Ah, the saga of David Bowie. Nearly 40 years ago, the former David Jones, who’d been slogging it around London in search of an identity, finally connected with audiences when he transformed himself into an androgynous space alien called Ziggy Stardust. Touring the United States for the first time in 1972 behind The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Bowie’s celebrated appearance at the Santa Monica Civic in Los Angeles was broadcast live on October 20, 1972 on the legendary radio station KMET. It eventually became a highly collectible bootleg. Over three decades later, the recording has been dusted off, given a nice rinsing and repackaged as Live Santa Monica ’72.
Bowie became an easy target for ridicule when he dolled himself up as Ziggy. But the music was too potent to write off; tunefully melodic with riffs and hooks galore, played whimsically by guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, drummer Mick Woodmansey and pianist Mike Garson — collectively known as the Spiders From Mars. At Santa Monica, the songs from the new album came tumbling out like silver dollars from a slot machine. “Hang Onto Yourself,” “Ziggy Stardust,” ‘Five Years,” “Moonage Daydream” “Suffragette City” and ‘Rock And Roll Suicide,” all prodded and thumped like drunk Weebles on a school night. You can almost feel the energy of the small seaside venue’s rafters shaking in the madness of Ziggy and the Spiders’ vivacious chemistry.
Serving a wild mix of Clockwork Orange inspired theatrics with a provocative bend, Bowie rarely steps out of character — invoking a sassy spirit in “Changes,” floating through the stratosphere during “Space Oddity,” and occasionally stripping away the excess in the simplicity of “Andy Warhol” or the raw dirtiness of “The Width Of A Circle” and “Queen Bitch.” The devoted delivery of the Velvet Underground’s “Waiting For The Man” clearly illustrates where Ziggy was finding the inspiration to push boldly into areas previously unexplored. If Live Santa Monica ’72 accomplishes anything, it shows how even in the early days of Bowie’s burgeoning career, the genius was burning like a Roman candle, ready to explode and ignite a star brighter than most. How prophetic!
