Artist: Bowie, David
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2006
Rating: 4/5
For all of us who lived through the eighties in the golden years of adolescence and teenhood, this reissue of the classic VHS recording, now finally on DVD too, is a must-have gadget for everyone with that “Duran Duran” ID number sitting at home today and looking to quench their thirst for nostalgia. And heads up: you won’t find it in just any Top Shop.
So, the right honorable David Bowie was riding a real wave of commercial success around the globe in the period after the release of “Let’s Dance”. His career was at its absolute peak. He filled arenas and stadiums with tens of thousands of electrified heads like it was nothing. And no wonder. Evergreen hits just rained down from the genius’s head. Let’s Dance, China Girl, Modern Love, all songs that feel inspired at any given moment, hit-packed, evergreen, timeless, whether it’s 1983, 2008,… And people will go on debating him the same way for decades and decades to come. Add to that all the seventies classics that crowned him on the throne of the greatest acts of the rock era, when he glided elusively through a whole constellation of artistic incarnations, from the Thin White Duke to Aladdin Sane and of course Ziggy Stardust. More than once in his career, David Bowie stripped his songs down so they’d toddle around, totally innocent, in spotless bluesy soul rock diapers. The first such radical turn naturally came after “Diamond Dogs”. With the German trilogy Bowie went back to communing with aliens, and after “Scary Monsters”, the last album of that triad of unique “soundscapes art pop” experimentation, he evidently felt it was time once again to give his creations back their elemental core. No picking favorites among them.
On the “Serious Moonlight” tour Bowie strode onstage in a light-colored suit every time, with suspenders as standard issue to keep the man from getting lost in his trousers, a few sizes too big, and with a slicked-back, light-colored hairdo! He brought back into his act the dance moves from the “Young Americans” and “Station To Station” era, which, under the man’s firm baton, with slightly lower-pitched soul-blues singing and rowdy gestures putting his masculinity on display, drove the crowd even wilder, especially the female half. And what do you need for that? “Nothing new, I’ve got a tried-and-tested recipe,” Bowie would say. It’s what he grew up on and he never denied it in his expression, he just used the elements of multi-part vocal backing and horns in different doses. This time he hit the world’s concert stages with an especially strong crew of backing vocalists and a horn section, which of course were a guarantee of flawlessly effective execution of songs dressed in soul/blues form.
This recording, dating back to way back on 12.09.1983 in Vancouver, Canada, kicks off in typical Bowie fashion. With full stage theater. We get instant confirmation of that with Look Back In Anger and Bowie starting the performance with his back to the audience, until? The chorus, of course. “Look Back In Anger!” The artist whips around to the crowd, beams of white light suddenly flood over him, the crowd explodes, and you can feel the fever in your fingertips radiating off the screen. Since David obviously knew the cameras were there to immortalize him, you’ll struggle to tell the genuine facial expressions, born of the artist’s spontaneity, from that artificial “a million dollar smile”, which just offers the DVD viewer some extra fun while watching.
Bowie is not only an outstanding actor but also a true wizard. It often happens that he just barely flicks a gesture or sweeps a glance across the audience once, and in an instant it reacts as one and obediently follows the magician. David handles the crowd with fascinating ease, and it only wakes from its guided trance once the last lights go out and the final note of the show rings out. Magnificent.
Bowie enjoyed himself immensely at the shows on this tour, and that’s not hard to spot in the footage. The concert is a proper show with tailored scenarios and rules of stagecraft that follow the spirit of each individual song. It’s a pleasure to watch the band’s absolute deference to their leader. So Bowie is placed firmly front and center, only a few steps from the front row, behind him is an empty stretch of stage, and the musicians in the second line stand just slightly in front of the drum kit. Of course David gives them plenty of chances to cut loose around the stage, which is guaranteed by the longer improvised sections.
The remastered picture brings quite a few improvements. The first is obvious in the sharpness of the image itself, which has been upgraded. Of course, despite the improvement, it can’t completely hide its archaic origins. The color contrasts are much clearer too. The glare of the red and purple spotlights has been toned down as well. The audio comes in an improved mix, as a Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 surround track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo track.
The special features include documentary footage of David spending his days on the Asian leg of the Serious Moonlight tour, offering a close-up look behind the scenes of the artist’s life when he’s not onstage. David comes across as a curious fellow who likes nothing better than wandering completely alone through the streets of Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. The documentary also includes a short interview, full of bright laughter and some especially interesting remarks from David, such as that the only musical genre with no passion or eroticism is heavy metal.
It’ll be interesting to see how many years go by before “Serious Moonlight” finally comes out as a complete concert recording. The existing one has no obligatory encore, and it’s also missing Modern Love, which Bowie played on this tour, as well as Star, Stay and The Jean Genie. And how does the concert recording wrap up? With two “Young Americans” songs, namely the title track and Fame. The footage doesn’t hide its cuts and plays more like a feature-length documentary than a concert in the true sense of the word, one for chewing over with friends while munching chips. So there’s still room for an upgrade sometime down the road with some new reissue. Even so, the reality of the stage act in the existing “Serious Moonlight” recording, combined with a top-class performance, is poisonously hypnotic, hooks you in an instant, and you’ll have a hard time breaking free of such a firm grip. The style of the greats.
Lineup
David Bowie – vocals
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Earl Slick – guitar
David LeBott – keyboards
Lenny Pickett – alto saxophone
Stan Harrison – baritone saxophone
Steve Elson – tenor saxophone
Kevin Simms – backing vocals
Joyce Simms – backing vocals
Carmen Rojas – bass guitar
Tony Thompson – drums
Track List
1. Introduction
2. Look Back in Anger
3. Heroes
4. What in the World
5. Golden Years
6. Fashion
7. Let’s Dance
8. Breaking Glass
9. Life on Mars?
10. Sorrow
11. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
12. China Girl
13. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
14. Rebel Rebel
15. White Light/White Heat
16. Station to Station
17. Cracked Actor
18. Ashes to Ashes
19. Space Oddity/Band introduction
20. Young Americans
21. Fame/End Credits
EXTRAS:
– “Ricochet” (documentary from the Asian leg of the Serious Moonlight tour)
– photo gallery
DVD runtime: 165 min.
