David Bowie - Cracked Actor (Live, 1983)

[@misterapplesyd]

One of the few times David actually did something completely nostalgic (a "throwback") in terms of performance. Also the way he sang the 2nd "before you start professing..."??? It's so good

[@lordrathut]

I think the lyric is "before you start professing you're knocking me dead". the song's about an aging Hollywood star

[@zion727]

Shut up 😂😂😂😂😂

[@michaeltnewyorknights8413]

The two side-kicks are a throwback to the Diamond Dogs revue. The suits aren't too stylistically different either..

[@powerpop909]

All the live version of this song 1974 - 2000s this version is the best. His voice, the performance, the dynamic... ✨

[@cjyou5606]

Seriously great bass player there!

[@JumpinJAKEFlash]

David Bowie: cool as the other side of the pillow

[@Daneyland]

Cooler

[@marcellosgarbini759]

Deffo 👌

[@marktobin6747]

Quite literally the funniest and yet most apt comment I've ever heard or seen printed anywhere.... 🍷Cheers my man 😂👏🏻

[@ulftellander6303]

The album Aladdin Sane, from which this song comes from, is one of David Bowies absolute best albums!

[@yummyyum36719]

True that. In some ways stronger than Ziggy.

[@lupehn]

Aladdin Sane is so amazing and I actually love it more than ziggy stardust.

[@LiquidIronTV]

What a great throwback to the Diamond Dogs tour!

[@miti314]

No, it was on the '' Serious Moonlight tour ''

[@joey6761]

@@miti314 i think he was reffering to how this was a callback to bowie's performance of the song in 74

[@miti314]

@@joey6761 Ok

[@michaeltnewyorknights8413]

​@@miti314best to know your history before blurting out "no" so quickly.

[@deborah8942]

My God he was simple incredible wasn't he. How can someone be so talented and so effortlessly cool, it is mind blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@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.

[@markpreston6930]

I saw this tour in Tacoma. Best arena show I have seen.

[@darleneb2104]

My idol from way back in my teens! Still love him.

[@jaybee9269]

It must’ve been such a huge pleasure to sit in front of that band.

[@tatianacosta7592]

Eu amo tanto o Bowie, eu nem consigo explicar. Ele sempre estará vivo, no meu coração! ❤

[@michalvillafana5082]

I am so glad I got to see him three times. That to see diamond dog tour got to see let’s dance tour and I got to see the glass spider tour. It was musical heaven

[@josephblair8637]

saw 10 concerts and Broadway ! 1974-2004)

[@Dixler683]

Amazing what some human beings are capable of.

[@reemclaughlin4260]

I still cry, 2019, but at least my husband's with him now. 👍🏼🎵🔊

[@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!!!!

[@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.

[@DillPickleet]

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

[@powerpop909]

Yes his voice in this version is the best! ✨

[@FernandoDANTE]

Hi there, 240p. I didn't miss you.

[@longfade]

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

[@DRCRANKNSTEIN]

Very great vocal performance, better,stronger clearer voice than the original recording.

[@PompadourSamurai]

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

[@anitarepya6913]

Genius

[@icanwaitanotherday]

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

[@patriciamays8244]

Nothing's easy onstage, people make it look that way. Takes a few minutes to get into it

[@alancornelius1ghf]

Brilliant.

[@elsdenf.8598]

Maior artista da história!

[@jupitorman]

Best listening with headphones

[@Watcher4111]

Nope, best listening on good hifi from original CD

[@jupitorman]

@@Watcher4111 yea sounds brilliant

[@robertpayne4435]

About every Hollywood star who has lived in that time. Pressure expectation and a personal life of chaos for some.

[@longfade]

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

[@peterbauer1494]

How is it ironic?

[@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.

[@bobbyarp8]

2:51 ooh!

[@dizzypilots2639]

Geez, this guy was so efing great!

[@cristina5091]

David Bowie❤🤩👏👏👏

[@Tmendler]

what a lyrical monster.

[@bhn7731]

High caliber, among the highest, playing what can be played here.

[@lionelbeaulaton7610]

sublime du grand bowie!!!!

[@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.

[@peggieschafer485]

I first saw the image of him with the skull, sunglasses, megawatt Hollywood smile, and epic hair and thought it was supposed to go with the song Time, simply a lamentation on its passage. It was far more brutal: it was the description of what was seen in LA by a British folk singer after he skyrocketed to stardom (and drug addiction) with rock. The dizzying highs, the lows, and the sorry, pathetic state of the ones who used to be the entertainment elite using what little they have left to get by. Mere products - used up, tossed, and left to rot well before they die by an utterly indifferent culture.

[@michaeltnewyorknights8413]

​@@peggieschafer485it's also supposed to be about Rock Hudson

[@amner]

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

[@lordrathut]

At the time he was on hiatus from music. He did an album in 2013 and another in 2016 before passing

[@robertmiczke7337]

he was a rock star not a pop singer

[@cristinacontini3892]

Che dire un genio

[@mauroberti416]

David i love u wherever u are

[@Lotselance]

I love how this song kept evolving and this version barely sounds like the original studio version anymore haha

[@cirEgnimrahC]

i dig it.

[@si8915]

David con gafas se ve re fachero

[@lloyddavidlieberman1481]

Nice thanks for sharing:-)

[@SuperBingo96]

Nobody does Rock Theatre better than Bowie

[@jupitorman]

j ust love it xxxxxxxxxxx

[@santesimone7564]

Mi piace

[@広美-j9m]

This Bowieilike

[@longfade]

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

[@gaston3979]

Alas poor David...I knew him not well RIP David Bowie xxxxxx

[@fernandofx92]

ist the best face of this song

[@lella_f]

😁😁👍⚡⚡⚡smack 💙💙😚😚RIP.

[@jupitorman]

plastic fantastic bowieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@nathelm]

Imagine what this tour would have been with Stevie Ray Vaughn.

[@jaybee9269]

The only thing that could have made it better!

[@heavymeddle28]

Almost as coll as back in 74

[@darrenremington6422]

The 74 version was a iconic moment 👏

[@alixinthemiddle]

they even took his sunglasses! )'=

[@bigdunc1313]

Crack BABY Crack

[@marcelazanon1872]

You could turn this show into a DVD

[@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.

[@crazydiamonds3]

What's the skull about??

[@ziggsstar]

It's from Shakespeare's Hamlet - Yorick's skull symbolizes the inevitable decay of the human body. Bowie is singing about an ageing actor.

[@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

[@Alianger]

ist nacht

[@GardenOfEros]

First!

[@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.

[@gb3458]

I think it's a mockery of famous Hollywood actors and how they're treated like royalty. It took me a couple viewings to figure it out.

[@Lundy.Fastnet.Irish_Sea]

@@gb3458 reading the lyrics, it seems to be about a hollywood star who's fame has faded away as he aged. He's trying to feel good about himself by hiring a prostitute.

[@WoodRatGirl]

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

[@hyliadreamer]

WoodRatGirl True...but irrelevant.

[@eighthjake]

shakespeare reference.

[@s.oddity3640]

No

[@jasbosch]

wanneer

[@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.

[@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

[@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?

[@Alianger]

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

[@PeterSokol-bl5vz]

Horrible rendition of this incredible song….the only period of Bowies career I did not like…his pop star turn…..voice is incredible…the arrangement is just to 80s and steals all the power of the song away.

[@robertmiczke7337]

he was a rock star not a pop singer

[@zazoom84]

He was a popular rock star