David Live is David Bowie’s first official live album, originally released by RCA Records in 1974. The album was recorded in July of that year, on the initial leg of Bowie’s US Diamond Dogs Tour, at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. (The second leg, a more soul-oriented affair following recording sessions in Philadelphia for the bulk of Young Americans, would be renamed ‘Philly Dogs’).

The album catches Bowie in transition from the Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane glam-rock era of his career to the ‘plastic soul’ of Young Americans. While the cover featured a picture of Bowie in his latest soul threads – baggy trouser suit complete with shoulder pads and braces from October 1974 – the music was recorded in July of that year when he was showcasing his two most recent studio albums of original material, Diamond Dogs and Aladdin Sane, as well as selected favourites from Ziggy Stardust and earlier.

The tour was Bowie’s most ambitious to date, featuring a giant set designed to evoke “Hunger City”, the post-apocalyptic setting for Diamond Dogs, and his largest band, led by Michael Kamen. For “Space Oddity” (recorded at the time but not released until the album’s 2005 reissue) Bowie sang using a radio microphone disguised as a telephone whilst being raised and lowered above the stage by a cherry picker crane. The tour was documented in Alan Yentob’s Cracked Actor (1975).