Browse Music
Rock & Pop
R&B & Hip-Hop
Country
Blues
Jazz
Classical
Latin
Christian
Soundtracks
Collections
David Bowie
Live Santa Monica '72
David Bowie:  Live Santa Monica '72

$6.99
Listen

Album Review

Released: 2009
Label: Virgin
Selection #: 174648
The first official release of this Ziggy-era gig, capturing Bowie at his most theatrical and charismatic. Changes, Life On Mars?, Suffragette City, etc.
Listen RM WM
1 Introduction N/A N/A
2 Hang on to Yourself
3 Ziggy Stardust
4 Changes
5 The Supermen
6 Life on Mars?
7 Five Years
8 Space Oddity
9 Andy Warhol
10 My Death
11 The Width of a Circle
12 Queen Bitch
13 Moonage Daydream
14 John, I'm Only Dancing
15 Waiting for the Man
16 The Jean Genie
17 Suffragette City
18 Rock 'N' Roll Suicide
  
Download Player:    Real Media Real Media    Windows Media Windows Media
Album Review

Among Bowie aficionados, the live recording from the Santa Monica Civic Center in 1972 ranks as perhaps the best document of the Spiders from Mars at their peak, certainly outranking the "Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture" soundtrack, which may have documented the band's fabled final gig, but didn't capture the band at full flight. This recording -- frequently bootlegged, often popping up on semi-official releases, finally released officially by EMI in 2008 -- does just that. Here, the Spiders sound otherworldly, lean yet monstrous, simple and lethal on "Hang On To Yourself" but majestic and dramatic on a ten-minute "The Width Of A Circle," flipping a hat to Jacques Brel via Scott Walker on "My Death," then stripping down such grandiose "Hunky Dory" tunes as "Life On Mars?" to the essentials. The grand thing about "Live in Santa Monica '72" is that it doesn't feel like a special gig: it may have been Bowie's first American radio broadcast, but that's secondary to how it feels like a snapshot of the band during its prime. It's tantalizing to think that this is just how the band was in 1972 and that there may be plenty of other great performances never recorded. What's special about this is that a night like this was indeed captured -- and with each passing year this seems more and more like the best Bowie live album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Back To Top
About This Artist
Biography


Other albums by: David Bowie
David Bowie:  VH1 Storytellers (CD/DVD) NEW Listen David Bowie
VH1 Storytellers (CD/DVD)

$13.98 2-CD Set

David Bowie:  I Select Listen Greatest Hits David Bowie
I Select

$6.99

David Bowie:  Best Of David Bowie 80/87: Sight & Sound (1 CD/1 DVD) Listen Greatest Hits David Bowie
Best Of David Bowie 80/87: Sight & Sound (1 CD/1 DVD)

$13.98 2-CD Set

more
Related Artists
ABC
The Beatles
Berlin
Chuck Berry
Frank Black
Blondie
Blur
Kate Bush
Depeche Mode
Thomas Dolby
Duran Duran
more

Any reproduction, publication, further distribution, or public exhibition of materials provided at this site, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.
©2006 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC