This video of Mr. Bowie on the Dinah Shore show in 1975 is not of the highest quality, but it does have a few things to recommend it. Dinah herself gives a nice intro, during which we get a brief glimpse of the show’s other guests, which include Henry Winkler and the great Nancy Walker. (Nancy Walker! Are you there, Tommy V?) And then we get to see 85-pound David Bowie absolutely belting out “Five Years” backed by his Plastic Soul touring band, who give the song a little different flavor than the Spiders did.
So anyway, without further ado:
[Ed. Note 2025: The above is actually a higher-quality version of the clip that was uploaded in 2018. Unfortunately the intro with the Winkler and Walker cameos has been edited out, but you can see the whole show here.]
A Bowie related event in mine and Colleen’s lives:
I took Colleen to her first Porno; at a Mitchell Bros. theater in Santa Ana. We were both maybe 19. One of the films was “Inside Annie Sprinkle”; I don’t remember the other one. During one of the films the soundtrack changed (just for one song) from the stereotypical porno funk to an about 8 min Phili-soul jam that as the credits rolled (I made us stay through them) I found out was Bowie’s”Somebody Up There Likes Me”. I remember thinking during the film as the song played, this song is better than the sex on the screen.
Later that week I went out and bought “Young American’s”.
Besides the aforementioned Somebody Up There, there is the title cut, Fame and a duet w/ John Lennon on Across the Universe.
I am going to go dig that CD out right now.
Peace
Thanks for posting this. I remember watching the original broadcast. Have you looked at the “interview” parts of the show with Henry Winkler? The comment thread on youtube is hilarious, and I can’t tell if people are joking or not about the severe abuse they have suffered at the hand of Henry Winkler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1bRIwqv_tM&feature=related
I love Dinah Shore. She’s almost forgotten now it seems. I wish her and Mike Douglas would have had a child together.