Customer Reviews

Station To Station [Special Edition] (3CD)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For fans, this release has been a long time coming. A truncated version of the live Nassau Coliseum show has been available as a bootleg for some 30-odd years. Two of the tracks received an official release in 1992 as part of Rykodisc's Bowie reissue campaign, but finally we have it in its full blown state-of-the-art 2010 remastered glory (and sounding pretty damned good for a 34 year-old recording)!
The packaging is outstanding and the liner notes are generous.
One minor peeve: I had read that there would be a download link to obtain the full 13:08 minute version of Panic in Detroit with the extended drum solo, but so far, I have not been able to locate that. In reality, I can probably live without it...

I was most intrigued when I found out that Station to Station was receiving a special edition rerelease. It stands as one of my top three favorite Bowie albums, along with Low and Lodger. I owned a vinyl RCA copy, and I have the Rykodisc remaster from the Nineties. Nevertheless, I wanted to hear the new remaster, and I was curious about the Nassau Colisseum show, of which I'd only heard the two tracks released as bonuses on the Ryko cd.

I was by no means disappointed on any counts. The new remaster, from the original analog, of Station to Station sounds great. The Nassau concert was a true revelation to me; no wonder it is considered a legendary Bowie show! The version of "Station to Station" may be the best I've heard; for all of its coolness, there's a certain fire to this performance. The laid back cover of "Waiting for the Man" works well. "Life on Mars?" is short, just up to the first chorus, but it segues neatly into "Five Years," one of Bowie's all-time greatest songs. Concert albums do not always impress me. This one, however, is a monster.

The packaging is good. I particularly like Cameron Crowe's essay and the making of Station to Station timeline. If you already own this classic, go ahead and buy this special edition. You won't be disappointed. If you've never heard it, what are you waiting for?

Since David Bowie is my favorite artist of all time and this is my favorite album by him I thought I would give my thoughts on it:

The album sounds just as good today as it did upon release. The remastering seems to have given the mix room to breathe so to speak. The Ryko release of Station To Station was light on bass and generally sounded a bit brittle. That's not a problem here. I have yet to get DVD-Audio on this but I am looking forward to what they have done with the 5.1 mix of the record. That being said it's an incredible album and the remaster drives that home.

The Live Album:

After listening to the bootleg of this show a million times there's obviously a change in fidelity (d'uh) and a change in the mix. The audience takes a real backseat in the new mix. They are mixed way down from the original broadcast throughout the tracks, probably to make the individual musicians and Bowie's vocals easier to hear. Where as 'Suffragette City' starts out with Bowie's vocals drowned by crowd noise on the original bootleg you can hear him right out of the gate here. The instruments themselves are much clear throughout. You can really hear George Murry's epic bass work all over the mix.

Bowie hit some pretty high and wacky notes during this performance and on this mix they are now burred in crowd noise, under instruments or just mixed out. Most notably during the end of 'Stay' where his loud screeches of Stttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyeeeeeeee are now barely audible. Maybe he was embarrassed, which seems a bit ridiculous considering his odd ramblings during 'Five Years' and 'Waiting For The Man' and the fact that this is his most bootlegged show ever and one of the most bootlegged concerts in the history of bootlegs period.

'Panic In Detroit''s nearly 11 minute drum solo is almost completely removed from the track more or less to fit the show onto 2 cd's(?!?!). You'll either miss it or you won't but there was certainly more than enough room to fit it so the decision is once again puzzling. I've read that the full length version of it will be available to download via mp3 but there doesn't seem to be any info in the actual packaging. Maybe there are some instructions or something forthcoming?

So overall it sounds pretty great and it's a great show. The remastering went swimmingly and the additional tracks (Waiting For The Man, Life on Mars?/Five Years and a great Queen Bitch) make it finally a complete show. It's no where near as impressive as the remastered/rebuild from the ground up job they did on 'Stage' that made it one of the greatest live albums you always knew it could be but it's still pretty awesome to finally have.

A major step in the right direction for Bowie's back catalog.

Station to Station is one of the best albums of all time, in my opinion. It was the album that made me a huge David Bowie fan, and it's never lost an iota of its hold on me all these years later. The songs can be upbeat but emotional, open yet often sinister. There always seems to be something bubbling under the surface, giving the songs a power that was at times lacking on an album like Young Americans.

I've never had any problem with the sound of the original CD release, so I probably would not have opted for this reissue if it weren't for the Nassau Coliseum concert. The album sounds great, and the concert is absolutely tremendous. He plays songs spanning almost his entire career thus far, but (as Bowie so often did) with his new 1976 style. Suffragette City, for instance, doesn't just rock here - it also glides along on an almost-disco beat.

Sometimes, reissues come with a little padding to trick the consumer into shelling out for something they already have. This concert isn't just padding - it's the real reason to buy this set. The improved mix of the proper album is just the icing on the cake.

Is Nassau 76, the concert included here, the best live album? - in my opinion, it is, yes.

Has the official CD of it got the odd defect, as some have alleged? I won't disagree with all the negative points I've read here and there about this set.

However myriad software, the easy availability of facilities to write reviews online has turned a lot of us into armchair critics...

Dig deep, or simply give any album - even a classic one - a cursory listen and there will be "imperfections" we can fuss over.

The bigger picture here is that this release features one of the best concerts ever, and it has a lot to offer compared to any prior (bootleg) release. As noted elsewhere, there are minor differences in the sound - for instance that of the guitars - on this mix compared to other versions fans will have heard. Both the rhythm guitar and lead guitar can be heard the most vividly yet...you can hear practically every note clearly, and yet the recording still retains the atmosphere of this very exciting gig, which is no mean feat.

For those unsure of whether to take the plunge on this CD set, focussing on the live album, these are some of the positive points and clearest / most obvious differences between this release and earlier recordings of the Nassau '76 gig -

Starting with Station To Station, it's been claimed this is one of the most exciting songs in Bowie's catalogue once it gets going, and I won't disagree. On the live version here, with the first thud of the bass drum - the presence is so clear! You could imagine being onstage amongst the musicians. Also the backing vocals are much clearer too, and while much has been made of a little too much focus on the drums elsewhere, on here it's just right...the skipping drumming is amazing!

Moving on to the next track, Suffragette City, the rhythm guitar sounds clearer and much less compressed and less 'countrified' than on prior versions of this concert. Very clear drumming, again, which is a good thing here. There's also a nice pre Michaal Jackson-esque "ooh!!" at the end of the track, followed by a laugh, both of which had been edited out of the familiar FM broadcast version.

On Stay in particular, once more the funky rhythm guitar part, care of Carlos, here is much more audible, and this is a good thing...

Waiting For The Man
This is where this set really starts to come into its own...this track, along with Life On Mars / Five Years, had only been heard via the Bowienet site before, and both this track and the latter medley had cuts due to tape errors.
Thankfully a complete dub has been found of both.
This is great news, as these songs are no outtakes, and fortify an already wonderful concert!
This version of the Velvet Underground song also includes this poem

"No hill's too steep
No mountain's too tall
...With hope and Faith
You can conquer them all"

paraphrasing Helen Steiner Rice's inspirational piece...high drama in the last 'feeling so good, feeling so fine..." chorus too!

Next up is Queen Bitch. This song did get a brief release on the RarestOneBowie CD, albeit in a different mix here - ie keyboard centre, guitars left and right channel as per the rest of this release, as opposed to the keyboard in one channel, lead guitar in the other, rhythm guitar central on the Rarest CD, and the rather clinically mixed extras on the earlier Station to Station CD.

Life on Mars / Five Years
This medley is mesmerising...I've waited so long to hear this complete and in excellent quality.
As noted above, this was incomplete on an earlier 'broadcast' on Bowienet, due to a tape fault. Thankfully a complete tape has been found - quite possibly not first generation, as some have alleged - but the songs sound simply beautiful here. Relax and enjoy.

Panic in Detroit - the backing vocals are clearer, and this edit works well!

A minor detail but it's nice to have the extended crowd, anticipating / cheering for an encore, in between Diamond Dogs and Rebel Rebel too.

On The Jean Genie the blistering guitar solo here sounds cleared and better than ever, and again, the extended croud cheering outro helps with the atmosphere of the gig.

So...for every negative comment about the presentation of the gig / whole box here, I believe there is a positive to counter it.

Whether you have a recording of the Nassau gig or not, you either gain a fantastic album and gig that you have not got, or at the very least one with some bonuses you didn't have, so what's there to lose?

Take the plunge and enjoy it!

"Station to Station" remains one of Bowie's seminal albums. This three CD set includes a digital copy of the original RCA issue of the 1985 CD which is highly regarded among Bowie fans. The other two CDs are Bowie's Nassau concert from 1976 to support "Station to Station". Unlike the deluxe set which includes five discs (everything here plus DVD 5.1 mix disc), a vinyl copy of "Station to Station" and a 2 record set of the Nassau concert plus a replica of an original ticket with the limited edition # on it as well as photos and a booklet), this set doesn't have the vinyl nor does it have the DVD-A discs and it is missing the CD that has the previously unreleased version of "Station to Station" and single mixes.

The concert is outstanding although the mastering on it leaves something to be desire--it's brickwalled meaning there's virtually no dynamic range and it's compressed which can be fatiguing. It's too bad because this is a TERRIFIC performance. The packaging looks nice but it would be better to have some protective inserts for the CDs or I would prefer a jewel box to put it in. Be aware that "Life on Mars" and "Five Years" feature a drop in sound quality as they had to use a different source tape for both songs than the rest of the concert.

Certainly "Station to Station" (the original album)deserves five stars and the reissue of the previous RCA edition sounds extremely good.The sound quality for the "Station to Station" album is identical to the original Japan for Japan edition (from what I can tell)of the album. If you liked the original CD pressing you'll like this edition of the album as well but be aware it sounds different than both the Ryko edition of the album AND the EMI remaster that was done by Peter Mew.


Aside from the three CDs we also get a booklet and three photos of Bowie on heavy cardboard stock. The "Station to Station" CD is housed in a cardboard sleeve that resembles a miniature version of the vinyl packaging while the other two CDs from the Nassau show are also housed in a double cardboard sleeve. Everything is housed in a CD sized cardboard box.

Stationtostation stands alone as Bowie's remarkable coke-frenzied masterpiece. Finally it has been given the remastering treatment. The Nassau Coliseum concert from the time period has been widely bootlegged, but its inclusion here is a welcome surprise. I'm probably in the minority in not thinking The Tower Philadelphia show documented in David Live is David Dead (love it) but Nassau will make you believe in live Bowie. Great package and booklet, too.

It's all about the music. In 1976 this was an album without peer... for my money that has not changed. The 2 disc live set is long overdue. If David digs through the archives and comes up with a live video release of the isolar tour I will have to come off my wallet again; I still remember the moment the lights went down and the lead guitar cut through the smokey atmosphere of Cleveland's public hall. White light, white heat the arrival of the thin white duke.

...You owe it to yourself to purchase this new 3 CD edition if only for the remastered Nassau show - which includes additional tracks. It's absolutely amazing and easily Bowie's best live record - yes, better than the Santa Monica Spiders show, and certainly better than David Live or Stage. A Reality Tour is great for latter day (and it appears his final album) but nothing comes close to the muscularity of this show.

An absolute must for Bowie fanatics, despite the show being nearly 35 years old, and pretty much for anyone who is a fan of a classic rock album and a class rock legend.

This is how classic albums should be re-released:

Remixed for killer sound, in a tasty box with excellent photos, and a bonuse live concert disc of the Thin White Duke and his crack band in their prime.

If you don't know mid-70's Bowie, this is the place to start. From the opening guitar train wreck of "Station To Station" to Bowie's cover of "Wild is the Wind" (perhaps his most haunting and amazing vocal ever), this is a classic in every sense of the word.

If you're a fan and you already have an earlier version of this CD, well worth your while to upgrade to this new set.

If you're not a fan, why are you reading this?

A must-have for all Bowie-philes. Period.