“And he was alright, the band was altogether”
According to the flyer reproduced here, David Live was released on October 29, 1974.
October 29 was a Tuesday back in 1974, a highly unusual day to release an LP in the 70s as the great majority were issued on a Friday.
Given the other information available, we can deduce that the true release date would normally have been Friday November 1.
Whatever the truth, the date didn’t hinder its success as David Live entered the official UK album chart at #2 on November 16, 1974, and remained in the Top 20 for another six weeks till the end of the year.
David Live was Bowie’s first officially released live album, and it was compiled from performances during a run of five shows, from the 8th to the 12th of July 1974, at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia as part of The Diamond Dogs Tour.
It’s a magnificent recording capturing the energy and excitement of a completely new band that had started the tour a month earlier in Canada.
Incredible to think that Bowie had only arrived in New York three months earlier, but within two months had learnt and rehearsed a whole new set and embarked upon his most ambitious stage show to date.
The album really does stand the test of the past forty years and sounds as exciting now as it did when it was released in October 1974. Listen to it here.
Check out the excellent The Year Of The Diamond Dogs website for more on David’s activities in 1974 including this page dedicated to David Live.