Great post Gary and I agree with 99.9% of the points you raised, apart from the inclusion of Bowie in the quote above.
Being a die hard Bowie fan for what seems like forever, I’ve never understood the fixation with (choose your era really, but it’s usually….) the Ziggy phase. In reality (see what I did there?), it was a very short period in the man’s career and as good as it was, I don’t believe it to be defining. There was so much brilliant stuff that came after - and before for that matter.
The difference for me, in the context you’ve given, is that The Stones, The Beatles, Queen and Kiss come with a certain expectation of what you’re going to get. I don’t believe that to be the case with Bowie. After he was done with Ziggy, his look was very different. I think he came out wearing pegs and jelly sandals to an audience that were still mainly wearing make-up and capes and he laughed at them. They didn’t know what to make of the change then and that was a theme that continued.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love all phases of Bowie including the Ziggy period. Much like Zappa, he had a phenomenal who’s who of players who were at the top of their game performing for him. The more he did and the more he had to choose from in his repertoire, the better the shows. Rockpalast ‘96 - a phenomenal performance, even taking into account his drum’n’bass phase at the time - the version of Andy Warhol is just genius. Glastonbury 2000 - suffered from illness, crippling nerves and not being on tour - some of it wasn’t great, but I watch it over and over. The BBC gig from 2 days later - awesome, probably one of my favourite sets he ever did. The Reality Tour - what a way to go out!
I know it’s a bit self centered as it’s what we used to do, but if you’re going to do Bowie, do what he would have done at the end. Perform the songs to highest standard with the best people you can get and in the way he would have done it then. The songs themselves are the legacy, not the make-up and capes.