New York Times - 2 November 1974
DAVID BOWIE SHOW GETS A RESHAPING It must be said for David Bowie, who opened a five-day run at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday night, that he keeps on plugging, restlessly unwilling to rest on whatever laurels he has accrued. Last July he brought his most lavish stage production to date to Madison Square Garden for two shows. Touring almost continually ever since, he has now dropped most of the overt theatrics, written a clutch of new songs and retooled his whole show. The result, on Wednesday, was disappointing. Mr. Bowie's theatrics last summer may have had their problems - shapelessness, erratic pacing, pretension. But, at least there were some striking moments, and everything snapped along crisply, both dramatically and musically.	On Wednesday, the proceedings led off with a lame half-hour by Mr. Bowie's band and mostly black back-up singers. When the star finally appeared, he seemed to be attempting to humanize his previous space-mutant image. But he looked self-consciously uncomfortable without routines to act out, and he was in hoarse voice indeed. The old songs were mostly unsuccessful, mannered and erratically distorted in phrasing. The four new songs appeared to be attempts at something a bit more conventional and direct, although the sound system and Mr. Bowie's vocal estate made a real judgment of them impossible. JOHN ROCKWELL
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