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

pretty good IIRC. I'm suprised this is considered a dud. Maybe one of those you-like-the-versions-you-hear-first moments but I was kinda dissapointed when I finally got to hear the studio version of 'Station To Station' (and 'TVC15' too btw.)

YES!

More of this.... http://www.miromi.org/img/draw/journal_drawings/2001/07/bowie-eberlin.jpg .... less of this.... http://davidbowielp.chez.tiscali.fr/video/15.jpg

Stage [RCA Victor, 1978]
If James Brown is the only rock and roller who deserves more than one concert album, then the Bowie to ban is David Live. Stage kicks off with some well-chosen Bowie oldies before moving into refreshingly one-dimensional versions of his best songs since 1975, including the key Eno collaborations, which were often oversubtle to begin with. For fans only, of course. I'm one. B+

Anyway, as noted above, the version of "Station to Station" is just MONSTROUS -- hands down one of Bowie's best numbers ever. It, "Warszawa" and the spectacular version of "Breaking Glass" were the three tracks from Stage that appeared on the original teaser Sound and Vision box from 1989 which heralded the reissues -- my eighteen year old self was blown away and eagerly looked forward to the full reissue, only to be a little disappointed with the rest of it. Still, it's been a while, might have to give a go again.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000635M.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

and i seriously doubt that stage is worse than david live.

Alex, I seriously think you got your David "Coke" Bowie live records mixed up. David Live suffers from mediocrity and coked up urgency that undermines the performances.. whereas Stage soars.. in my opinion. Also, did Bowie clean up right around Station To Station/Young Americans anyway?

first, stevie ray vaughan; and then, charlie sexton. 80s bowie sure had a weird thing w/ rootsy texas guitarists, no?

The thing that really bugs me about Hendrix is the way that he's always asking me questions. "Are you experienced?" No. "Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?" No - I didn't even know that studio was still around! "Can I stand next to your fire?" No! I paid a lot of money for this fire, and I'd rather not have you vomiting all over it. (A TRUE conspiracy theory = A. Jimi Hendrix was afraid of his manager, who had been linked to the mafia and the CIA. B. The amount of alcohol in Jimi Hendrix's stomach was more than a human being could drink in the time period it would have taken to cause his vomiting death; in other words, the wine was FORCED down his throat. C. Jimi Hendrix's manager made more money from releasing postmortem Hendrix releases than he ever made while Jimi was alive. IT'S TRUE! I heard it from a source of questionable reliability!). So whenever I'm in the mood for some good old black person funky rock music with SOUL, I turn to David Live.

I bet you're thinking to yourself, "Gee, I've never heard anybody make that argument about this album before." Well, that's because IT'S NOT FUCKING TRUE!!!! WHY THE FUCK HAS "THE GREAT WHITE MORON" DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO TAKE GREAT OLD GLAM CLASSICS LIKE "REBEL REBEL," "SUFFRAGETTE CITY," "ALADDIN SANE" AND "ROCK AND ROLL SUICIDE" -- AND COMPLETELY REMOVE EVERY SEMBLANCE OF "MELODY" THAT THE SONGS EVER HAD?!?!?!?!!? DOES HE HONESTLY THINK THIS IS "SOUL" MUSIC BECAUSE HE'S GOT THE "MEDIOCRE WHITE DUKE" DAVID SANBORN PLAYING A SAXOPHONE? OR BECAUSE HE TOLD THE GUITAR PLAYER, "DON'T PLAY THE ACTUAL MELODIES. JUST PLAY REALLY REALLY LONG SOLOS THAT DON'T GO ANYWHERE"? OR BECAUSE HE'S WEARING A STUPID WHITE "MATURE" SUIT AND REDUCES THE VOCAL MELODIES TO HIS MISGUIDED APPROXIMATION OF "SEXY" HALFASSED SPEAK-SING? THIS ALBUM IS A PIECE OF SHIT ALL DRESSED UP LIKE A FANCYPANTS! LOOK AT THAT DUMBASS PHOTO OF HIM ON THE COVER!!!!

NOW FOR THAT PHOTO TO HAVE APPEARED ON THE COVER MEANS THAT MR. BOWIE MUST HAVE LOOKED AT IT LONG AND HARD AND THOUGHT TO HIMSELF, "MAN, I LOOK REALLY GOOD WITH MY TIMELESS WHITE SUIT AND "SHORT IN FRONT, LONG ON THE SIDES" HAIRCUT. AND THAT LOOK ON MY FACE? I LOOK LIKE A FULL WEEK OF NONSTOP ASSFUCKING HAS CREATED A BACKUP OF HARDENED FECAL MATTER IN MY LOWER INTESTINES! AWESOME! LET'S GO WITH IT!"

Having said that, David Live (to my ears much more cokey than Stage) is my favorite regular Bowie live album, though that may very well change once I’ve seen the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars DVD I bought today...

(x-post: Eisbär; hilarious review! I do love that album though...)

Oh don't get me wrong, man. I know there was still a Himalayan-sized mound of coke involved with David Live, but by then he'd renounced his love for Kraftwerk and Teutonic Totalitarianism in favour of polyester leisure suits and bullshit Philadelphia Soul (sorry,but I fuckin' hate that shit!)

Beyond that, I quite enjoy the longer "Breaking Glass", prefer the "TVC-15" to the original and love the hyper-fast version of "Hang On To Yourself."

i agree the whole thing gives an accurate picture of gigs that were events that posed down the conventional rock shows of the time (eg bruce springsteen) in the "european [whatever] is here" fashion art sense -- an elaborate some-greatest-hits show that still presents bowie as continuing metamorphosis, the futuristic art fashion performance taste thing, which he did keep up for a few more years

long story short: picked this one up b/c of this thread. i like it well enough -- better than given credit for (as i thought it would be). i also liked the berlin-bowie-"rethinks"-ziggy-bowie thing going on here.

Eisbär, exactly how is Station to Station "in no small part gamble-huff as conceived by a coked-up space-alien"? I get the latter part, but hear me no real traces Gamble and Huff in there...

incidentally, i have demo bootlegs of three YA songs and all are better than what ended up on the real album, theyre less produced, more spontaneous, and dont have that higely annoying gaspipe sax in every single song, in every crevice of open space.

But the "Station to Station" was utterly incredible, with the protracted intro chugga-chugga section and Belew wailing all over it. I wasn't familiar with it at the time but certainly made note of the 'the side-effects of the cocaine' line for sure. It might have even been better than the Stage version, I'm not sure.

Stage has also resequenced the tracks in their original concert running order.

Disc 1:
1. Warszawa
2. Heroes
3. What In The World
4. Be My Wife - Previously Unreleased
5. Blackout
6. Sense Of Doubt
7. Speed Of Life
8. Breaking Glass
9. Beauty And The Beast
10. Fame

Disc 2:
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Star
4. Hang On To Yourself
5. Ziggy Stardust
6. Art Decade
7. Alabama Song
8. Station To Station
9. Stay - Previously Unreleased
10. TVC 15

I've been hunting a live bootleg of Bowie in '76 from which the Rykodisc reissue extracted live versions of "Stay" and "Word on a Wing" - both spectacular. How readily available?

Having just read Hugo Wilcken's excellent 33 1/3 book on Low, I am still digging this roundly maligned, nazi cocainey live album for mostly the same reasons I did six years ago.

Did the reissue really have better sound? I love the idea that he fucking OPENED his shows with "Warsawa" -- it makes complete sense, and the sense of drama going from that to "Heroes" must have been insane for members of the audience.

Reissue sounds fantastic. Plus the restored running order makes much more sense as in it feels like you're listening to a concert recording instead of a collection of live songs arranged according to era imo. Still love this album.

that david live cover no way deserves all the dissing!

"that david live cover no way deserves all the dissing!"

I still find it totally scary: I saw it for the first time when I was 13 or something and it was like someone punched me in the stomach. The Raw Power cover did more or less the same thing to me.

Please watch this performance of Warzawa with Carlos Alomar conducting, people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5BSgth7Hjk

Only now have I thought to listen to the 2005 reissue of this (on Spotify). The new running order is amazing. I mean, the first disc has Warszawa, Heroes, What in the World, Be My Wife, Blackout, Sense of Doubt, Speed of Life, Breaking Glass, Beauty and the Beast and Fame in that order. Beautiful.

I think this record's lowly reputation comes from the original tracklisting's focus on the rejigged Ziggy songs, which are interesting but inessential.

ummmmmmmmmmmm, 'roundly maligned'? i really had no idea. easily the best bowie era. david live is unlistenable. 'prefab philly soul' is right

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!

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?

yeah, I was curious about that, having no idea what it was all about, but it's just some kind of alternate YA (no better nor worse, afaic).
there's something else that grabbed me on the new compilation.
it's the StS 2010 Harry Maslin remix : what's that ?
It's really different from the original mix.

yeah sry should have posted in the RIP thread, the Maslin mix is mentioned there - apparently it's more in accord with Bowie's original vision or smth?

And it's TVC15, not StS, isn't it? I don't have the reissue to check

it's the whole album ! (yeah, I guess it's not the proper thread to discuss that)

Oh yeah it is the whole album! (It's on spotify)

http://www.network54.com/Forum/8980/thread/1474856664/last-1475166652/Station+To+Station+%28Harry+Maslin+mix%29

I found this discussion about it.
I haven't listened to the whole remixed album yet but I did notice that the drums were further in the mix and sound very different.
and many new things appear (like the "TVC15" intro, etc).

Hadn't heard of this Maslin mix, listening to TVC now. Piano is pushed so far forward it sounded like a Professor Longhair record at the start. (A reference point I never picked up on before.) Will have to spend time with the rest.

I don't know where to post this but RIP Simon House

This album is a document of the greatest band ever assembled IMO

thank you, was thinking about that because I saw the RIP posts

In terms of live albums from this era, I actually prefer Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78) which was posthumously released - it was actually meant to be a film, but apparently there are technical problems with the visuals. (I'm hoping it's something current digital technology can fix, because it would be amazing to get a great concert film of this tour, though tbf we already have good broadcast-quality footage of certain performances.) And naturally, Simon House is on the album as well.

I like both about equally (the most recent remix/remaster of Stage) but they’re surprisingly different from each other.

It’s got strong “We are going to stretch this jam out because it’s the last song before we come back for an encore” vibes but the version of “Stay” they added to later versions of this really cooks.

I remember being disappointed that "Breaking Glass" didn't have anything new in it - the band just repeats the ending. And yet how can that song be extended without ruining the effect? A while back I bought a cheap CD boxed set called Zeit that had the three Berlin-era albums plus Stage. It almost felt like a bootleg (the cover of Low had really bad printing) but it was apparently official.

I admire the guts of playing the ambient songs from Low, and the CD version has the tracks flow together instead of having gaps. I'm torn between a desire to try and say something new and original, which is hard because I'd have to do some thinking and it would be a lie, and "it sounds like the album versions", which is easy and basically true.

I just have a horrible mental aversion to Adrian Belew. I'm sure he's a great guy. I just can't stand people who play the guitar too much. No, I can't stand it when people play the guitar too much. I have nothing against the people. The people are good. People are an asset. It's the act I can't stand. It's the act.

Belew's Hawaiian shirts don't do him any favors either.

This album kind of sucks really. Best live Bowie album I've heard is Live in Santa Monica '72.

nazi
cocainey

This album rules

was it really "roundly maligned" at the time?

This is the live Bowie album that I listen to the least.

Wait a second. I was confusing Stage with David Live. Never mind!

David Live is one of the live Bowie albums that I listen to the most.

He's clearly off his face on coke though.

In terms of live albums from this era, I actually prefer Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)

https://i.discogs.com/IUQpGjlITjkqWmeVM-fDgwcsHDRLeqiDz4kIPXWAzHY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExODkx/NDkyLTE3NDA5MzUx/NDktNTAyNi5qcGVn.jpeg

I can't believe no reviewer took the opportunity to use the descriptor "even more Nazi cocainey..."

Or at least Veronika Voss-y.

Welcome to the Blackout is p damned good. I played it at my Memorial Day BBQ yesterday and hardly anyone stopped their Mercedes to salute the Führer.
.

On the subject of cocaine-addled posh Nazis, one thing that haunts me is John Amery's epitaph, written by his dad. Amery was one of a handful of British people executed for treason as a result of his activities in the Second World War:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Amery

That article contains one of the few images of Alan Whicker arresting a turncoat Nazi propagandist. Amery was hanged in December 1945. His epitaph was:

"At end of wayward days he found a cause /
'twas not his country's - only time can tell /
if that defiance of our ancient laws /
was treason or foreknowledge. He sleeps well."

There's something deeply odd about the idea that John Amery was ahead of his time. Luckily fascism died a death in 1945 and hasn't returned. Something something David Bowie. As a closeted Numanoid it's obvious that Gary Numan based his 1979/1980 Teletour on the Isolar II stage set, with the neon lights. The bizarre thing is that Numan apparently wasn't off his head on cocaine at the time. He was instead off his head on Thatcherism! Which was powerful stuff back then.

The only song I return to from this is "Station to Station", which version I first heard on the Christiane F. soundtrack.
Visconti said that they purposely mixed each song in the style of the original studio recordings, which maybe explains why I'm content to listen to those studio albums.

StS is definitely the high point for me

Waiting For The Blackout is good too! I got it as a gift a few years back and was pleasantly surprised.

"At end of wayward days he found a cause /
'twas not his country's - only time can tell /
if that defiance of our ancient laws /
was treason or foreknowledge. He sleeps well."

There's something deeply odd about the idea that John Amery was ahead of his time.

i thought it was an interesting epitaph and i looked up who wrote it

his dad, leo

i think of it as a personal question first and foremost... the fact that he was a tory, that he was an anti-nazi tory, that Leo's belief in the British Empire is more similar to John's belief in Hitler than Leo wanted to acknowledge, these are... important, but not _the_ most important thing to me.

i don't have any kids myself. it seems to me, though, that one of the most awful things a parent can suffer is the death of one of their children. when that death is... amery deserved to die. nazi propagandists deserve to die. most nazis were, uh, "rehabilitated", but the propagandists... when they put on the trials, priority was given to the propagandists. i think it's right to have a special disgust and horror for those people.

i have a hard enough time dealing with relatives my own age who cape for evil in various ways. not trumpism. there are many sorts of evil. that's another complicated thing for me. "the enemy of my enemy is my enemy" kind of thing. i don't lack in conviction, but what, exactly, am i supposed to believe in? who am i supposed to support? i see so much wrong and so little right.

but then bowie... so complicated. brilliant, protean, queer... traumatized survivor... occult nazi cocaine rapist. and how much of that was america? he idolizes america, and he comes to live here, he starts making soul music... how many fascists fetishize Black Americans?... and immediately the nazi coke shit comes out. there's always been something fucked about america.

i love so much of what he did, and he was a monster. i love so much about america, and america is a monstrosity. i don't agree with nietzsche. fighting monsters doesn't make me a monster. i just get too tired to fight, sometimes. particularly when i have to fight against people i love and/or people i admire. what am i supposed to do? take his place as a queer person? people need "heroes", and queer people are no exception.

blackstar scares me because that record... he talked about it being inspired by the vorticists. was it foreknowledge? no, but bowie's futurism was always fascist. "gotta make way for the homo superior" and all that. i'm not _superior_. he wasn't _superior_.

it's "all the madmen" that connects with me. what he saw his brother go through. that's what i mean by "traumatized survivor". you grow up with that kind of madness in your family and the unfairness of it, the suffering, the early death, and... i don't know about him, but there's part of me that's always questioned. could i be mad? could that be me, could that happen to me? because there's no such thing as madness, really. there are just people who go through some fucked up shit and have trouble dealing with it, sometimes deal with it poorly.

sure, i'd rather be a madman than a fascist. of course, it's always possible to be both. easy to be both. fascism is an addiction. cocaine... i don't know. i've never done cocaine. to me, having an unhealthy relationship with fascism is like having an unhealthy relationship with food. i mean you gotta eat, as the Rally's fast food slogan went. you gotta live with fascism, with fascists, every day, particularly in America. i'd be happier if i could get along better with fascists. if i could be a Bad Gay, if i could think of myself as a "homo superior".

i think _stage_ is good. my favorite simon house was his stuff with High Tide, tho. i think belew was at his best early on. i'm grateful to bowie for saving belew from the clutches of zappa. that he royally pissed zappa off by doing so is just a bonus. i also think belew is interesting for not doing a lot of drugs, as far as i can tell. he's a better guitarist for it, but sometimes i do find him disappointingly "normal". there's nothing wrong with being "normal", though!

David Live was the first Bowie CD I had. I must have gotten it as a pick of the month from BMG. I love it but that’s probably because I heard it early on.

The Cracked Actor and Soul Tour albums that have since come out are much better.

Yeah, I just listened to I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ‘74) for the first time … I always felt slightly cheated that between that cover and the fact that it was recorded in Philly David Live wasn’t more of a transitional release for him. This one is.

The Soul Tour album is probably the biggest revelation to come out since Bowie died. His estate has put out a ton of extra releases but that’s the one I’d pick. Welcome To The Blackout is pretty close though.