David Bowie
(EMI)
When you pay your $200 or $500 to see a rock legend in concert, you pretty much know what you’re going to get – a bunch of warhorses you can sing along to, some canned stage patter and two or three new songs perfectly timed for a bathroom break. With a few exceptions, such shows are professional, yet somewhat by the numbers. It takes something like Live Santa Monica ’72 to remind you that it wasn’t always that way; there’s a reason these guys became legends in the first place.
In this performance, Bowie has something to prove. From the incredible opening quartet of “Hang On To Yourself,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Changes” and “The Supermen” to an intense “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide,” Bowie and his band are in top form – especially guitarist Mick Ronson. While the slower songs like “Space Oddity” and Jacques Brel’s “My Death” are not as revelatory, they do give Bowie a chance to show off another side of his personality. But the moral of Live Santa Monica ’72 is that for all of the focus his art and imagery, Bowie can also rock with the best of them.
Standout Tracks: “The Supermen” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” HAL BIENSTOCK
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