The cover is a good reflection of the music itself. Bowie looks unnatural, stiff, mannequin like. The music itlelf sounds unnatural; Bowie trying to do smooth soul. I'm trying to think of a greater incongruity than David Bowie doing soul, but it's difficult. Maybe Condaleeza Rice as a stand up comedienne, or Samuel Jackson as a Jedi knight(oh wait...) There might be some metaphorical polite smattering of applause at such an unexpected turn of events, trying to reassure yourself that it's not so bad. I know that Bowie's whole schtick was reinventing himself every 2 years or so, but this is, quite frankly one of the most boring live albums I've heard. It's so fake sounding, and forced. David Bowie the caberet performer. Full of brass and backup singers as if to say "Hey, we're playing soul. Do you see?" Recorded in Philidelphia it proclaims. Just because it was recorded in the home of "Philly soul" doesn't mean that any authenticity is going to creep into the concert. Most of the songs are from a time he was writing his own type of odd songs, and they get played as if they were smooth soul. No wonder Bowie looks perplexed on the cover.

And needless to say he couldn't sing his way out of a wet paper bag.

This was the "Diamond Dogs" tour despite the 'thin white duke' cover. I admit that the quality of the sound is not perfect, but it is as real as one can expect from 1974. Bowie sings his classics and what you hear is NOT what you see. Fortunate enough to have been there, I cannot tell anyone how fantastic the sound, light, the crowd and the showmanship was in tha tiny theatre. However, this is just sound and if you want to hear Bowie as he truly was in concert - it's here. For a better live Bowie recording, check out "Stage", which was much better produced. For a song concert song collection, I'd stay with "Live".

Have a few Guiness Stouts, smoke a spliff and listen to Earl Slick's solo in "Moonage Daydream". It's all that.

Bowie rocks! And he does so nowhere better than this!
The people who wrote "reviews" disparaging this album have rocks in their heads!

David cuts loose on this album and you can hear his tortured frame of mind in his singing and soulful performance.
The guitar is magnificent, the sax sublime, and the whole thing is an extravaganza of music.

He produces marvellous renditions of songs from his album 'Diamond Dogs' that are longer and truly inspired. Earl slick on guitar has never sounded better and Bowie's untrained voice is just spectacular.

Bowie is awesome live and this would have to be one of his *best* efforts.

David Live is without question the greatest music album of all time, by any artist, from any period.

Something strange yet beautiful touched the performances on those two nights, something really special. Sadly, after "getting it", you may find it hard to listen to anything else with any sincerity; it exposes the majority of modern music as completely hollow, shadowless and devoid of any imagination.

Bowie is a chamelion, and on this album we catch a unique glimpse of him changing his colours. We are plunged into the very place where all of his personas, ideas, feelings and musical energy come from. Listening to it is like writing a song through Bowies eyes, we see what he sees, we feel what he feels.

The danger with this album is that, after listening to it, there is literally nowhere else to go musically. It puts such a huge question mark over anything that is produced by todays "artists" that you just have to stop and look for something else to do.

Where did the real stars go?