Saturday, February 26, 2011

DAVID_live



When I saw David Bowie live it was on January 27, 2004, in San Jose at the HP Pavilion on "A Reality Tour."  According to www.setlist.fm, the set list that night was as follows:
  1. Rebel Rebel
  2. Do You Know the Way To San Jose
    (Dionne Warwick cover) (Snippet)
  3. New Killer Star
  4. Reality
  5. Fame
  6. Cactus
    (Pixies cover)
  7. All The Young Dudes
    (Mott The Hoople cover)
  8. China Girl
  9. I've Been Waiting For You
    (Neil Young cover)
  10. Days
  11. The Man Who Sold The World
  12. Afraid
  13. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
  14. The Loneliest Guy
  15. Hang On To Yourself
  16. Hallo Spaceboy
  17. Sunday
  18. Under Pressure
    (Queen & David Bowie cover)
  19. Life On Mars?
  20. Never Get Old
  21. Ashes To Ashes
  22. White Light/White Heat
    (The Velvet Underground cover)
  23. I'm Afraid Of Americans
  24. "Heroes" 
    Encore
  25. Bring Me The Disco King
  26. Five Years
  27. Suffragette City
  28. Ziggy Stardust
I distinctly remember All the Young Dudes and Life on Mars? being spectacular, and Rebel Rebel, Under Pressure, "Heroes," and Five Years were great too.  Earl Slick was playing guitar and looked ageless.  David Bowie's ass looked great.  I'm glad I went but for an artist like Bowie there was no hope of approximating my dream set list, spanning so many eras, including so many deep album cuts.  The point of this blog is to reveal those indulgent fantasy set lists that artists would never ever play unless you had kidnapped them and were holding them hostage and Bowie is so important to me that I had to start here.  This is not necessarily just my favorite Bowie songs - the focus here is more on what I'd love to hear live.  Can you imagine witnessing Crystal Japan giving way to Station to Station culminating in Boys Keep Swinging??  Sorry - spoiler alert!  Without further delay, my David live set list.  <The idea was to keep it around 2 hours/30 songs, with at least one encore>

     1.  The Secret Life Of Arabia
     2.  Young Americans
     3.  Be My Wife
     4.  Golden Years
     5.  Red Sails
     6.  Rebel Rebel
     7.  Blue Jean
     8.  Panic In Detroit
     9.  She Shook Me Cold
   10.  Oh! You Pretty Things
   11.  Life On Mars?
   12.  Breaking Glass
   13.  Beauty And The Beast
   14.  Joe The Lion
   15.  Ashes To Ashes
   16.  China Girl
   17.  Crystal Japan
   18.  Station To Station
   19.  Boys Keep Swinging
     First Encore
   20.  After All
   21.  Sweet Thing
   22.  Candidate
   23.  Sweet Thing (Reprise)
   24.  Lady Grinning Soul
     Second Encore
   25.  I'm Deranged
   26.  See Emily Play
          (Pink Floyd cover)
   27.  Letter To Hermione
   28.  Starman
   29.  Teenage Wildlife
   30.  The Bewlay Brothers

Download 2 hour mix in m4a format (with chapters!!)

What would your ideal Bowie live show include?  Share your dream set list in the comments and include a link to a mix if you're into it.

13 comments:

  1. Oops, forgot all the duets with macy gray...

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  2. my greatest bowie fantasy has always been a 12 minute version of "V-2 Schneider" that devolves into a full-blown dance jam.

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  3. This is really brilliant, dude. In the future I'll send this to anyone who hasn't been full schooled on Bowie.

    Here is my quick setlist idea, I would have to assemble it and play with the flow a little to do it properly... I think it's too long too, but here goes. I'll ask Alice for hers as well!

    WINKY SETLIZT FOR David Bo-wie
    1. Future Legend/Diamond Dogs
    2. Breaking Glass
    3. TVC15
    4. Oh! You Pretty Things
    5. Moonage Daydream
    6. Golden Years
    7. Magic Dance (Snippet + banter)
    8. Sweet Head
    9. Drive-In Saturday
    10. Be My Wife
    11. Fantastic Voyage
    12. Station To Station
    13. Scary Monsters (w/ surprise guest: Trent Reznor)
    14. Sweet Thing
    15. Candidate
    16. Sweet Thing (Reprise)
    1. Time
    18. Up the Hill Backwards (snippet)
    19. Kingdom Come (w/surprise guest: Tom Verlaine)
    20. Stay
    21. Rock N Roll Suicide

    1st Encore
    22. Always Crashing in the Same Car
    23. Lady Grinning Soul
    24. Sister Midnight (w/ surprise guest: Iggy Pop)
    25. We Are The Dead
    26. Teenage Wildlife

    2nd Encore
    27. Warszawa (partial intro)
    28. Blackout
    29. Big Brother/Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal family
    30. A New Career in a New Town
    31. Sound & Vision

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  4. @Nate: That sounds really chill - dance jam a la "Magic Dance" or "Let's Dance" serious moonlight??
    @Ryan: Beautiful set, man. Really wanted to work Drive-In Saturday into mine but couldn't find a spot... Your 2nd encore is interesting - really deep cut and ending on S&V is a classy move!

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  5. Crystal Japan -> Station to Station -> Boys Keep Swinging for the end of the main chunk is pretty unbeatable.

    I sent it to Alice and said-- mine is already unfairly too long and I still didn't get Life on Mars? in there... SET FAIL. And Sweet Thing as the 1st encore is a killer move, it would definitely mean more then rather than earlier.

    I'm Deranged: man, I would flip my shit when that started :)))

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  6. Yeah, I like your guest appearance by Trent Reznor!

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  7. Bizarrely, I actually did this months ago for fun.

    Hang On to Yourself / Blue Jean / Rebel Rebel / Ashes to Ashes / Breaking Glass / Panic in Detroit / Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) / Let's Dance / Stay / Five Years / 5:15 The Angels Have Gone / Reality / All the Young Dudes / I'm Afraid of Americans / Ziggy Stardust / "Heroes" // Station to Station / Dead Man Walking / Subterraneans // Fame/Fashion (w/Lady Gaga) / Lady Stardust (w/Lady Gaga) / Under Pressure (w/Lady Gaga) / Rock and Roll Suicide (w/Lady Gaga)

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  8. Maybe somewhere between the two, but probably closer to "Magic Dance", but sans muppets. I'm thinking like downbeat disco remixx.

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  9. Just remembered Derek singing "Magic Dance" at that New Years party in Oakland years back. Maybe he could be the special guest for that song.

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  10. OK, after watching this great performance that Ryan showed me:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a9bt8XGNz8
    I want to add to my set list one detail: on Beauty and the Beast - special guest: Adrian Belew!!

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  11. @Sean: Those are some great choices for Lady Gaga duets - especially Rock and Roll suicide. I dunno about Under Pressure... but that might just be the Freddie purist in me!
    @Nate: Derek is closely tied to my appreciation for Labyrinth - I think he would be up to the task! He also does great Cranberries covers...

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  12. David Bowie wrote 'All The Young Dudes' for Mott the Hoople and also made a superior recording of it. Saying All The Young Dudes is a Mott The Hoople cover is like saying "Michael Jackson performed Smooth Criminal (Alien Ant Farm cover)".

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  13. @Harvey: hahaha, dude your simile to Alien Ant Farm is way off-- Bowie wrote it for Mott the Hoople specifically, and their version came out in '72, then his was recorded post-Ziggy (in '73?) and wasn't released for another 20 years... It's more akin to when Prince plays "The Glamorous Life" (or "Nasty Girl") live; it's referred to as a Sheila E (or Vanity 6) cover, even though he wrote the song (and recordings of him playing it exist).

    @Sean: I love that this idea occurred to you separately and earlier too, it's super fun to imagine perfect shows.

    Would you guys wanna hear the original Panic in Detroit, or the stranger early-80s version that was a Ryko disc extra on Scary Monsters?

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