When Ziggy Stardust (nee David Bowie) and the Spiders from Mars hit the United States for their first tour stateside in 1972, it's hard to imagine anyone thought the glam rocker was going to have staying power beyond a few years. Much less reinvent himself and his music time and time again, proving his prowess as a performer, a songwriter and an icon. The long-circulated bootleg of a live radio broadcast during that tour is now a official release, according to our friends at Paste Magazine:
Recorded midway through his first ever U.S. tour, this concert finds Bowie and band (or rather Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars) to be tight, high on their own mythos, and crackling with energy; even when Bowie strips things to just himself and guitarist Mick Ronson on acoustic, they perform electrifying takes on “Space Oddity” and “Andy Warhol.” From the furious opener “Hang On To Yourself” through Hunky Dory classics and singles like “John, I’m Only Dancing,” they cast an incandescent glow the exact ruby hue as Ziggy’s mullet.
If you just want a quick taste of the effervescent sounds of early Bowie, click here for streaming audio of that broadcast. Better yet, hang out and enjoy the whole show.
