Album release: Live Santa Monica ’72

Live Santa Monica ’72, a live album by David Bowie, was given a first official release on 30 July 2008.

The concert recording had originally been broadcast in 1972 by KMET-FM, and had been widely bootlegged. It was unofficially released in the UK in 1994 as Santa Monica ’72, and the following year in the US.

The recording was remastered and officially issued by EMI in 2008 as Live Santa Monica ’72, with some brief sleeve notes by Bowie:

I can tell that I’m totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It’s no longer an act; I am him. This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn’t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best.

Initial copies were in a deluxe case, with a Ziggy Stardust poster, card replicas of RCA publicity photographs, duplicates of the original Scotch tape labels, and a review of the concert by Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times. There was cover photograph by Mick Rock, and inner sleeves containing 1972 artwork by George Underwood – intended for a live album which was never issued – and live photography by Jon Levicke.

A few months after its release, the packaging of Live Santa Monica ’72 was changed to a more conventional release, without the extra items.

Live Santa Monica ’72 was included in the 2015 box set Five Years (1969–1973).