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

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!

Kind of a weird choice, given its strong association with another rock act. But I never listened to, so...

I never even knew that at the time, I just thought he'd covered an obscure Bertold Brecht tune, etc.

In a way, it makes more sense that Bowie covered it than the Doors.
that said, I have never really liked that song and haven't listened to the version on "stage" yet.

Totally forgot about the Doors version. It's kind of a not good song regardless of who's performing it. Sorry, Brecht.

Works much better in the show and/or when sung by Lotte Lenya.

Art decade could almost be a track from the pet sounds sessions !

It's the sleigh bells.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyFXSOh-HGI

I thought that said 'Schittenfahrt' at first.

*momentary derail* The Young Gods version of Alabama Song is great

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

Just watched the BBC doc as well – it's very good and makes a compelling case for something that Bowie isn't always regarded for: his musicianship. For instance, I thought the same thing about Bowie's singing in the Young Americans sessions scene but the musicians were clearly blown away by Bowie's vision for all the different vocal parts to "Right" like he was Brian Wilson or something. The contributions to that end from Fripp and Eno are excellent as well and largely unique to this documentary.

just came across this Stage-era promo radio interview - http://ia600405.us.archive.org/7/items/DavidBowieSuperstarRadioNetworkInterview/DavidBowieSuperstarRadioNetworkInterview.mp3?cnt=0

It's more than the sleighbells. All the instruments and arrangements are very wilson/pet sounds!

I finally listened to the Ziggy part. it's ok. "Soul Love" is quite fun although a bit silly.
Overall, a surprisingly good live album with a brilliant berlin era part (and one dud : "Alabama Song").
like many other tracks, "Beauty and the Beast" has a little something more than the studio version. more punch and fun.
It was never a favourite on the album but I really like that version.

“Anyone who’s playing ‘Beauty And The Beast’... You know they get erections.”
- R. Fripp