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.

The Sweet- Solid Gold Brass

Since things seem to be headed solidly in the Glam direction at the moment, I'll just roll with it and put up this clip sent by my man Ned Brewster in Majorca, Spain. Its British Glam heavyweights The Sweet doing "Solid Gold Brass" on the short lived BBC show Geordie Scene in 1974. The Sweet were a great band but tragically underrated because of their pop hits "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox On The Run". Its obvious they just wanted to be Led Zeppelin but got trapped in the bubblegum pop scene by their initial success with younger audiences.

The way they do "Solid Gold Brass", though, is evidence of something more going on beneath the surface. The song is full of contradictions- heavy but laid back, detached but aggressive, the tough sounding opening guitar riffs then Andy Scott's angelic voice and the spoken, menacing lyrics by bass player Steve Priest. What about the oddly jazzy guitar and bass at 2:20? To the band's credit, though, somehow all the disparate parts come together and they make it work.

Slade- Look Wot You Dun

Without Slade would there be any Quiet Riot? Or Prince's phonetically spelled song titles? Kiss's whole schtick? OK, maybe those are bad examples but certainly Rock N Roll would be worse off not having had the band around.

Actually Slade is one of my favorites and also highly regarded by Paul McCartney, Ritchie Blackmore, Alice Cooper, Angus Young, Paul Weller and pretty much every one who grew up in England in the 1970s. Its hard to believe that Slade sold more singles in the UK then any other group of the 70s and yet remained virtually unknown here in America. It wasn't until Quiet Riot covered "Cum on Feel the Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" in the mid 80s did Slade have anything approach the top of the US music charts.

With this version of "Look Wot You Dun" you see the genius of Slade at work. Loud catchy anthems, crazy costumes, the raucaus stage antics all made a perfect antidote to the staid performances and musicianship that were the status quo of the UK music scene at the time [ie, prog rock]. Slade doesn't hold anything back here, just listen to how distorted the audio gets when the bass and then the vocals kick in. The kids just wanted to party and Slade definitely knew how to deliver the goods.

Suzi Quatro- Breakdown

Remember when Suzi was a character on Happy Days? It was towards the end of the show's run and I think she was supposed to be the Fonz's little sister or something. Its too bad thats how most Americans got to know her, her records are cool but never did very well here in the US. I think she might be out there still doing music, a few years ago I heard she had a new album or radio show, but even if thats not the case at least she still gets to go around saying she's Suzi Quatro.

This is her doing a live cover of Tom Petty's "Breakdown" and she kills it! She takes the original version and kicks it up a few notches just based on her attitude alone. Wonder what Petty would think of this?