Album 103: By Popular Demand (2020)

Oddly enough, the first thing I feel compelled to clarify is that this double live album is not a recording of a Bowie concert in Buffalo. The reason I’m starting with that is that the album cover explains that it is a recording of “The 96.9 Buffalo, NY Sound and Vision Broadcast, 1990.” And so it is. It’s a recording of a concert broadcast on the station Buffalo natives know (or knew) as 97 Rock, however the actual concert took place in the UK.

OK, with that out of the way…this is a double live album documenting Bowie’s overt greatest hits tour from 1990. Bowie launched the tour corresponding with the release of the Sound and Vision box set and launch of a good portion of his back catalogue on CD for essentially the first time. He had been performing with Tin Machine and intended to do his greatest hits one last time and then just do new stuff thereafter. Fortunately Bowie changed his mind, but meanwhile the tour itself delivered on its promise.

I saw the show in Hartford, Connecticut. Highlights in my memory included “Gloria,” which wasn’t actually a Bowie greatest hit, and “Panic in Detroit,” which isn’t among this collection. What is included are songs starting with “Space Oddity” and going through “Blue Jean” (though not in chronological order). Again, a highlight is “Gloria,” which I don’t think I have on any other CD, as well as “Pretty Pink Rose,” which Bowie did with Adrian Belew — not a true “greatest hit” but an under-appreciated song to be sure. Anyway, the song selection is solid.

The recording quality is not so solid. The whole thing has the feeling of being a bootleg. The copyright is supposedly owned by an outfit called “Shockwaves Records.” The sound quality is passable but not great-it sounds like someone recorded the concert off the radio then transferred it to two CDs. There are some uneven breaks, I think when the radio station went to commercial. It’s not unlistenable, but there isn’t a great document from this tour and I’m left wanted a little more.

Bowie himself sounds good, which makes up for the collection’s deficiencies, but these days there are many lives albums, so there are better options.