I wrote:All live in Berlin, 2002. Every fucking single show I saw from that tour was not only among the best live music experiences I've ever had, but practically, like, a shamanic healing ritual or something.
That band was playing wicked tight.
* I guess I should specify that I meant that band was playing wicked tight on that tour generally, not during that show specifically. Not that they weren't playing premium live rock music during that show. But I picked it more because of his performance than theirs.
* Plus, it's really saying something to say that a band is playing wicked tight when that band features Earl Slick on lead guitar. I heart Earl Slick, but he and wicked-tight live rock music do not exactly go together like a horse and carriage. For example, I've never seen him not fuck up the solos in "Stay," and for pity's sake, he's the one responsible for them in their original form. And when you have an hour or two to spare, you can verify this your own self by comparing the studio version and the various performances linked at the end, if you wish. For the moment, though, let's just stick to:
Word on a Wing/Stay (Live, in rehearsal in Vancouver, 1976, Sterling Hayden on lead, Carlos Alomar on rhythm)
* Because for one thing, I love "Word on a Wing" to pieces. It's an exceptionally beautiful song from any point of view, and also, imo, an exceptional Bowie song from that period, in that I don't think it's a persona song. Although that's open to subjective interpretation, of course. Plus, I've never seen him play it live. Which I very much resent, because I did see a show at Roseland in 2000 -- which I believe may have presented Earl Slick with his very first onstage opportunity to fuck up his own solos in "Stay," actually -- during which they did every single other fucking song on
Station to Station APART from "Word on a Wing."
* And for another, more to-the-point thing, because another reason I so like that Berlin 2002 show is that it represents the period on the "Heathen" tour when Mr. Bowie started clearly indicating that while he may have showed up to play " "Heroes" " at the Concert for New York City, or whatever the fuck that 9/11 benefit was called, he was doing it for charity rather than because the shocking nature of the attacks had suddenly prompted him to become a true believer in the heroic destiny and character of the United States of America. Which there wasn't much reason to fear in the first place, granted. I mean, it's not like the quotation marks that are part of that song's title are there for no reason at all.
Still. I personally was comforted to see him working a variation on the same Thin-White-Duke v.0 look he'd started using back in '76. Because seriously. When what you're trying to say is "From my point of view, what we have going on here in the world right now is simply another manifestation of the same stage of western fascist imperialism the starting point of which is generally associated with World War II in general and Nazi Germany in particular" you really can't get any more straightforward than that. If you're David Bowie.
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Studio version of
Stay (Earl Slick on lead, Carlos Alomar on rhythm, which includes the stellar opening riff)
Which also dwells on video as performed live in any number of renditions, including these, for which I've probably screwed up the credits in at least one instance, and possibly in all of them:
Stay (Paris, 2002, Earl Slick plays his own parts, Gerry Leonard plays Carlos Alomar's parts)
Stay (London, 1999, Page Hamilton on lead, I'm pretty sure, since that's who was playing at the Kit-Kat show I'd seen about two weeks earlier, at which time I thanked whatever mighty and benificent force had blown Reeves Gabrels away for good, I hope; I have no idea who's playing rhythm. But it's Mike Plati, according to "Teenage Wildlife.")
Stay (live on
Dinah Shore, 1976, Sterling Hayden still on lead, Earl Slick still at the beginning of the little 33-year hiatus in his working relationship with Mr. Bowie, Carlos Alomar playing his own damn parts.)
Stay (Live at the BBC, 2000, Earl Slick comes thisclose to nailing it, probably Gerry Leonard on rhythm, but I wasn't really paying attention.)
by compared2what? » Sun May 10, 2009 9:28 pm 
