David Bowie 1973 02 14 New York

David Bowie
Radio City Music Hall, New York, USA
February - 14 - 1973

01 Intro
02 Hang Onto Yourself
03 Ziggy Stardust
04 Changes
05 Soul Love
06 John, I'm Only Dancing
07 Moonage Daydream
08 Five Years
09 Space Oddity
10 My Death
11 Watch That Man
12 Drive-In Saturday
13 Aladdin Sane
14 Panic In Detroit
15 Cracked Actor
16 Width Of A Circle
18 Time
19 The Prettiest Star
20 Let's Spend The Night Together
21 The Jean Genie
22 Suffragette City
23 Rock N'Roll Suicide

This is Bowie’s big breakthrough in the US.
The show was becoming even more outrageous with many new costume changes and more bizarre make-up. Both shows are a sell-out of 6,200 people each. Attending celebrities include Truman Capote, Salvador Dali (a fan who has attended other Bowie performances), Johnny Winter and Todd Rundgren. Bowie faints on stage after a fan leaps on the stage during “Rock n Roll Suicide” and embraces him. He is diagnosed by an attending nurse as suffering from exhaustion (blocked pores from the makeup is also blamed) and sleeps 12 hours straight the next day. Rumours suggest that gunshots rang out before Bowie collapsed but audience tapes do not support this fanciful theory.

“This is the famous concert in which Bowiee descended on the stage in a cage hanging 17 meters above the stage. A spectacu­lar opening of this concert which was given on Valentine’s Day and was also the first concert of the short US Tour II. It was a full house. The group Fumble was to do the first part of the programme,but for some reason it was cancelled.

“They can’t see,sit down!” some one cries out after Hang on to Yourself. After Ziggy Stardust Bowie says: “It’s nice to come down to New York again”.
Although the band was reinforced with additional saxophone players,Bowie did the sax solo in Soul Love himself. This tape and that of the second evening in NY are the only 1973 tapes which include this number.

After My Death a screen was raised at the back of the stage displaying a cartoon in which the cosmos seems to bear down upon the spectators at the speed of light.

This is a very long concert by the way: no fewer than 21 numbers,including all numbers but one of the entire LP Aladdin Sane which at the time had not yet appeared. After Watch That Man Bowie says: “In case you’d like to know,we’ve made a new album,that was the first,it’s called Watch That Man. As you might know,we brought some new people with us tonight,a very quick one is Ken Fordham who’s very quick but a little bit tired,Geoffrey and Hutch and you may know Mike Garson from my last tour. This is a track from the new album anyway,this one is called Drive in Saturday which was written between Phoenix and Seattle”.
The audience respond well to the new numbers but when Crac­ked Actor is over no one applauds,probably because the audien­ce are not sure whether it is really over or may yet go on. “That was called Cracked Actor“ Bowie says,and then the audi­ence starts applauding.
Bowie announces Width of a Circle and the long guitar solo in the number he used to change costume again,which that night he did as many as seven times! After the number Bowie introdu­ces the band,but not the additional musicians whom he had al­ ready introduced to the audience.
From Jean Genie onward the tape is considerably inferior(SQ 6!). During Rock & Roll Suicide something happened of which a good description can be found in Stephen Davis’ review of this concert in the Rolling Stone of 29-3-1973:

“During Suffragette City Bowie’s maraca broke and a piece of it lodged in his eye,which he was rubbing as the band left the stage. The crowd demanded more and was kept waiting five ~as restored. He came back on in six-inch stacked heels for a beltin& torchy Rock & Roll Suicide. Bowie played the edge of the stage,inciting the droolers to lurch at him. One man actually ~ade it and,grabbing Bowie in a hug,planted a big wet kiss on his desiccated cheeks.
The man was hurled back into the mealstrom in front of the stage and Bowie re­ sponded to the assault by crumpling like a pansy in a monsoon,a fainting heroine in an old French play – Ca­ mille – “Ah,mon amour, j’etouffe!”. With the star recumbent and unconscious on the floor, the house lights went off and he was carried off. When the house lights came on,the stage was empty. Rock & roll sui­cide and the kiss of death”.

The immense tension to which he had been exposed during the preparations of the tour had made too high demands upon his system which was the reason of his fainting. He immediately went to sleep and slept for no less than twelve hours!

Obviously a rather excep­ tional tape,but it’s a pity that Bowie’s voice sounds rather far off. Of the pis­tol cracks which are suppo­sed to be heard on this tape there is not a trace. One does hear all sorts of grum­bling sounds and the audien­ce cry “No,I can’t believe this,no!”.

[rupowell]

It’s such a terrible pity that some of these Ziggy shows can’t be properly produced and released..surely there is at least one further Ziggy show other than the ‘final’ one that can put out there to the general public..they are such gold!!

[sangfroid]

Was there for both nights, scoring tickets was so much easier then. David used all the stage devices that were set up for the Rockettes show, to great dramatic effect. Seen him many times but these were stand out shows.

[skoomaaddicttt]

around 1:33:22 you can hear a man say “oh sh*t” because of bowie passing out

[virginiaviola]

Whoever you are, thank you for posting all these. There is no time more than now that these are so welcome. I keep thinking about David, and what he would be making of the situation in NYC right now. It’s almost too sad to bear.