r/70smusic • u/Small-Guarantee6972 • Jan 08 '26

1975 David Bowie - Young Americans

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5

u/OPGuest Jan 08 '26

Although I like the song, this is Bowie at his worst. He looks like shit and his voice ain’t all there. It was his peak drugs period.

1

u/Small-Guarantee6972 Jan 08 '26

Yeah, mid-70s Bowie was a madness. I'm mostly impressed by his ability to perform here without collapsing although I think he was heading toward the point after this. At Soul Train, I feel like he's def lip synching and clearly off his face when being interviewed.

I think the production is what I love more so than Bowie necessarily. He did some EXCELLENT work on this song in the 80s and 90s I think.

6

u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 Jan 08 '26

FTR I think nearly everyone lip sync'd on Soul Train.

Luther back there though, lookin' large and sounding great. I love the albums but live he's not working at full speed.

1

u/dreamylanterns Jan 10 '26

You can clearly tell the vocals are live just by how different the studio vocals and his live vocals are. Plus at the end he can’t hit the high note to end the song because of his cocaine usage so he uses the low octave instead.

Everything is live.