While I've sworn that I would never write about my new favorite album in this weblog—if I think that the White Stripes' latest album is even better than Get Behind Me Satan, what do you care?—but at the recent XML Summer School in Oxford Norm Walsh convinced me that more coverage of non-technical topics is a good thing. A few recent Tim Bray postings convinced me that it's worthwhile to point at great musical performances on YouTube that people don't know about. While it's very easy to find people discussing the most recent White Stripes album, you probably didn't even know about David Bowie's 1975 stint on the Dinah Shore show.

I stumbled across it while looking through YouTube for Louis Prima clips one night. (Here's a nice one, and here's a very early one if you're interested.) New Orleans' second most famous scat singing trumpet player named Louis—the Italian one—had been on a Dinah Shore TV show in 1958, and YouTube showed me popular related clips on the right side of the screen—David Bowie? In his Thin White Duke prime?

You could watch him describe his admiration for Fonzie (and Dinah Shore calling Fonzie "the David Bowie of 'Happy Days'"), or take a Karate lesson, but if you want to skip the camp, check out his kickass version of "Stay".

My daughter's drum teacher has her using this Mel Bay's Funk Drumming book, and I've often joked that its author doesn't look very funky. To show her a best case, I showed her Bowie on Dinah Shore. Dennis Davis was a Vietnam Vet who had studied with Max Roach and Elvin Jones, and boy, Bowie spent his money well. The whole band is amazing. Even with Earl Slick's awful 70s hair and awful 70s white suit, he made a fine contribution to the song. Keep in mind as you watch this that it's on a midday talk show whose closest modern equivalent would be The View.

(If you're a big Bowie fan, don't miss his 1974 performance of "Young Americans" on Dick Cavett, either.)