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In 1974, David Bowie, having closed the Ziggy era and dismissed the Spiders from Mars, released Diamond Dogs, an album initially conceived to be the musical adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984. Due to the lack of permission from Orwell's heirs, the actual album produced alternates the last glam sparks with soul ballads and disco temptations, all seasoned with the post-apocalyptic lyrics conceived for the aborted musical.
The stage adaptation of the whole thing is a show where the scenic part is not secondary to the musical one: dancers, choreographies, circus-like numbers, sets that change throughout the evening, a desire to amaze at all costs with a performance where individual songs serve the narrative context and are not just a simple parade of hits.
It's logical, then, that "David Live," recorded in Philadelphia in July 1974, suffers from the lack of the visual component and should be considered an incomplete testimony of one of the first examples of a multimedia show, a pop art form that would become common at least a decade later.
However, the album, Bowie's first official live recording, is fascinating precisely because it represents a peculiar episode in his discography: not a greatest hits, as mentioned, but a funky reworking of the repertoire's songs that lend themselves best to the treatment, with a sound distinctly different from the unadorned rock of Diamond Dogs that characterizes itself as a preview of the plastic soul of Young Americans.
The new band is composed of formidable soloists, led by Michael Kamen, who would become famous for the arrangements on The Wall by Pink Floyd and the soundtracks of successful films in the '80s and '90s. The only survivor of the Spiders from Mars is pianist Mike Garson, who here is free to embellish the tracks with Latin or free-jazz echoes. However, the trump card is the brass section (the saxophones of Richard Grando and David Sanborn and Kamen's oboe) which embellish (or weigh down, depending on the school of thought) some tracks.
Even the most seasoned tracks are obsessively reworked with the new mood: the experiment works best with a de-glammed and languid soul ballad version of All the Young Dudes, with a Latin-jazz version of Aladdin Sane, with the intense Panic in Detroit; it fails (at least in my opinion) with the crooner parody of Jean Genie and the ridiculous embellishments on Width of a Circle.
In short, a document of the brief American infatuation of the future white duke, and a testament to his ability to cannibalize musical genres and make them his own with a unique aesthetic and musical sensitivity.
P.S. Printed several times over the years, it was enriched and improved (both in sound and graphic design) in the 2005 version, for which Tony Visconti recounts having partially removed the added vocal and instrumental overdubs to provide a more faithful picture of the performance.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 1984 (03:23)
Someday they won't let you, so now you must agree
The times they are a-telling, and the changing isn't free
You've read it in the tea leaves, and the tracks are on TV
Beware the savage lure
Of 1984
They'll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air
And tell that you're eighty, but brother, you won't care
You'll be shooting up on anything, tomorrow's never there
Beware the savage lure
Of 1984
Come see, come see, remember me?
We played out an all night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled
In 1984 (who could ask for more)
1984 (who could ask for mor-or-or-or-ore)
(Mor-or-or-or-ore)
I'm looking for a vehicle, I'm looking for a ride
I'm looking for a party, I'm looking for a side
I'm looking for the treason that I knew in '65
Beware the savage lure
Of 1984
Come see, come see, remember me?
We played out an all night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled
In 1984 (who could ask for more)
1984 (who could ask for mor-or-or-or-ore)
(Mor-or-or-or-ore)
1984
1984
1984 (more)
1984
1984 (more)
1984
02 Rebel Rebel (02:42)
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo (x3)
You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on
Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!
Don't ya?
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo
You've got your mother in a whirl 'cause she's
Not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's stay out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on
Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!
Don't ya?
Oh?
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo (x2)
Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!
You've torn your dress, your face is a mess
You can't get enough, but enough ain't the test
You've got your transmission and your live wire
You got your cue line and a handful of ludes
You wanna be there when they count up the dues
And I love your dress
You're a juvenile success
Because your face is a mess
So how could they know?
I said, how could they know?
So what you wanna know
Calamity's child, chi-chile, chi-chile
Where'd you wanna go?
What can I do for you? Looks like you've been there too
'Cause you've torn your dress
And your face is a mess
Ooo, your face is a mess
Ooo, ooo, so how could they know?
Eh, eh, how could they know?
Eh, eh
03 Moonage Daydream (05:08)
I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa comin' for you
I'm the space invader, I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut, you're squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I'm bustin' up my brains for the words
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Don't fake it baby, lay the real thing on me
The church of man, love
Is such a holy place to be
Make me baby, make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah! (repeat 3x)
Freak out, far out, in out
05 Changes (03:35)
I still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can't trace time
Strange fascination, fascinate me
Changes are taking the pace I'm going through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time
06 Suffragette City (03:45)
Hey man, oh leave me alone you know
Hey man, oh Henry, get off the phone, I gotta
Hey man, I gotta straighten my face
This mellow thighed chick just put my spine outta place
Hey man, my schoolday's insane
Hey man, my work's down the drain
Hey man, well she's a total blam-blam
She said she had to squeeze it but she... then she...
(CHORUS)
Oh don't lean on me man
Cause you can't afford the ticket
I'm back on Suffragette City
Oh don't lean on me man
Cause you ain't got time to check it
You know my Suffragette City
Is outta sight...she's all right
Hey man, oh Henry, don't be unkind, go away
Hey man, I can't take you this time, no way
Hey man, droogie don't crash here
There's only room for one and here she comes, here she comes
CHORUS
Oh hit me!
CHORUS x2
A Suffragette City, a Suffragette City
I'm back on Suffragette City, I'm back on Suffragette City
Ooo, Suffragete city, ooo, Suffragette City
Oooh-how, Sufragette City, oooh-how, Sufragette-
Ohhh, Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma'am!
A Suffragette City, a Suffragette City
Quite all right
A Suffragette City
Too fine
A Suffragette City, ooh, a Sufragette City
Oh, my Sufragette City, oh my Suffragette City
Oh, Suffragette
Suffragette!
07 Aladdin Sane (04:59)
Watching him dash away
Swinging an old bouquet
Dead roses
Sake and strange divine
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
You'll make it
Passionate bright young things
Takes him away to war
Don't fake it
Sadden glissando strings
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
You'll make it
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Battle cries and champagne just in time for sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Motor sensational
Paris or maybe hell
I'm waiting
Clutches of sad remains
Waits for Aladdin Sane
You'll make it
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
Love Aladdin Sane
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
09 Cracked Actor (03:25)
I've come on a few years from my Hollywood Highs
The best of the last, the cleanest star they ever had
I'm stiff on my legend, the films that I made
Forget that I'm fifty cause you just got paid
Crack, baby, crack, show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack, is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck, give me your head
Before you start professing that you're knocking me dead
You caught yourself a trick down on Sunset and Vine
But since he pinned you baby you're a porcupine
You sold me illusions for a sack full of cheques
You've made a bad connection 'cause I just want your sex
Crack, baby, crack, show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack, is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck, give me your head
Before you start professing that you're knocking me dead
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