Week 75 | Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992)

The best thing I can write about “Oy Vey, Baby,” is that it isn’t as bad as you might think.  If you think anything of it at all.  This might have the distinction of being the most obscure full-length Bowie album, and like, “Tin Machine 2,” it seems like someone condemned it to failure form the start.

The album was hardly marketed— it was a trick for me to find it on CD (it is currently out of print).  The album cover is unappealing and amateurish.  The title is apparently a horribly unfunny play on the title of the U2 album, “Achtung, Baby” and says nothing about the album (well, the first part of the album title, “Tin Machine Live,” really says all we need to know).  And while this was the final Tin Machine album, it seemed a little premature to do a live album after only two studio albums.  

The album might have had more value if it included more live versions of songs that did not appear on either of the two previous Tin Machine albums.  The possible exceptions are covers of Neil Young’s,  “I’ve Been Waiting for You,” and the Moody Blues’, “Go Now.”  Why “possible exceptions?”  In writing this commentary, I am looking at a track listing on Wikipedia.  Yet my version of the CD is missing those songs, as well as several others from the track listing that appears on Wikipedia (and yes, I would purchase a second version with more songs).  Bowie performs an excellent version of, “I’ve Been Waiting for You,” on, “Heathen.”  Supposedly guitarist Reeves Gabrels (whose voice sounds more like that of Neil Young than Bowie) takes the lead on this missing version from the album.  And supposedly Tony Sales performs “Go Now.”  Tony’s brother Hunt sings two songs on, “Tin Machine 2,” but I don’t recall ever hearing Tony’s voice.

Getting back to “Oy Vey, Baby” not being as bad as you might think: I thought of this album as awful for years.  I don’t think I knew about it when it was initially released.  I learned of its existence eventually and tracked it down on line (I don’t recall ever seeing it in a store).  I listened to it, maybe once, and put it away.  I pulled it out again several months ago and played it through.  And…not so bad.  It reminded me that I regretted never seeing Tin Machine live.  Unlike most other Bowie songs, studio versions of Tin Machine songs by and large don’t necessarily sounds better than live version.  Also, while there are many live Bowie albums, most of the songs on those albums either don’t overlap.  This has become less true with the proliferation of live albums released since Bowie’s death, but still, taken as a whole, there’s enormous diversity.  “Tin Machine Live” makes a contribution to that diversity.  

Nonetheless, the album just isn’t very compelling.  It won’t be years before I listen to it again, but there’s usually something better I want to listen to than “not as bad as you think.”