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Music: Opium Garden Miami Beach
Rub N Tug Presents Campfire [Import]
North Italian Music for Cornetts and Trombones, 1580-1650
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Playing Rock's Greatest Chameleon was a great gig while it lasted, but by the mid-80's, David Bowie found his "Changes" led to an ironic dead-end. Yet this 1974 live album managed to distill his quicksilver nature as few others. Ostensibly mounted in support of Diamond Dogs, but sans Guy Peellaert's Ziggy-as-Great Dane imagery (a trick even the notorious pop changeling couldn't turn onstage), Bowie's image and music quickly evolved on the tour, taking on an American r&b-fueled edge that would seep into very corner its career-retrospective set. Indeed, the musician would pause mid-tour to record Young Americans with the core of the live band here, setting up his Thin White Duke incarnation in the bargain. Culled from shows at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre, this edition has been both remastered and expanded by the inclusion of "Panic in Detroit" and "Space Oddity," marking the first time the complete show has been available. Also includes insightful notes by producer/longtime Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. --Jerry McCulley