CD Review

What more can be said about David Bowie? The man is bizarre, flashy and undoubtedly one of music’s most mercurial and influential performers. I’m pretty certain a couple hundred words describing the recently retooled and re-released David Live and Stage will do little to encourage the uninitiated to take the plunge, or dissuade passionate fans from putting the albums on their shelf.

Excitement met dread in a head-on collision when I recently discovered both records in my mailbox. At first there was the intimidation factor, associated with dissecting the work of an icon. Then, I felt a little insulted. The album comes advertised as being both a compact disc and a DVD, yet there was no video evidence to support the claim. After tracking down some technical assistance on the World Wide Web I decided it would be best to examine the music and leave the visualization to my mind’s eye. And I quote:

For playback on a DVD-Video-only player, connect the digital-out of the DVD-Video player to the digital input of a receiver or preamplifier, or the player’s left/right analog outputs to the receiver’s left/right inputs. The stereo track will play only on the front stereo channels under normal receiver settings.

For reasons that probably begin and end with cash we have another record of Bowie’s occasional brilliance. 1974’s David Live, recorded during the Diamond Dogs tour is less impressive than 1978’s Stage, originally released after a year that saw Bowie play more than seventy performances in fifteen countries. The production quality, musicianship, and set list are far superior on the latter, while the former suffers from a consistently inconsistent flow.

My advice? Pick up a copy of The Life Aquatic soundtrack to enjoy Bowie covers in Portuguese performed by Seu Jorge (a.k.a. Pelé dos Santos).