BOWIE VS. DYLAN

I'm Charlie and I like Bowie.

Last week, Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78), a previously unreleased archival Bowie live album, came out on CD and digital (vinyl was for Record Store Day) to the delight of Bowie experts, collectors, die-hards, completists, and hard-core acolytes. But what about the more casual fan? Is there any reason to buy a 1978 live album when another one already exists? Especially when said live album has been around since, well, 1978?

The background:

In 1978, Bowie went on a world tour in support of his two 1977 albums, Low and "Heroes". The setlist was divided in two with the first half almost entirely made up of songs from Bowie's experimental/synth-tinged/krautrock-inspired/Eno-featuring 1977 albums and the second half dominated by older songs including a full half of Ziggy Stardust and another half of Station to Station. It was a bold move and if I do say so, it paid off.

Multiple dates were recorded for various reasons, the most prominent being four dates in late April/early May that were used for Bowie's second ever live album, Stage, released in September of the same year. While the average performance featured 23-ish songs, Stage was whittled down to 17 tracks to better fit on double vinyl and notably does not feature any of the same songs as his first live album from 1974, David Live.

Stage holds the dubious honor of being possibly Bowie's most messed-with album. The initial tracklist was shuffled dramatically from the original concert order so that the songs are basically chronological by original release date, a move that has been criticized plenty through the years. Fades were also put between every song rather than continuous crowd noise so it loses some energy and has a bit of a bland, studio feel. With that said, the music is largely good; it just wasn't presented in the best way possible.

Since that initial 1978 release, it's been re-released three times, each time slightly expanded. In 1991, it was released with one bonus track, putting it up to 18 songs. In 2005, two more tracks were added, the between song fades were removed, and the song order was rearranged to reflect the actual concert. Then, in 2017 it was re-released yet again as part of the 1977-1982 box set with two more tracks putting it up to 22 (notably still one song shy of the average show from the tour).


Which brings us to 2018 and the release of Welcome to the Blackout. Also from the 1978 tour, it features 24 tracks including every single song from last year's re-release in virtually the exact same order making it feel initially like yet another upgrade of 1978's poor beleagured live album. It's easy to start wondering why it was even released, except, of course, so that Parlophone can make more money.

But honestly, I think that's being unfair to poor Blackout. First of all, Blackout was recorded from two entirely different shows (seemingly for a live video that never materialized) from late June/early July. And with that recognition comes another- the shows themselves are way better than the ones used for Stage. The energy is higher, the songs are largely faster, the arrangements are looser and more creative, and the band is firing on all cylinders. While each edition of Stage has been an improvement over the last, this trumps them all and because it already represents every song played at the show (including the first ever live performance of "Sound and Vision") there's no way for it be replaced by a better version of itself later on.


Actually, this is the exact same thing they did last year in releasing Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74). No, it's not that exciting to have a new live album that's almost identical to one already in existence (David Live in that case). But that doesn't change the fact that the new one is straight up better. It just probably should have been the one released in the first place.

So what does this mean for the casual Bowie fan? I don't know. It probably depends on whether you already own one of the myriad versions of Stage or not. If you don't, then you should probably just skip it and go for Welcome to the Blackout instead. If you own last year's almost definitive 22-track version of Stage and don't feel a burning thirst for more, then you're probably fine to skip this one. If you own an earlier version of Stage and have always felt vaguely disatisfied, nagged by the subtle feeling that this could be something more... then I guess buy Blackout. And if you're one of those Bowie experts, collectors, die-hards, completists, or hard-core accolytes mentioned at the top of the post, then you don't need my advice. You already own this, right?