David Bowie - Cracked Actor (Serious Moonlight)

[DinoDoesStuff]

You just gotta see Mr Bowie perform live - put it on your bucket list! You never know - you may just get lucky!

[DEBBOMB]

You just don't know.

[alixinthemiddle]

they even took his sunglasses! )'=

[Chajagirl]

Stop interrupting the guy when he's trying to make out with the skull! Geez...

[TheSHEERHEARTATTACK]

I love this performance, but this is a piece of crap compared to the original and the 1973 and 1974 live versions... still love this one

[moocher2121]

Hm... put a bit to much theatrics into a song that is initially supposed to be all about a guy telling a girl that he wants to have sex and not talk.

[MadMeg912]

@moocher2121 Actually, it's more about the shallowness of Hollywood.

[botbagel]

Just love the 'Gay 90's" style zoot suits aka circa 1930's Bowie is just Brilliant!!!

[dullsvillain]

Whoa this is overproduced and insults the originals menacing energy ......like the Hamlet bit though.

[ih8tbush]

2nd song of the 2nd set....Just when you thought you couldn't get any more intense after Station to Station, THIS WAS THE ULTIMATE SHOW STOPPER IN MY 35 YEARS OF ATTENDING ROCK AND ROLL SHOWS.

[icanwaitanotherday]

Amazing performer! It's all just so easy for him

[amner]

oh i was there never will forget it, what is david doing now?? miss him !!

happy birthday david!!

[Tmendler]

what a lyrical monster.

[DillPickleet]

Definatley prefer the music in the first version, but his voice in this version sounds fuller, more developed.

[dancechick007]

What a legend, Happy Birthday Mr. Bowie.

[reprat]

The Man at his Best

[Jhensy2001]

The original on Aladdin Sane is so blistering it can peel paint.

[MagellanOfBass]

Original version is much better. Bowie would very often change his older songs when touring years after they got released. Sometimes it workes wonderfully (i.e. CHANGES during Station to Station tour 1976 - look it up here and check it out), but someties it just didn't work. I think Cracked Actor didn't work.

Has anybody seen Andy Warhol in the Outside Tour? He made it all electronic. It's way too f*ed up in my opinion. xD

[Tboom49]

Bowie can do anything....act, sing, write, perform. Even when he's being ironic-poking fun at the movie industry-he's still believable. Good clip...

[insaneforstuff254]

I like the brass playing the beggining riff, but it's more hard hitting and sexy with the screaming guitars like in the original version....

[slacknhash]

Ah, now if you want a version of this that's more to your taste, go for the one the Spiders did for their last show.

I think I know where you're coming from. The Aladdin Sane version of this song sounds much dirtier and more sordid.

[araglar101]

It's not fair! Why did Brian Slade had to turn into Tommy Stone?

[bass234]

lol, i hope im not the only person who gets this.

i agree, even though tumbling down is a great song, he needs a wingman aka mick ronson!!! venus in furs remains bowies best work

[anabashaman]

Venus in Furs was done by the Velvet Underground...

[bass234]

i know. araglar was talking about the film velvet goldmine and the bowie character was called brian slade, and venus in furs was the band based around the spidies from mars, so i was saying spiders from mars remains bowies best work.

[wvnota]

becouse he would have an OD pretty soon using that amount of coke.

[MasonDeLaMella]

Ask Curt Wild!

[repelghosts]

Of course this was the 1983m Serious concerts, we know that moron!

The August show(s) Sat. nite and the incredible Sunday night concerts in Toronto...

Love you CANADA...You are a beautiful woman ,as David called ya!

Gemma n Da Girlz

[repelghosts]

Diamond Dogs ,June 1974, after school was out for the summer...Imagine?

I was there 2 ,yes shows in ONE DAY kids...Lfe in Toronto...Not all bad...Huh you losers?

[PompadourSamurai]

They even put blush on the skull. A subtle jab, I'd say.

[elizaloo1234]

lol when i read this. thanks

[Fooblestheclown]

I went to see the Serious Moonlight tour twice in 83. Edmonton and Winnipeg. Best concert I ever been to. The Glass spyder tour sucked a year later.

[funds450]

Cracked actor was a song written about Rock Hudson...Hudson was so gay that he makes Perez Hilton look straight

[WoodRatGirl]

Rock Hudson was way better looking than Perez Hilton could ever hope to be.

[jupitorman]

j ust love it xxxxxxxxxxx

[yiommi]

Ah the 80s everything was overstuffed with synthesizers

[jeannec1]

This particular performance seems to really miss something, I think maybe the lame guitar guy took it away.

[pappuali]

Wow that was stunning, please tell us more.

[jeannec1]

I'm pretty sure I can express a simple opinion without someone being a jackass about it.

[cirEgnimrahC]

i dig it.

[nikorble2]

I don't like this version... the original rocks

[repelghosts]

at Diamond Dogs in Toronto,Canada we had our matinee show and the evening show...actually saw this song TWICE in one day ,started the best summer of my life...1974!!! Thanks beautiful TORONTO,CANADA!!!!

[Alianger]

ugh, why is he singing it like that? sounds like a parody.

[longfade]

A parody of what? The guy's dressed up in full Hamlet regalia, so obviously it's an ironic presentation, but I can't hear anything weird or campy about his vocal performance. I love it. I think it's fucking killer, and it sounds just like Bowie to me on his A-game to me.

[Alianger]

Well the original is pretty dark, with screeching guitars and a very desperate impersonation of the character in the song by Bowie. Here he sings it like a 50s rocker and the backing music has cheesy synth effects on it that I just don't like because I associate it with the bad side of 80s music. It feels like i'm watching a musical.

[longfade]

Ah, yes, that makes sense! I love the kind of over-the-topness of that tour but totally see why one would not.

[fernandofx92]

ist the best face of this song

[Alianger]

ist nacht

[skullsatan]

face??!!! whuh?

[GIJOE221294]

Best bowie song eva!

[almadora]

this concert was one of the first things i taped on my first vcr in like, 1984. i got it from either HBO or Cinemax. i was about 12, and i watched the hell out of it.

[longfade]

Oh, me too. There was that simulcast (showtime) that was a big deal back then, and I didn't have a VCR so I just taped the audio portion of it. I listened to it constantly on band trips on my walkman. So cool to see that footage again. Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, The Simms Brothers, Tony Thompson (RIP)....man, what a show. Unfortunately I was only around 13 at the time so I missed the concert too.

[MissMael]

Forget that I'm fifty cause you just got paid,

wowowowowowowbowie! Oh that line is my drug.

[jupitorman]

plastic fantastic bowieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[robtim1]

I hated this period ...Serious Moonlight .

[jasbosch]

wanneer

[BowieGirley]

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!! smack baby smack!

[greasesicle]

I saw this tour in Tacoma, I believe it was August 11, 1983. First event at Tacoma Dome. The Tubes were the first band to play Tacoma Dome. Kick Ass Show. Earl Slick jammed.

[longfade]

Wow! Lucky bastard. How were the Tubes? Seems like it might have been a good time to see them as well.

[TVC17]

Bowie knew about the dangers of crack cocaine before it went Big Time.I always wondered was this song really about Rock Hudson? I know Bowie was in L.A. at that time plus Hudson was considered "clean" but his parties were anything but.Crack yes Bowie knew then....

[MandyKazooBowie]

David is so cute!

[Josenismyname]

the first 1.30 would have been gay, if it was not such a classic. :)

[5550176]

saw this at M.K 1st night. the man rocked!! (as always!)

[crazydiamonds3]

What's the skull about??

[eighthjake]

shakespeare reference.

[TVC17]

kissing death...

[longfade]

Yorick's skull in Shakespear's play "Hamlet". A very ironic reference.

[bowiemott]

He also employed this on the Diamond Dogs tour of 74 - also on Cracked Actor.

[rubin421]

Great version!

[GardenOfEros]

First!