Recorded: 8-12 July 1974
Producer: Tony Visconti
Released: 29 October 1974
Personnel
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Earl Slick: guitar
Herbie Flowers: bass guitar
Tony Newman: drums
Mike Garson: piano, Mellotron
Michael Kamen: electric piano, Moog synthesizer, oboe
David Sanborn, Richard Grando: saxophone, flute
Pablo Rosario: percussion
Warren Peace, Gui Andrisano: backing vocals
Tracklisting
- ‘1984’
- ‘Rebel Rebel’
- ‘Moonage Daydream’
- ‘Sweet Thing’/‘Candidate’/‘Sweet Thing (Reprise)’
- ‘Changes’
- ‘Suffragette City’
- ‘Aladdin Sane’
- ‘All The Young Dudes’
- ‘Cracked Actor’
- ‘When You Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me’
- ‘Watch That Man’
- ‘Knock On Wood’
- ‘Diamond Dogs’
- ‘Big Brother’
- ‘Width Of A Circle’
- ‘The Jean Genie’
- ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’
2005 Mix
- ‘1984’
- ‘Rebel Rebel’
- ‘Moonage Daydream’
- ‘Sweet Thing’/‘Candidate’/‘Sweet Thing (Reprise)’
- ‘Changes’
- ‘Suffragette City’
- ‘Aladdin Sane’
- ‘All The Young Dudes’
- ‘Cracked Actor’
- ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me’
- ‘Watch That Man’
- ‘Knock On Wood’
- ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’
- ‘Space Oddity’
- ‘Diamond Dogs’
- ‘Panic In Detroit’
- ‘Big Brother’
- ‘Time’
- ‘The Width Of A Circle’
- ‘The Jean Genie’
- ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’
David Bowie’s first live album, David Live was originally released in 1974, and captured Bowie during the first phase of the Diamond Dogs Tour.
God that album. I’ve never played it. The tension it must contain must be like vampire’s teeth coming down on you. And that photo. On the cover. My God, it looks as if I’ve just stepped out of that grave.That’s actually how I felt. That record should have been called ‘David Bowie is alive and well and living only in theory’.
Melody Maker, 29 October 1977
David Live was made at a time when Bowie was moving from his Ziggy-era glam style to the US-influenced soul sounds of Young Americans. Bowie’s manager Tony Defries encouraged him to release a live album, to help fulfil his RCA contract, and to offset some of the huge costs accrued by the Diamond Dogs Tour.
It was my ecstatic pleasure and great honour to be accompanied by some of the finest musicians I have ever worked with. Also eternal thanx to my friends and fans at the Tower for your wonderfulness.
love on ya! Bowie 74
The original mix of the album was mainly made up of songs from Bowie’s previous three albums, Diamond Dogs, Aladdin Sane, and The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. There was one song apiece from The Man Who Sold The World (‘The Width Of A Circle’) and Hunky Dory (‘Changes’), and the additional songs, ‘All The Young Dudes’ and ‘Knock On Wood’.
This was my least favorite album. It was necessary to get this one out quickly to promote the Diamond Dogs Tour.It was recorded poorly by someone else, and mixed by Eddie Kramer, best known as Jimi Hendrix’s engineer, at Electric Ladyland in New York.
Because the console was a strange one and because there was very little time, I let Eddie handle the engineering chores (one of the few times I allowed the mixing of my production out of my hands).
What more can I say? It documents a great stage show, I don’t think anybody else takes this album as a scintillating sonic experience either.
tonyvisconti.com
What is the sound Bowie is making in in intro to 1984? And what was he doing at the time?
What sound are you talking about? The first Bowie sound is him singing “heeeeyyyy”, after the bass first kicks in. If, on the other hand, you are referring to the barely audible, guttural, sort of yelping sound in the beginning when the electronic synth/flute is playing – I had always assumed that was Geoffrey MacCormack, as the tone of voice sounds like him. And I have absolutely no idea what he was doing…maybe Diamond Dog sounds?
I always thought that jelly sound was because he was singing inside a Perspex egg and after the first verse it opened to reveal him.
He’d on the reflective box for Big Brother, he’d be lowered during Chant, and it would to reveal him in a sequined-hand for Time.
I think I can provide some insight to your question. I saw the Diamond Dogs show in June 1974 (about a month before David Live was recorded) at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. It was my first concert — age 14 and done up in the best glam look I could muster at the time. I’ll never forget the thrill of seeing live and in the flesh the beautifully strange creature that had graced the album covers that had so fascinated me, not to mention the sheer theatrical spectacle of the show.
The opening sounds you’re referring to are dog yelps uttered, I believe, by Warren Peace and Guy Dellasandro, Bowie’s backup singers. They were heard after the house lights had dimmed and the theater was in complete darkness. Then, during the opening to 1984, Warren and Guy wandered around the stage in the dark aiming flashlights onto the set and into the audience as a sort of excitement builder. When Bowie starts singing 1984, he was not visible on stage. He sang the first verse and first chorus in the dark with just the flashlights beaming around. If you listen to 1984 on David Live, after the first chorus, at 01:08, you’ll hear the audience cheer – that’s when the spotlight came on and revealed David center stage, dressed in a blue sweater, baggy grey high-waisted “zoot suit” slacks, pocket watch chain, red suspenders and ballet slippers. (Inspired by the Gouster look.) I was shocked that he didn’t have the signature hair style he had sported on Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups and Diamond Dogs – the now classic mullet, but his hair was still the same carrot red and blazed like a fire in the spotlight.
My favorite set piece was the bridge with lighted lamp posts that descended to the stage with Bowie, wrapped in a trench coat, on board singing Sweet Thing/Candidate. Mechanized concert stages are almost de rigueur now, but such a thing was WAY ahead of its time in 1974. I can recall thinking at the time “the music doesn’t sound the same as the album tracks.” This was partly due to the loser, live sound, to which I was not accustomed as this was my first concert, but more so to how Bowie and Michael Kamen had given the songs different arrangements.
I saw Bowie again a few months later (Nov ’74) on the Philly Dogs portion of the tour (at a larger arena in Pittsburgh but without the sets), as well as on the ISOLAR/Station to Station tour in ’76, the Serious Moonlight tour in ’83, and lastly on the same bill with Moby on the Area 2 tour in ’02. Sound wise, the band was never tighter than on the Station to Station tour (shout out to Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray!), but nothing will ever beat or be as memorable to me as that 1974 Diamond Dogs show! So glad I had an older brother who said, “Wanna go see David Bowie?” (The ticket cost $7.50!)
I think this might be what you’re hearing, this is an excerpt from Geoff MacCormack’s book, Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me:
“The management was notoriously mean when it came to paying musicians and it had become a standing joke with Herbie and Tony who would mimic an imagined scenario of the management having to pay up, arms outstretched, screaming, ‘What! How much?’, which became the mantra for the band at the beginning of every performance thereafter.
What you hear at the beginning of the 1974 album David Live, just before Michael Kamen’s oboe solo, is the sound of the whole band arriving on stage (minus David) squawking ‘What! What!'”
The photo on the front cover is reversed isn’t it? It sort of always bothered me but I have never checked before.
Just to clarify, I mean the negative of the shot has been turned over.
Yes and that was “corrected” on TV’s remastered release.
i suspect the first verse of 1984 might be overdubbed or at least the first part of it. it has a studio sound to it, unlike the other verses.
I always loved this album. From the day I heard it at a friend’s house about a week after it was released. I’ve attended so many concerts over the years but this is one of the ones I wish I would have been old enough to go to. In 74 I was 13 and no where near Philly. Anyhow, I miss the days when performers didn’t always replicate recorded version when doing a song live. So many interesting arrangements on this album. Version Rock n Roll Suicide is fantastic.
Sitting here, 2021, listening to this on original vinyl, I might be alone in this but I consider it a fantastic live album. The sonics are a bit odd, and off center on some tracks, but what a show…what a document, what a performance. The songs are raw, stripped of synths and too many layers of effects which killed so many later recordings. David is live here. Great album.
I agree, I think this album has gotten a bad rep. Perfect, it’s not. But if you weren’t old enough or otherwise able to see a show on that tour, it provides an extraordinary visceral experience, especially when played loud. And what a setlist!
– Scratched Vinyl, Barrington
Despite the various criticisms I’ve read over time about “David Live” it is my favorite album from Mr. Bowie. I was 17 when it was released and going through hell. Without trying to sound overly dramatic, his music quite literally kept me going during many very difficult times. “David Live” was my life-preserver. As a result, it remains closest to my heart. That’s very difficult to say – “closest” – when there’s also the “Ziggy” album in the mix, but it is closest. If I could listen to only one song for the rest of my life, it would be the full, three-part version of “Sweet Thing” from “David Live.” The lyrics, regardless of the recording, have always thrilled me. Then, the live version with the dueling saxophone of David Sanborn and guitar of Earl Slick – well, for me there’s nothing like it. Having said that, I feel I’m betraying Mick Ronson. I loved his music with Mr. Bowie and his solo work as well. Thank you.
This has to be one of the most overly criticised albums ever? When I look on Wiki, the press at the time, apparently ‘savaged’ the album? This is un-fathomable to me.
The ‘treatment’ given to these songs by the musicians… (just look at the credits)…. these musicians are absolute ‘monsters’ of their own genre’s…. To have all that, moulded into the Bowie songs?… OMG…. and this happened again and again with Frampton, SRV…. all the ‘monster’ players (of different instruments)…. that to me… is acknowledgement… that if these guys wanted to play on his songs…. then…. step back!!!
Besides the fact that it is a ‘live’ recording…. and in ‘those days’… they simply didn’t have the technology to put that on vinyl, in such a way… to hear it how we hear it today…. Earl Slick rips the guts out of his solos… the piano parts are sublime… the ending of Aladdin Sane… is absolutely insane… the percussion parts… the drum fills… the singing… the songs… apart from the recording… I’d hold this album up as one of the all-time greats of ‘versions’ of his songs… ever….. words don’t do it justice…. Back in the day…. I used to listen to this album, song by song, as a ‘live’ album…
My family had flown back to New York (I was raised there and my parents grew up there. We moved to Seattle in 1972) for Christmas 1974. We were visiting friends of my parents when I discovered one of their teenagers had this album, wh. I’d never heard of. I was FRANTIC to listen to it but the stereo was in the living room where all the adults were gathered! I can still remember the angst I was feeling – so close yet so far!
I know it’s David’s bête noire but this album is absolutely brilliant. Sorry to disagree there, Zigs.