CD/DVD: David Bowie: VH1 Storyteller

On the surface, David Bowie seems ill-suited to the chatty format of VH1’s “Storytellers.” He barely speaks on his previous live CDs and has seemed, through the years, content to project an inscrutable air of mystery. But where Bowie is concerned, it’s all about cha-cha-cha-changes.

The singer, clad in a faded gray hoodie and black jeans – a far cry from the glam trappings of his Ziggy Stardust days or even the tailored fabulousness of his Thin White Duke alter ego – turns out to be a relaxed, playful host. For the show’s commercial release, Capitol Records has paired a DVD of the concert (including four bonus tracks) with a CD version, inexplicably minus the extra tunes.

Rather than going the greatest-hits route, Bowie cherry picks some of his favorite songs from his long career, seemingly selecting numbers that come with good backstories. “Life on Mars?” took shape, he says, as “a retaliation” to Paul Anka’s “My Life,” “Rebel Rebel” was inspired (at least, in part) by T.Rex frontman Marc Bolan, “Thursday’s Child” was named after Eartha Kitt’s autobiography, and “Drive-In Saturday” was written for Mott the Hoople (whose members turned it down even though they’d had a monster hit with Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes”).

David Bowie performs on the new CD/DVD "VH1 Storytellers" release.

Just when you think that Bowie will be content to name-drop his way through the show, he prefaces “Word on a Wing” with a surprising amount of candor. Describing the still-mesmerizing song as a “signal of distress” from “his darkest days,” he discusses the late 1970’s as an era that was, for him, “steeped in awfulness.”

Bowie might have been living part-time in Berlin back then, drugged-out, and spiraling downward, but his resulting albums – “Station to Station,” “Low,” and “Heroes” – are among the best of his career. “Storytellers” isn’t in that league. But thanks to Bowie’s wit and truth-telling, the CD/DVD set is a seductively entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

Release Date: 7/21/09

Official Site: www.davidbowie.com

[Amy Longsdorf’s entertainment coverage has appeared in “Blender,” “People,” the “Chicago Tribune,” the “Toronto Star,” and “Newsday.” She doesn’t want to imagine a world without Preston Sturges movies, Stax singles, and the music of Bob Marley.]