A smooth and erudite Cavett tries to engage Bowie ("David, what kind of student were you in school?") and the result is peculiarly gripping TV viewing. Bowie's halfway on another planet, of course, rambling on about "black noise" killing entire cities. Bowie's never been easy to pin down, but at this early stage in his career and with the personal problems he was undergoing, he comes across as vulnerable and arrogant at the same time. "I'm a storyteller and a storywriter," he says. "…Nothing that I do is on any kind of intellectual slant." You just want to pack this poor emaciated lad off to a spa for a week of rest, really.

The album includes on the DVD/CD new audio mixes by Tony Visconti in 5.1: DTS sound, which I unfortunately don't have the equipment to check out. The liner notes also include a nice look back at the recording and reaction to Young Americans as well as a chronology of what Bowie was up to in 1974 and 1975. The three "extra" tracks here, "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)," "Who Can I Be Now?" and "It's Gonna Be Me (with strings)," have all been issued in previous releases of this disc, so there's nothing new here, and I find them less essential than the rest of the album.

One of Bowie's later big hits was titled "Let's Dance," but frankly that might have been an even better title for this album. Nowhere else in the thin white duke's resume will you find an album so consumed by the beat. The rare video footage included here is a real time capsule bonus and a glimpse into Bowie's fractured mindset of the time. If you've never heard Young Americans before, this is the perfect edition to get your groove on again with.