Melody Maker
Nov 5 1983
By Adam Sweeting
ZIGGY STARDUST: THE MOTION
PICTURE (EMI) DAVID BOWIE!!! Arentcha just sick
ta death of him???? "Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture". What
kind of name is that for a live LP anyway? This is a recording of Dave's
farwell Ziggy Stardust cencert at Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, with
the Spiders From Mars, augumented by horns, backing vocals and Mike Garson's
Bibaroof garden piano.
.....Though it sounds
like Bowie was on a good vocal form that night, this recording seems to
prove that the Spiders were bearly adequate as a backing band.
.....A lot of
this may be down to the atrocious recording quality, which lacks all definition
at the bass end of the sound spectrum, and though there are bits of muted
crowd noise it has the flat top-heavy feel of a monitor mix.
.....You get monsoons
of Mick Ronson's lead guitar and plenty of voice, snare and cymbals, but
bass guitar and bass drum merge into an ugly, muffled, grunting noise undereath,
completely lacking resonance or clarity.
.....Horns and
piano, when you can hear them, are blurred and very distant.
.....Thus the
Jaques Brel song "My Death" comes over better than anything else
because it's just voice, acoustic guitar and keyboard decorations.
.....Generally,
though, the Spiders sound like a half-baked heavy metal band on a bad night,
inefficiently bootlegged.
.....Perhaps you've
heard the single lifted from this already - a version of Lou Reed's "White
Light, White Heat".
.....It has all
the trademarks of this regrettable collection - Mick Ronson's howling and
tuneless lead guitar, bawling backing voices probably piped in from nearby
pub (maybe that one across the road under the subway) and the kind of trundling
dim-witted "boogie" that used to be tumble out of garages everywhere.
....."Not
only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show we'll ever
do," Dave announces breathily after this abomination, before delivering
an over-wrought coup de grace with, inevitably, "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide".
It does at least offer a glint of pathos.
.....The erratic
quality of these performances is little short of baffling.
.....There are
a couple of moments where clout overcomes clumsiness - "Cracked Actor"
and "Time" - but at the end of the same side is a thoroughly squalid
rendition of "Width Of A Circle."
.....It's clumsy,
abrupt, out of tune (but, of course) and completely lacking the spacious
power of the version on "The Man Who Sold The World".
.....The Spiders
are consitently at their worst when trying to "rock out", as they
do almost everywhere. "Suffragette City", "Hang On To Yourslef"
and "Ziggy Stardust" blunder along like a team of sumo wrestlers
on bad acid trying to escape from a broom cupboard. Woody Woodmansey's drum
sound like a man falling down a flight of stairs.
....."Moonage
Daydream" is a caterwauling travesty of backing voices, random echo,
and Woolworth's guitar.
.....The atmospheric
potential of "Space Oddity" is gleefully wrecked by Ronson's effort
at guitar soloing, boxing-glove style, and "Let's Spend The Night Together"
is on a par with some of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time, such
as Eater or Flintlock.
.....I expect
many of you will run out in droves to buy this, for historical value if
nothing else, but don't say I didn't warn you.
.....It's taken
somebody 10 years to pluck up the courage to release it, after all.
.....I can hardly
wait for the movie, the book, the tee-shirt and the matching set of autographed
"Knights Of Bushido" ceremonial swords. |