Stage (Limited Edition)

by

David Bowie

Edit

Aside from the fact that this tour recording captured Bowie at his finest "stage" of his career (with his best touring band by far), it also should serve as a blueprint for further re-releases from singers or bands of the era.

The re-mastering is extraoridnary and blows the old RCA vinly and even the Ryco reissue out of the water. Restoring the original running order of the songs is also a bonus as is the two tracks never before released......Dennis Davis was an extraordinary drummer and Adrian Belew was so far advanced for his time it's truly remarkable to listen to his playing now; he was proof that you didn't have to recycle blues riffs endlessly in order to be in the spotlight.

In short this is like a time capsule which allows you to go back in time to 1978 and listen to one of the worlds most influential artists at arguably his creative peak backed by one awesome and compelling band......all in state of the art digital sound circa 2005.

I can't say enough about this album. Simply the best.

David Bowie released his 2nd official live album in the fall of `78 which seemed like an odd time for a man to put out a live record when, though he had reached such a critical apex of his career, his album sales (in the US in particular) were suffering. Even more curious was that half of the double LP featured songs from his two most adventurous records; `Low' and `Heroes'. While `David Live' is a dud in many ways, `Stage' isn't much more interesting though it features a spirited take on several `Ziggy Stardust' tracks. Still, have to give Bowie some credit for daring to put such experimental tracks as "Warszawa", "Art Decade" and "Sense of Doubt" on a live record. I do agree with Tony Viscounti's liner notes that this was probably his best live band as I didn't care the `plastic soul' feel of the previous live opus. Again I prefer the Ziggy era for live Bowie but do appreciate all of his Seventies output (the studio records) while I feel the live stuff leaves much to be desired.