Re-uploaded by request!
David Bowie
Live From Kether to Malkuth
1. Station To Station (1990/08/05- Milton Keynes)
2. TVC 15 [1] (1976/02/28- Cleveland)
3. Golden Years (1983/07/12- Montreal, Canada)
4. TVC 15 [2] (1976/02/28- Cleveland)
5. Word on a Wing (1999/10/14- Paris)
6. TVC 15 [3] (1976/02/28- Cleveland)
7. Stay (1976/04/10- West Berlin)
8. Wild Is The Wind (2000/06/16- New York City, NY, Roseland Ballroom)
For this compilation, I decided to make a live version of my favorite David Bowie album, Station to Station. The title track is mesmerizing, no matter when it was performed, so I went with a blisternig version from the “Sound and Vision” tour. “Golden Years” is well served with the horns and bluster of ’83 pop-star Bowie. “Word on a Wing” only made appearances in ’76 and ’99, and both years are great. This version ultimately won out. “TVC 15” comes from a unique concert, where Bowie started and stopped the song sereveral times, giving the effect of anticipation and the transmission literally weaving throughout, which I tried to replicate by positioning the segments in the same way. “Stay” is the song that evolved the most throughout the years. From the manic 70’s, the bouncy 80’s, industrial 90’s makeover, and finally settling back down in the 00’s. This has to be my favorite. After the main lyrics, Bowie descends into a coldly detached alien desperation, repeating itself as the music continues to its frantic conclusion. Finally, “Wild is the Wind” can never reach the perfection of the studio, but this performance comes closest!
For the cover, I decided to try and invert the original. Instead of the black and white still of Bowie entering the spacecraft in the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, I took a photo of when Bowie was looking into the mirror, and inserted a diorama I made of the spacecraft wrecked instead on a planet with red oceans and white land. Looking out at a nightmare.
Enjoy the travels of the Thin White Duke!
🙏
Really looking forward to this one. In part because I love S to S (though not the W**W pair – a point of difference, 365!) and in part because I’ve just finished Hugo Wilcken’s excellent 33 ⅓ monograph on “Low”, which spend a significant (and totally justified) time exploring the antecedents in S to S.
Cheers
– Bruce
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I mean, if I HAD to drop one song from the album, it’d be ‘Wing’. Interested to hear your thoughts otherwise on the selections once you give it a listen!
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You bet.
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Great fun. Love the distribution of the false starts and the energy – anger even – on some songs. Thanks a lot for reposting this one.
Now, about that Fleetwood Mac concert…
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Glad to hear you liked it! I do wish some of the performances were better recorded, but it’s what’s circulating. Interesting you mention anger. Bowie was a powerful performer. Yeah, sometimes angry, and in context it works. Fleetwood Mac! Las Vegas ‘77, I believe? Should have time to re-upload either for tomorrow or the next day!
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That’s the one. I have a brilliant 1975 concert boot CD from before they ‘broke big’. It has a thrilling version of ‘Station Man’ on it. Looking forward to hear what they sound like after conquering the world!
(But please don’t sweat getting it up – no hurry at all; I downloaded a couple more last night!).
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