DAVID BOWIE - LOS ANGELES 1978
December 2, 2019 – 5:09 amHOW TO DONATE
Our costs will always be there. So readers who can donate towards the cost of the site, please open a Skrill account. Readers who wish to contribute to BigO will now have to use Skrill (click here). We are no longer able to use PayPal to receive donations. Register an account at Skrill. To make a payment, use this e-mail address as recipient’s e-mail address in Skrill: mail2[at]bigomagazine.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
+ + + + +
JUST TO LET YOU KNOW
To reduce spamming, the BigO website is going through Cloudflare. What it does is scan your browser to ensure the visitor is not a spam. Do not be alarmed as this usually takes only a few seconds. Email us if you still have difficulty accessing the BigO site; or playing or downloading the tracks. If you know a better way of reducing spam, do let us know.
+ + + + +
Click on the panels for a better view or to download jpg artwork.
DAVID BOWIE
Los Angeles 1978 [JEMS Transfer, 2CD]
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Vol 16. Live at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA; April 4, 1978. Very good to excellent audience recording. Mike Millard first generation cassettes via JEMS.
Thanks to Mike Millard; Barry G; JEMS; BK; and to mjk5510 for sharing the show at Dime.
+ + + + +
JEMS is pleased to reignite our Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series, presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike the MICrophone, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around LA circa 1975-77.
Volume 16 is a special one indeed as it presents Millard’s excellent recording of David Bowie at the Forum on the Isolar II tour, a show made famous by the bootleg Slaughter in the Air. As I began working on this project I did a bit of Internet research, where it has been speculated that the Slaughter recording was a Millard master, presumably based on its quality. To the best of our knowledge, previous DIME torrents of Forum ’78 are vinyl rips of Slaughter and various other bootlegs sourced from the same tape.
YouTube also has a second source of the show, vastly inferior in quality, but which does include the opening song, “Warszawa,” which is omitted from the bootleg sources.
Millard’s capture features “Warszawa,” and I assumed it had been cut for space on bootleg vinyl. But when I did an A-B comparison in a couple of spots, I was surprised to learn that Millard’s recording is not the one featured on Slaughter and is in fact a third source. While I can’t say with certainty it is wholly uncirculated, it is surely new to most and presents the best and most complete recording of this show to date. It offers superior fidelity to Slaughter and is classic Millard in terms of clarity. There are some potent whistlers present and close by, but thanks to mjk5510, we’ve tamed those for maximum listening pleasure.
Isolar II is one of my favorite Bowie tours, brilliantly mixing the art rock of the Berlin records with a fresh take on the Ziggy era and other contemporary goodies like “Station to Station,” “TVC 15” and “Stay.” It sounds very fresh today, and you can’t beat the pairing of Adrian Below and Carlos Alomar on lead and rhythm guitar respectively, plus the incredible drumming of Dennis Davis.
Millard himself made this set of tapes for Barry G, another close friend who attended many concerts with Mike in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We’re so grateful that Barry agreed to share his Millard first gens with JEMS for our Lost and Found Mike the Mike series. Like Jim R, Barry also shot photos at many of the concerts he attended, including this one, and we’ve used those images in the artwork. Mike’s own cassette art is especially appealing for this show.
JEMS is thrilled to partner with Barry and Jim R to release more of Millard’s fantastic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself. It’s been 25 years since he passed away, and the Internet version of his life story is highly speculative and often inaccurate.
We can’t thank Barry enough for trusting us with his Millard tapes and his own fantastic masters like the recently released Queen Santa Monica ’76. Tip o’ the cap as well to mjk5510 for his essential contributions to the Lost and Found series and to Exit Club for taking the Millard journey with us. We hope our efforts honor and celebrate the man and the music he so brilliantly preserved.
Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone and to finding more lost tapes.
May he rest in peace.
BK for JEMS [November 16, 2019]
+ + + + +
Lineage:
AKG 451E microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 cassette recorder
JEMS 2019 TRANSFER: first-generation cassettes made by Mike Millard for Barry G > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 24/96) capture > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > iZotope RX and Ozone mastering > Peak Pro 6 (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later.
Kindly email us if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files. Also email us if you have any rarities you’d like to share with our readers.
Disc 1
Track 101. Warszawa 7:06
Track 102. Heroes 5:52
Track 103. What In The World 5:08
Track 104. Be My Wife 2:51
Track 105. The Jean Genie 6:58
Track 106. Blackout 3:32
Track 107. Sense Of Doubt 3:09
Track 108. Sound And Vision 2:40
Track 109. Breaking Glass 2:52
Track 110. Beauty And The Beast 4:22
Track 111. Fame 4:50
50 mins
Disc 2
Track 201. Five Years 5:32
Track 202. Soul Love 2:56
Track 203. Star 2:40
Track 204. Hang On To Yourself 3:04
Track 205. Ziggy Stardust 3:23
Track 206. Suffragette City 3:52
Track 207. Rock n Roll Suicide 4:05
Track 208. Art Decade 2:39
Track 209. Station To Station 10:14
Track 210. Stay 6:15
Track 211. TVC 15 4:54
Track 212. Rebel Rebel 4:33
55 mins
Click here to order David Bowie releases.
47 Responses to “DAVID BOWIE - LOS ANGELES 1978”
Not up to this taping legend’s usual quality standards yet an excellent Bowie show where he is clearly having a ball. You feel like you have been dropped right into the party. Thanks BigO for this classic!
By Tony Pizza on Dec 2, 2019
Rumor has it David had a Big Un
By U L E on Dec 2, 2019
How big U L E ?
By Dapper Dan on Dec 2, 2019
I thought this was an NFL comments section/ blog . I must have clicked the wrong link .
By QnA on Dec 2, 2019
nice one qna. you get some bollocks banter on here
By Peter Maggiore on Dec 2, 2019
I was at this show, front row center, best seats at the Forum! My friend got me the tickets and it was incredible! I was then and now wayyyy into Bowie, collecting and I also met him in 1988. I fortunately was able to see him many times after that and saw the ‘74 DD Tour too. Needless to say I miss him terribly but will always have many amazing memories, oh, he was also a super friendly, nice guy when I met him. I’m very lucky. C U Again David…… LH
By Larry on Dec 2, 2019
This is a story ’bout a taxi ride I can’t forget
It was autumn in Minnesota, it was rainy, cold and wet
So I hopped into the first cab that I saw
The heater was on but the chill just wouldn’t thaw
The driver of the cab he had a pock marked face
He didn’t seem too unfriendly, he was just starin’ off into space
And he told me that he used to drive a truck
And that right now he was down on his luck
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
We talked a bit about travelin’, told him that I’d been to the USSR
He looked at me in the rear view mirror and said
“Ain’t that where the Jews and commies are?”
And I knew I was in for a hell of a ride
My face was calm but I was burnin’ up inside, oh yeah
He told me he had a dream to go to a place free from n*g*ers and Jews
“Austria?,” I asked out loud, as I stared down at my shoes
Then he said, “That’s exactly right”
He said, “Hey man, ain’t you proud to be white?”
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
I played along with him a bit, I said
“What do you mean? I’m not quite sure”
That’s when he told me how much he admired the Fuhrer
We drove on through the Minnetonka Pines
And the rain it started freezin’ on the highway signs, oh yeah
Then I said, “Don’t you think it was wrong
I mean, gassin’ all them Jews?” And he told me Hitler’s only
Fault was that he had to go and lose a war that should have
Set the white man free to inherit the entire earth as his destiny
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
Then he started fishin’ for a cassette tape that he’d gotten in
A special class and on it some teacher was talkin’ about destroyin’
The Jews at last and about how they were all to blame
For every problem that you could ever name
I stared out my window, started thinkin’ about my life
Thinkin’ about my children, thinkin’ about my wife
And I wondered how much more could I endure
Of the hatred so naked and so pure
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
When we got to my brother’s house I even tipped him a dollar or two
And I was wonderin’ if he’d known all along that his passenger was a Jew
I just stared at my breath in the freezin’ night
That’s when my brother came to the door and put on the light, oh yeah
Don’t tell me children, defile your dreams
Our heads are still pounding from the sound of their screams
And the blood is still flowing down European streams
And it’s you who have no right to call yourself a human being
Here I am, in a taxi cab with a cut rate Aryan
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
I spent the next morning with a man who had death camp numbers
On his arm and I swore to myself I would do anything to protect him
From further harm and he told me wherever you may go
You must refute them if they say it wasn’t so.
[These are the lyrics to the song “Untitled” by Peter Himmelman on the album “Flown This Acid World”]
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
gee mark, you brought a tear to my eye. now please ride off into the sunset
By T J on Dec 2, 2019
Track 108 is “The Speed of Life,” not “Sound and Vision.”
By Madlane on Dec 2, 2019
It’s no use TJ-I’m not going anywhere.
By Mark on Dec 2, 2019
Thank you Big O Amigos - This will help on a cold Thompson Saturday night. Be well, James
PS. Was the “Low” album ever performed live?
By James Smith on Dec 3, 2019
Mark is obviously of the Hebrew persuasion. He probably has a large nose .
By HHH on Dec 3, 2019
I personally would rather hear nfl stories than Marks senseless ramblings
By HHH on Dec 3, 2019
Mark,love Peter and especially untitled(seen him do it live in Seattle)like Bowie too but not really sure how this is a relate…….at least it’s not dick and anti semite
talk.
By russ on Dec 3, 2019
“Flown This Acid World” is a great album that I haven’t listened to in years. If you’re listening, Big O, a Peter Himmelman show would be great.
By Eric on Dec 3, 2019
“Love of Midnight” from the Flown album includes these great lyrics looking forward to a day:
“When all hatred and shame have vanished from sight”
and “men aren’t divided by black or white.”
It’s a pie in the sky dream, of course, as evidenced by the racists and bigots who feel compelled to post their hate here on a daily basis. Happy, self-confident, and successful people do not feel the need to hurl racial and ethnic slurs.
In the past I have been guilty of hating Derrick and his friends, but in the time I’ve taken away from responding to them I now feel only sorrow and pity towards them. Perhaps three ghosts will visit them this Christmas and open their hearts and souls to the truth that there is one human race and that hating others makes you weaker, not stronger.
And that, to quote the title of a song on another of Himmelman’s albums, “Fear Is Our Undoing.” I can’t imagine the terror some of the guys expressed here about leaving their house for fear of other races and ethnic groups. I hope some day love and courage can replace the fear that holds them back.
I’m not saying there aren’t scary things and scary people out there, but an ounce of courage is better than a pound of fear. When you live in fear you look for the ugly things in the world and you see ugliness everywhere you go.
I’m also not excusing the behavior of INDIVIDUALS who do terrible, terrible things. When found guilty criminals absolutely should be punished to the full extent of the law. But to condemn an entire race or ethnic group is a foolish, fearful thing to do.
In conclusion, in the spirit of Christmas, I apologize to Derrick and all his friends (I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and accept that the many names are in fact different people). May you find peace, love, and courage in the days ahead.
Even if you continue to hate and fear me.
By Mark on Dec 3, 2019
To Mark ‘ YAWN !!!
By T J on Dec 3, 2019
Great post, Mark. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?” War is Over (If You Want It’.
I doubt Derrick has any friends. I think most of the non-music posts are from one person who is trying to learn how to be a troll.
By Eric on Dec 3, 2019
TJ- I wish you peace and friendship this holiday season too.
By Mark on Dec 3, 2019
Thanks, Eric. Sometimes I do think Derrick is just trolling, but if he is it is quite a compulsion for him to feel the need to post the same diatribes day after day in a search for attention. If he is sincere in his posts, it should be obvious that he’s not going to convince anyone to become a racist like him. So if he’s not trolling, it must be that spouting racist slurs and ethnic hatred somehow makes him feel better about himself, even if only for a few minutes.
I’m not under the illusion that a few words from me can exact a major change in his thinking and behavior, but I hope that something comes along in his life that transforms his hatred into love.
By Mark on Dec 3, 2019
TJ seems to be a willing participant in this society’s “cancel culture.” That’s the frame of mind where if somebody disagrees with you they should be silenced. Evidence of this can be seen in his plea that I “just go away.”
Some people are threatened by words and ideas that differ from their own. They are also incapable or unwilling to skip/ignore such words and ideas. Instead, such words and ideas must be squashed, driven from public view.
But not me. I do not wish to ban Derrick and his buddies from the site, nor do I think TJ should “just go away.”
As much as some of the views expressed on MSNBC and Fox News are anathema to me, I do watch and listen. And I have Facebook friends whose viewpoints are far different than mine.
By Mark on Dec 3, 2019
Thank you BigO.
By Derreek on Dec 4, 2019
Mark , fuck you ‘ you Dic suckin Jew Bastard
By Derrick on Dec 4, 2019
Think Anti is fed up with all the jew bastards ‘ coon and Jew bastard lovers
By Derrick on Dec 4, 2019
Mark — they won’t be “cancelled.” They can use another venue to spout their crap. It’s not like anyone invited them here. Free speech also means the freedom to not listen to bullshit you don’t want to hear, though I suppose I could walk away from here as well– which is what will eventually happen if BigO chooses not to moderate their discussion boards — someday it will just be like-minded assholes like Derrick here at bigO, and that would be a shame.
By Crawphish on Dec 4, 2019
Crawphish,You are 100% right,the chat box is all ready over run by like-minded assholes ,no interest in music whatever,I notice on big o main page where they cover more topics etc the chat box there is free of the same crap that gets posted here and a lot of good people have stopped posting and walked away all ready….
By Tom Petty's Ghost on Dec 4, 2019
I’m not giving up on you, Derrick. As long as you are breathing there’s still time to choose love over hate and reason over dogma.
By Mark on Dec 4, 2019
Crawphish and TP Ghost-The room will never be totally overrun by like-minded bigots. I’m not going to quit until I’m buried in a casket, and even then they better shut it tight.
Besides, once Trump is out of office I suspect some of the bigots making a lot of noise these days will go back underground. He doesn’t cause bigotry but he seems to make it easier for them to rear their heads and roar.
By Mark on Dec 4, 2019
I have to retract some of my comments,it seems the fools are posting over on the main page,Big O has let the lunatics run the asylum,Shame Shame Shame
By Tom Petty's Ghost on Dec 4, 2019
I’m sure Mark approves of Black apes marrying white women . Correction I mean white mudshark sluts . Mark probably would support a occasio Cortez / Towel Head Omar presidential ticket . Derrick is probably right about him being Jewish and a flaming left wing liberal.
By HHH on Dec 4, 2019
Loving vs the state of Virginia 1967 started the mudslide of interracial marriages. Before that it was a state law thing . The Supreme Court led by that black ape lover Earl Warren made mixed marriages legal . Guess who was in office at the time ? Lyndon Baines Johnson.
By HHH on Dec 4, 2019
Derrick my friend “ you Antichrist ‘ Jerry and myself are sadly on the losing end . All we can do is vent until we take our last breath. In another hundred years if the planet still exists it will resemble the set of the movie Planet of the Apes .
By HHH on Dec 4, 2019
I don’t have children thank goodness. Feel sorry for the older generation who must endure their children and grandchildren bringing home Tyreeks and Taneeshas
By HHH on Dec 4, 2019
Rock n roll suicide was only played on a few Us shows, and then dropped. nice to have a copy of it in such awesome quality.
great post BigO, thanks for sharing… and I hope you can access and share many more of these “Lost Mic” series of shows.
By Boowie on Dec 5, 2019
Democrats invented the KKK. Historical fact.
By meher ahmed on Dec 5, 2019
meher ahmed and then in the 60s, 70s and 80s they joined the republican party. Historical fact.
By Crawphish on Dec 5, 2019
HHH doesn’t have children-thank goodness! The bloodline of hatred ends with his generation (or at least his branch of the family tree if he has siblings with children).
Unfortunately, he might be teaching other children to hate, though.
By Mark on Dec 5, 2019
I wonder how Mark would fee if his daughter brought home a tattooed black ape with dreadlocks.
By HHH on Dec 6, 2019
It’s easy to be self righteous and judgemental when it’s not at your doorstep
By HHH on Dec 6, 2019
I doubt even the liberal queen herself Nancy Pelosi has any black friends or socializes with anyone who isn’t white and rich
By HHH on Dec 6, 2019
We’re becoming a race of mongrels
By HHH on Dec 6, 2019
Imagine JFK and the other Kennedy’s having dinner with Malcolm X or MLK . If they did it would be for a photo op
By HHH on Dec 6, 2019