Day 217 | Footstompin’

This song, which Bowie performed live, is actually a combination of the Flare’s 1961 song, “Footstompin”: with a much older song called “Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.” But the first thing you’ll notice is the guitar riff—the first thing you hear—sounds an awful lot like “Fame.” My understanding is that this came first and influenced the development of Bowie’s first number one hit. This performance on the Dick Cavett show is somewhat infamous because the extent to which Bowie was zonked out was embarrassingly clear during the interview portion of the show, though to my ears he did the song well. Note backup singer Luther Vandross and dancer Ava Cherry, both of whom were part of Bowie’s retinue in the mid-1970s. Album: RarestOneBowie