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

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

Yeah, the studio"Beauty and the Beast" may we'll have been the track that started it all for me. The introduction of Fripp's Sky Saw guitar is just so unbelievably alien, followed by the pounding piano and rhythm section building to a crescendo before the verse comes crashing in is an all-time moment for me.

In other words, what Fripp said.

"Are you listening to "Beauty and the Beast" or are you just glad to see me?"

"Oh! Oh!"

having had the ryko cd for so long, all those 'rock' tracks on heroes have always sounded kind of messy and tinny and weird to me.

This was my 1st Bowie album.

xp really think the 2000s reissue/remix/rework is an improvement over all earlier versions

Is this album called STAGE because of the Elvis album ON STAGE?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/On_Stage_February,_1970.jpg/220px-On_Stage_February,_1970.jpg

that's half a heroes pose!

eheh. indeed not far from the heroes cover !

and on Bowie RIP thread was suggested a rumour that Elvis had reached out (?) for Bowie to produce an album for him

there's this part during an interview with Conan where he was talking about Elvis (starting at 1:10) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4d8QrRJvsE

musically, I could imagine something circa young Americans/Station to Station.

lots of fun clips in that one

(xpost) I imagine more like Bowie's version of "God Only Knows," i.e. not good.

and on Bowie RIP thread was suggested a rumour that Elvis had reached out (?) for Bowie to produce an album for him

― niels, Friday, January 22, 2016 5:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I imagine this sounding like Scott Walker's Nite Flights tracks. Elvis was still in peak voice in '77, and likely eager to get off the treadmill -- sobriety in Berlin with Bowie would've done him a world of good. But the Colonel wouldn't have entertained such an idea for more than half a second.

come on, "golden years" IS an Elvis track !

hey yeah that actually makes sense

ahah, this is so lame !

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

Not clicking, think I already listened to something like that.

Love this video of Bowie skulking about the Hansa studio playing/recording "Sense of Doubt":

http://youtu.be/IocSP9Mp-Dk

Think it's safe to suggest that had Bowie released The Gouster instead of YA it would have been more of a novelty/cult classic than YA... it's... kinda boring?