Customer Reviews

Live Santa Monica 72

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD was much better than I expected, because I've never heard a great live Bowie album before. The difference here is this release has just the right amount of rawness. Mick Ronson sounds incredible throughout and Bowie is in very fine voice. The harmonies are great and the mistakes make it all seem very real. Ronson wails on the 10 minute "The Width Of A Circle" and Bowie does an excellent tribute to Lou Reed with "Waiting For The Man". A nice added touch was when Bowie had to vocally recreate the sound effects of "Space Oddity" due to limited technology back in 1972. "Space Oddity also began a very nice acoustic set in the middle of the concert along with "Andy Warhol" and "My Death". There are many highlights, but probably the best was the encore..."Rock N Roll Suicide". I highly recommend this CD!

Live in Santa Monica '72 being a live album of Bowie and is a recording of his Ziggy Stardust Tour. Here we get great live renditions of Bowie classics such as "Changes", "Space Oddity" and ofcourse "Ziggy Stardust". Allmusic gave this live recording 5/5 in the reviews and I completely agree. The booklet is quite sparse with a few photos of Bowie from the time of the concert and a list of whom played what. 5/5.

Bowie and the Spiders can beat it, who knows how his other albums would have turned out with them in the studio. To me as much as I like many of the albums and the muscians are good, there is something about the way the Spiders functioned with Bowie, to me a bug mistake in judgement. Anyone can copy someone elses riffs, but the person who originates them ... thats where the skill is. Mike Garson, Woody Woodsmansy, Bolder and Ronson created a much more dangerous sound than his later side kicks, yet some of the acoustic and string support really made this unit effective. Great selection of songs. Bowie still learning to master the stage performance but well worth if you never had a chance to see this band live. Not sure but this is probably where he began to be noticed in the US.

This is a good live album that captures the essence of Bowie as Ziggy and the Spiders from Mars. Mick Ronson is the perfect complement to David, both vocally and on stage. The material covers the scope of the first four albums, so "Changes", "Moonage Daydream", "Width of a Circle", are represented, as well as other hits. Where this is a good live album, there is not too much different from some of the other live releases, like the soundtrack of "Ziggy Stardust Final Show" movie. There are cover versions like "My Death" and the Lou Reed tune, "Waiting for the Man". I prefer this release, "David Live", and "Stage", which are better live releases. The audio quality of this could be better, but this is still a good addition to a Bowie fan's collection.

Awesome, comes to mind! The material is mind altering. You know im from LA, and was a tad too young for this show. However, i did catch him at the Forum, four years later!Being an audiophile, im very impressed by the sonics of this recording! Best recording of this show, yet!

Live in Santa Monica '72

This is it for all David Bowie fans or up coming fans. The best ive ever heard!