.

I haven't listened to this in years. A reissue with improved sequencing and no fadeouts sounds great... ten years after the fact, oh well.

the first disc of this is just stunning, one of the best live albums ever i think

yeah, listening this weekend it really struck me as an ambitious thing to do -- to try to bring those weird art rock records to the stadium setting.

I've never particularly liked live albums and the "david live" one was pretty bad but following this thread I have listened to this one and damn the first part (the low/heroes era) is fantastic.
almost all the tracks are better than the studio versions for me (except "heroes" which is good live but the studio version is perfect, so...).
actually, this first part might be my favourite berlin-era album !
the "Station to Station" tracks are good but not as good as the album. Including "Station to Station" itself which is good live but darker and heavier on the album.
I haven't listened to the Ziggy part yet.

anyway, thanks for making me discover this !

The BBC Five Years doc has a lot of great contributions from Alomar and Davis.

yes, it's great : I have just watched it yesterday !
many things I had never seen and indeed Alomar and Davis are very cool in it (that said the parts from the "Stage" tour are great but I prefer NOT seeing how badly dressed they all were !).
I also really liked the footage of DB with Luther Vandross and band circa YA. There's a moment when DB sings with them (very badly) and I can't help imagining they must have been thinking "who the hell is this guy who's supposed to be a star but who can't sing !?".

Just hearing this for the first time. Quite good, although some of the performances are a little too close to the album versions to stand out.

The live version of 'Art Decade' sounds like it was cut from High Llamas' Hawaii!

Kind of a bummer that he chose to include 'Alabama Song', which might be his only bad song from the '70s.

Is not bad!