David Live is the first official live album by the English musician David Bowie, originally released through RCA Records in October 1974. The album was recorded in July of that year, on the initial leg of Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour, at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania.

The tour was Bowie's most ambitious to date, featuring a giant set designed to evoke "Hunger City", the post-apocalyptic setting for Diamond Dogs, and his largest band, led by Michael Kamen. In addition to this album, the tour was also documented on film in Alan Yentob's Cracked Actor (1975), as well as in the archival live recordings Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) (2017) and I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) (2020). David Live catches Bowie in transition from the "Ziggy Stardust" glam-rock era of his career to the 'plastic soul' of Young Americans. While the cover featured a picture of Bowie during the later leg of the tour in his soul-influenced fashion, the music was recorded during the initial summer leg of the tour, before it was revamped to focus on Bowie's Philadelphia soul material.

The album was a commercial success upon release, reaching number two in the United Kingdom, as well as hitting the top 10 in the United States and Canada. However, it received largely negative critical reviews, with many of the complaints directed at the musical arrangements and Bowie's strained vocal performances. In 2005, the album was re-issued with four additional tracks and a new remix by Tony Visconti. It has also been re-evaluated, with some critics considering the album a valuable document of a transitional period in the artist's career.

David Bowie supported his eighth studio album Diamond Dogs on the Diamond Dogs Tour, whose first leg lasted from 14 June to 20 July 1974. Co-designed and constructed by Chris Langhart, it featured elaborate set-pieces and cost $250,000. Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) influenced the tour's design, primarily due to Bowie's interest in German expressionism. The tour's second leg, from 2 September to 1 December 1974, has been nicknamed 'the Soul Tour', because of the influence of the soul music Bowie had begun recording for Young Americans in August. The shows were altered heavily, and no longer featured elaborate set-pieces, partly because Bowie had tired of the design and wanted to explore the new sound he was creating. Bowie dropped songs from the previous leg, while he added new ones—some from Young Americans.

Capturing the music on tape was itself problematic; most of the backing vocals, as well as the saxophone and the piano solo for "Aladdin Sane", needed to be overdubbed in the studio later because the performers were often off-mike. According to the original album's liner notes: "This Live album was culled from performances on the 14 and 15 July [sic] 1974 at the Tower Theater outside Philadelphia. It is complete and exact. No studio overdubs or re-recording of voices, instruments or audience have been added with the exception of several backing vocals due to loss of theatre mike contact." According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, there was a 'degree of confusion [that] surrounds the dates of the recordings, which are given incorrectly on some reissues: according to Tony Visconti the correct dates are 11 and 12 July 1974'. The Tower Theater concerts also gave rise to a backstage revolt by Bowie's touring band. Having been informed on short notice that the concerts would be professionally recorded for the official release and that Bowie's management intended to pay them only the standard union fee required for a live recording (a mere $70), the band confronted Bowie an hour before the first show and refused to take the stage unless they received $5,000 each.

The record is also notable for including Bowie's first release of "All the Young Dudes", a song originally given to the band Mott the Hoople for their 1972 album of the same name.

For "Space Oddity" (not released until the album's 2005 reissue) Bowie sang using a radio microphone disguised as a telephone whilst being raised and lowered above the stage by a cherry picker crane.

David Live was mixed at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in July, a month before the sessions for Young Americans commenced. According to a studio acetate auction in 2004, a working title was Wham Bam! Thank You Mam! [sic].