A live album of previously unheard live David Bowie recordings, I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ‘74), will be released on Record Store Day (April 18). The live album joins Bowie’s previously announced Record Store Day release ChangesNowBowie.
The bulk of I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ‘74) comes from recently found recordings in the Bowie archive of the late musician’s concert on October 20, 1974, at Detroit’s Michigan Palace. Only missing from the Detroit concert was the “Diamond Dogs” performance that was only partially recorded. In its place is the encore from the show on November 20, 1974, at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium, which consisted of “Diamond Dogs” as well as “Knock On Wood” and a “Foot Stompin’” / “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” medley.
Here’s a description of the circumstances surrounding the performances presented on I’m Only Dancing:
The Soul Tour was a radical mid-tour departure from Bowie’s 1974 Diamond Dogs theatrical extravaganza. During a three week break in late 1974, the Diamond Dogs Tour’s elaborate six-ton Hunger City stage set was drastically stripped back, and the tour’s setlist overhauled to include as-yet-unreleased tracks from the Young Americans sessions at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia. The Soul Tour also featured a revamped band, augmented to include musicians and vocalists from those sessions, and rechristened The Mike Garson Band.
The pending live album features Bowie alongside keyboardist Mike Garson, guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, bassist Emir Ksasan, drummer Dennis Davis, percussionist Pablo Rosario, horn player David Sanborn and group of backing vocalists consisting of Luther Vandross, Warren Peace, Anthony Hinton, Ava Cherry, Robin Clark and Diane Sumler.
I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ‘74) Tracklist
- Introduction – Memory Of A Free Festival
- Rebel Rebel
- John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)
- Sorrow
- Changes
- 1984
- Moonage Daydream
- Rock ’n’ Roll With Me
- Love Me Do / The Jean Genie
- Young Americans
- Can You Hear Me
- It’s Gonna Be Me
- Somebody Up There Likes Me
- Suffragette City
- Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide
- Panic In Detroit
- Knock On Wood *
- Foot Stompin’ / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate / Foot Stompin’ *
- Diamond Dogs / It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I like It) / Diamond Dogs *
Recorded at the Michigan Palace, Detroit on October 20, 1974
* Recorded at the Municipal Auditorium, Nashville on November 20, 1974
