Before The Stage Is Set, Before The First Lick Of The Guitar

David Bowie "TVC 15" (live)

David Bowie's 1978 tour was his first in five years in which he hadn't probably anaesthetised himself with copious amounts of cocaine before taking the stage. It's resulting live album Stage is a represenation of a more happy and healthy Bowie, reworking his classics as well as perfoming material from his later soon to be classics like Station To Station, Low and Heroes.

This version of "TVC 15" from the Station To Station record (my personal favorite by Bowie) shows just far Bowie and his band had come. A stay over from his White Light tour, the song was reworked and this jokey track about a trans-human interface between a girlfriend and a tv set gained even more groove than its original recording. I've always considered this track to be like a sister song to the Misfits' "Hybrid Moments" which is about being raped by a demon by way of an inter-dimensional portal. It's the same basic idea, you see.