David Bowie- Moonage Daydream

Here's an interesting moment in rock history- David Bowie playing his last show as Ziggy Stardust at London's Hammersmith Odeon Theater in 1973. The Farewell Concert, as it came to be known, was filmed by renown cinema verite director DA Pennebaker, also the man behind the famed Dylan documentary "Don't Look Back". Finally released nearly 10 years after being filmed, "David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" is a classic music document by any standard; you get to see Bowie at the height of his Ziggy Stardust fame, right before he sheds his famous alter ego in favor of a more serious stage persona. Because of his shrewd moves Bowie was one of the only glam musicians to cross over to mainstream acceptance and craft himself into a lasting music icon.

Here you can tell Bowie is enjoying this last performance, he's smiling and acting out the lyrics through out the song, it's one of those rare moments where audience and musician seem to be equally absorbed in the performance. But even though Bowie is amazing, don't overlook the brilliance of his guitarist and main collaborator Mick Ronson. Not sure about his Benjamin Franklin costume concept but Ronson's guitar playing on this song is astounding. After some weird coordinated stage moves with Ronson, Bowie leaves the stage and the guitarist has the spotlight to himself. Its an intense solo from the onset but at 4:07 Ronson kicks on the echo and creates a wave of sound that totally shocked me the first time I heard it. The audience is going nuts the whole time, notice that its pretty much all young girls, at one point Ronson makes his way over to the edge of the stage and they almost pull him into the crowd [4:32].

Rumor has it that for the encore Jeff Beck joins the band onstage and plays "Rebel, Rebel" and some other songs. It was recorded on film but Beck refused to sign an artist release because he reportedly objected to the outfit he wore that night. Hopefully the footage will see the light of day eventually, its got to be awesome.