Nights Are Warm And The Days Are Young

Here's another David Bowie find that came to my attention after reading Marc Spitz's biography. Soul Train is always very awkward for any performer. For one, the artist always has to lip-synch, usually very badly. Watching the video below you will probably think that the audio is off synch. It's not; that's just classic drugged up rock star forgetting his lines. Also, I'm guessing the audience is told to completely ignore the person who's performing because when they're up there it always seems like the dancers couldn't care any less. Then again, maybe that's just 70's cool. Either way, here is Bowie's performance of "Golden Years" from 1975. As Spitz puts it, "Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse have never looked this wasted."

I Never Lost Control

I recently finished Marc Spitz's Bowie biography, which takes a good look at David Bowie's life and career up through his current period of artistic silence. While Bowie diehards like myself patiently await for the man to drop another nugget of pure brilliance on the world, books like this can bring up some moments that may have gone unnoticed by the younger generation.

David Bowie's 1979 Saturday Night Live performance was one of those aspects that I was previously unaware of. I quickly had to see for myself after Spitz spent a couple pages describing it. (What did we do without the internet to provide us with instant gratification at times like this?) So take a look for yourself. This is really something that needs to be seen. Think about the wave of WTF's this probably caused: from the pizza slice shaped digs on "The Man Who Sold the World," to the crazy puppet effects on "Boys Keep Swinging." Also notice German-born vocalist/New York socialite Klaus Nomi providing backing for the three performances (he's the one in black).