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:
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.