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Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
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Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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David Bowie
With a career as varied as Bowie’s, it is all but impossible to pick a favorite album, especially since he’s assumed so many guises and toyed with his sound as much as his image. If you were talking about social impact, Ziggy Stardust would be the likely winner. If you’re talking about scraunching rock and roll performed with an attitude that transcends mere mortals, then Aladdin Sane might cop the prize. For inventiveness, Low could win. It all depends what you are looking for, but if it is possible to judge Bowie’s work objectively (a ridiculous thought, actually) then what album contains the best of all his virtues? Probably Lodger.
Lodger hits upon so many touchstones that it is practically impossible to categorize, even for Bowie. Everything that it does, it does with elan. World music, atmospherics, driving rock and roll, pensive ballads, phenomenal musicianship and stunning lyrics flow from this album with such grace and ease that it is almost easy to overlook just how creative it all is, especially as a package. The ‘hits’ are among Bowie’s best, from the smarmy, sarcastic 1-2 punch of "D.J." to the tongue-in-cheek mannerisms of "Boys Keep Swinging," they are flawless in their execution. Adrian Belew’s guitar work on the latter song is so over-the-top loony that it inspires fits of laughter and admiration.
Bowie’s palette is so broad on Lodger that it overwhelms. It is hard to fathom what sort of imagination could conjure the stream of consciousness reverie of "African Night Flight" as well as the dream-state playfulness of "Red Sails", only to accurately capture the mental state of a frustrated wife-beater with "Repetition" and reflections on mortality suggested by the beautiful "Fantastic Voyage." Throw in a Turkish-inspired melody ("Yassassin") and what might be one of his hardest-rocking songs ever ("Look Back in Anger") and you’ve got a full-blown masterpiece. This point is only driven home by the fact that it sounds just as futuristic/contemporary today as it did in 1979. If Bowie is a genius, then the evidence lies herein.
Grade: 
 
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