Stage

The material was recorded at concerts in the cities of Philadelphia , Providence and Boston . “Stage” primarily contains material from Bowie’s latest studio albums, at that time: “ Station to Station ”, “ Low ” and “Heroes” , as well as 5 songs from the legendary “ The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . " In addition to the main Bowie musicians - Carlos Alomar , Dennis Davis and George Murray , the concert group also included: Frank Zappa's former musician Adrian Belew on the guitar, Simon House from the Hawkwind group on the electric violin and Roger Powell , known for his work with Todd Rangred in the Utopia band, on keyboards. They all joined Bowie the following year to record his Lodger album.

In general, the album is considered more relaxed than its previous live recording, “ David Live ” (1974). “Stage” was praised by critics (after its initial release) for the accuracy with which the band was able to perform electronic concert effects from “ Low ” and “Heroes” albums, as well as for Bowie’s vocal skills. However, the album was criticized for the lack of a “lively” atmosphere, thanks to the recording, which was largely taken from the direct channels of instruments and microphones, which increased sound quality, but minimized crowd noise. The original sequence of the concert was also changed, pauses between songs were added - this, according to critics, made it look like a studio album.

Since Bowie rarely interfered with the arrangements on this album - unlike his method on David Live - “Stage” added a little to what was available on the original albums, and therefore it was regarded by some commentators simply as a passing marketing product, which did not pay tribute to the unforgettable atmosphere of live concerts. Even the picture on the cover became an object of criticism, because the rest of the booklet contained only variations of the same picture.

Stage reached # 5 in the UK charts and only # 44 in the US. "Breaking Glass", which originally appeared in a shorter version of the album " Low ", was released as a single.

The 2005 reissue received most of the criticisms of the original album, however, the new version received some positive reviews.

Stage was released on CD 3 times: the first time on RCA Records in 1984, then on Rykodisc in 1991 (contains bonus tracks) and the third time on EMI in 2005. The order of the songs of the 2005 edition repeats the actual sequence of songs at the concert, the pauses between the songs have disappeared, and two bonus tracks have also entered this edition: “Be My Wife” and “Stay”, in addition to the song “ Alabama Song ” already added to 1991 edition. The disc has a CDS copy protection system

Bonus Tracks (Rykodisc 1991)

1. Alabama Song ( Bertolt Brecht , Kurt Weill ) - 4:00

Song List (EMI 2005)

Disc one

1. Warszawa ( David Bowie , Brian Eno ) - 6:50
2. “ Heroes ” ( David Bowie , Brian Eno ) - 6:19
3. “What in the World” - 4:24
4. “Be My Wife” (bonus track) - 2:35
5. Blackout 4:01
6. Sense of Doubt 3:13
7. “Speed ​​of Life” - 3:44
8. Breaking Glass ( David Bowie , Dennis Davis , George Murray ) - 3:28
9. Beauty and the Beast - 5:08
10. Fame ( David Bowie , Carlos Alomar , John Lennon ) - 4:06

Disc two

1. Five Years - 3:58
2. Soul Love - 2:55
3. "Star" - 2:31
4. “Hang on to Yourself” - 3:26
5. Ziggy Stardust - 3:32
6. “Art Decade” ( David Bowie , Brian Eno ) - 3:10
7. Alabama Song ( Bertolt Brecht , Kurt Weill ) - 4:00
8. Station to Station - 8:55
9. Stay (bonus track) - 7:17
10. “ TVC 15 ” - 4:37

Musicians

• David Bowie : vocals , keyboards
• Carlos Alomar : rhythm guitar , backing vocals
• George Murray : bass , backing vocals
• Dennis Davis : Percussion , Percussion
• Adrian Bellew : solo guitar , backing vocals

Additional Musicians

• Simon House : violin
• Sean Mays : piano , strings , backing vocals
• Roger Powell : synthesizer , keyboards , backing vocals

Album

Single

• Blender Review (link not available)
• Review of Rolling Stone
• Pitchfork Media Review
• Review by Robert Christgau
• New Musical Express Review