David Bowie
Bowie at the Beeb: The Best of the BBC Radio Sessions 68-72
Label:  Virgin 
Date:  9/26/2000
Length:  0:00
Format:  3CD
Genre:  Rock; Glam
  Category:  rock
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      		 In the Heat of the Morning    
      2.  
      		 London Bye Ta Ta    
      3.  
      		 Karma Man    
      4.  
      		 Silly Boy Blue    
      5.  
      		 Let Me Sleep Beside You    
      6.  
      		 Janine    
      7.  
      		 Amsterdam (Jacques Brel)    
      8.  
      		 God Knows I'm Good    
      9.  
      		 The Width of a Circle    
      10.  
      		 Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed    
      11.  
      		 Cygnet Committee    
      12.  
      		 Memory of a Free Festival    
      13.  
      		 Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud    
      14.  
      		 Bombers    
      15.  
      		 Looking for a Friend    
      16.  
      		 Almost Grown (Chuck Berry)    
      17.  
      		 Kooks    
      18.  
      		 It Ain't Easy (Kinks)    
      19.  
      		 The Supermen    
      20.  
      		 Eight Line Poem    
      21.  
      		 Hang on to Yourself    
      22.  
      		 Ziggy Stardust    
      23.  
      		 Queen Bitch    
      24.  
      		 I'm Waiting for the Man (Velvet Underground)    
      25.  
      		 Five Years    
      26.  
      		 White Light/White Heat (Velvet Underground)    
      27.  
      		 Moonage Daydream    
      28.  
      		 Suffragette City    
      29.  
      		 Starman    
      30.  
      		 Space Oddity    
      31.  
      		 Changes    
      32.  
      		 Oh! You Pretty Things    
      33.  
      		 Andy Warhol    
      34.  
      		 Lady Stardust    
      35.  
      		 Rock & Roll With Me    
      36.  
      		 Wild Is the Wind    
      37.  
      		 Ashes to Ashes    
      38.  
      		 Seven    
      39.  
      		 This Is Not America    
      40.  
      		 Absolute Beginners    
      41.  
      		 Always Crashing in the Same Car    
      42.  
      		 Survive    
      43.  
      		 Little Wonder    
      44.  
      		 Man Who Sold the World    
      45.  
      		 Fame    
      46.  
      		 Stay    
      47.  
      		 Hallo Spaceboy    
      48.  
      		 Cracked Actor    
      49.  
      		 I'm Afraid of Americans    
      50.  
      		 Let's Dance    
    Additional info: | top

      Comprehensiveness isn't always a virtue, as this three-CD set proves. It gathers together everything David Bowie recorded for the BBC between the years referenced in its title, plus a third disc taken from a June 2000 London concert for the famed British radio broadcasting company. Head first to disc two, which focuses on Bowie's in-studio recreations of material from Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, and marvel at the glam-rockabilly heat generated by Bowie's Spiders from Mars band. By comparison, the other two discs are a disappointment. The first reveals a musical chameleon uncomfortably changing his spots, from music-hall entertainer to free-festival folkie to sub-Dylan sage. The third and final disc betrays a different problem. By 2000, Bowie had calcified into a very slick entertainer. His performances here, particularly of later material such as "I'm Afraid of Americans" and "This Is Not America," are technically fine but a little bloodless--disappointingly human instead of wonderfully alien. --Keith Moerer