Live: Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars performed at Boston’s Music Hall on 1 October 1972.

It was the 62nd date of the Ziggy Stardust Tour, which had begun on 29 January 1972.

They performed 19 songs: ‘Hang On to Yourself’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Changes’, ‘The Supermen’, ‘Life On Mars?’, ‘Lady Stardust’, ‘Queen Bitch’, ‘Five Years’, ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Andy Warhol’, ‘My Death’, ‘The Width Of A Circle’, ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, ‘Starman’, ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’, ‘White Light/White Heat’, ‘Suffragette City’, and ‘Round And Round’.

The Boston show was recorded for a potential live album, an idea which was later scrapped. It was the first of three shows on the tour which were taped, with other recordings made in New York and Los Angeles.

On 13 October 1972, Bowie and Mick Ronson worked at RCA Studio B in Nashville, where they made mono and stereo mixes of ‘The Jean Genie’ for single release. They also mixed the Boston recordings of ‘The Supermen’, ‘Life On Mars?’, ‘Changes’, and ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’.

The live album project was shelved when Bowie’s attention became focused on Aladdin Sane in early 1973. However, the Boston recordings of ‘The Supermen’, ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ and ‘Changes’ were included in the 1989 Sound + Vision box set, and all four were included on the 30th anniversary reissue of Aladdin Sane.

‘The Supermen’, ‘Changes’, ‘Life On Mars?’, ‘My Death’, and ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ were all included in the 2024 box set Rock ‘N’ Roll Star!.

David Bowie performed again at the Music Hall during the Diamond Dogs Tour on 16 July 1974, and 14, 15, and 16 November 1974.