David Bowie • Can You Hear Me • Live from The Philly Dogs Tour • 1974
Audio & Video: David Bowie • Can You Hear Me, recorded live on The Philly Dogs Tour. Unknown U.S. venue, between the 8th of October and the 30th of November, 1974.
Musicians:
• David Bowie – vocals
• Mike Garson – piano, mellotron, music director
• Earl Slick – lead guitar
• Carlos Alomar – rhythm guitar
• Emir Kasan – bass
• Dennis Davis – drums
• David Sanborn – alto saxophone, flute
• Pablo Rosario – percussion
• Warren Peace – backing vocals
• Ava Cherry – backing vocals
• Robin Clark – backing vocals
• Anthony Hinton – backing vocals
• Diane Sumler – backing vocals
• Luther Vandross – backing vocals
Having recently uploaded David Bowie • Jean Genie • Live at The Tower Theater • July 1974 (https://vimeo.com/314506953) here's another previously unseen '74 treasure, dragged kicking and screaming from the David Bowie Is app, dutifully finessed and uploaded for your viewing and listening pleasure!
To my knowledge, this is the only video of a full song, and the only soundboard recording from the third and final leg of Bowie’s ’74 shows, the so-called “Philly Dogs Tour”. So, from my perspective, this is indeed quite a treasure.
The ’74 tour resumed in early October, after recording sessions for the Young Americans album. The shows had become almost unrecognizable from the earlier part of the Diamond Dogs tour. Gone was Hunger City and the elaborate staging. The set-list was also very much changed, and only Mike Garson, Earl Slick & David Sanborn remained from the original touring band. Significantly, the rhythm section of the band had now become Carlos Alomar on guitar, Dennis Davis on drums and Emir Kazan on bass. This was the band that would a few weeks later, in January '75, record \"Fame\". And then later that year, with Emir Kazan being replaced by George Murray, the D.A.M. Trio were formed - that band that would be the backbone of Bowie’s music until Scary Monsters, in 1980. Another significant difference with the Philly Dogs shows, was the additional backing singers. At the beginning of the tour there had been two backing singers, whereas the Philly Dogs shows boasted six, including Luther Vandross.
Unfortunately the overall quality of this video is not great. Visually, it’s a fairly distant fuzzy one-angle take. It was likely either shot on unsophisticated equipment, or has been poorly transferred and/or has deteriorated over the years.
Thankfully however, the audio is a pretty decent recording. Bowie’s vocal is rough it has to be said, but the band sound absolutely superb. For me, it’s a joy to hear a live Young Americans track, so beautifully arranged and faultlessly played by this incredible collection of musicians. I particularly love the extra minute at the end the where band keeps the wonderful groove going, and Bowie has fun with Dennis Davis, asking him to “Take it two-and-a-half-times!”
Hope you dig it!
More videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe!
I don't own the rights, and I'm not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans.
