The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars --- David Bowie --- 1972 (RCA)
Our final album for Seventies Week is a true classic, one of the most interesting, deep, disturbing and enduring of David Bowie's catalogue, an album which jointly spawned a new cult and threatened to destroy its creator. “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” (usually shortened to “Ziggy Stardust”) is a concept album, Bowie's fifth outing, and was a huge success for him worldwide. Although there were no huge commercial hits from it, the single “Starman” gave Bowie his first hit since his debut “Space oddity”, but more importantly, reminded people Bowie, after what were generally perceived as four unremarkable albums, was still very much around, and indeed about to become not only a potent force in music, but a true cult figure, influencing everything from fashion to political thinking, mostly --- almost exclusively --- in young people.
Having created the character of Ziggy Stardust, an alien who comes to Earth to warn us we have only five years left before the end, Bowie was later to find himself so inextricably bound up in this alternate persona that it would become hard, almost impossible, for him to differentiate one from the other. Was he Bowie playing Ziggy, or Ziggy playing Bowie? This dichotomy would continue to dog his later years, and would only be resolved when he made a conscious effort to move away from all the stage trappings that made Ziggy who he was.
But for now, Ziggy had arrived and the world was Bowie's. He had once sung about “The man who sold the world”. On the basis of his new-found fame, David Bowie could conceivably now have been referred to as “The man who
bought the world”. His star was on the rise, kids were flocking to his gigs, and he was, almost, the new god. It wouldn't last of course, but his fame would, and “Ziggy Stardust” would serve as the springboard that would catapult him to international and lasting fame and success, and he would, in a musical sense, never really look back.
The album opens with “Five years”, the lament for the impending death of the Earth, which starts off slow and low-key but builds in intensity as it progresses, carried on piano as the fate of the Earth is revealed, that it only has five years left before total destruction. The song features some of the most intense singing Bowie had engaged in up to that point, as the desperation and frustration in his voice reaches fever pitch. Beautiful strings, arranged by guitarist Mick Ronson, give the song a really emotional, dramatic feel. “Five years” is of course also an early eco-song, as Bowie warns the people of the Earth that their planet is dying due to a lack of natural resources. As Homer Simpson once remarked, as true today as it was then. Unfortunately.
Things keep fairly slow and laidback for “Soul love”, with more of Ronson's guitar bleeding through and giving the track a harder edge, and a great sax break from Bowie himself. The concept of “Ziggy Stardust” is well known: Ziggy, an alien, tries to warn people of the impending disaster, while beings known as “Infinites” arrive, their mode of travel to jump from universe to universe via black holes, one of which is coming to swallow the Earth. After they arrive, they descend to the planet and rip Ziggy apart onstage in order to become corporeal. “Moonage daydream” is a heavier track, the heaviest so far on the album, but still slow in pace, comparatively. It terms of the plot, it's the song wherein Ziggy Stardust is created, born from the fears, hopes and dreams of the people into the archetypal lover and rock star, and in the next track, the single “Starman”, he tells the Earth of fantastic aliens who are coming to save the planet.
“Starman” is carried almost entirely on acoustic guitar and Bowie's soulful voice, joined later by strings and electric guitar, the latter particularly effective in the end riff, which has by now become famous and instantly recognisable. “It ain't easy” is the only cover on the album, the old Three Dog Night song, and it's a mid-paced rocker with lots of guitar, both acoustic (played by Bowie) and electric, courtesy of Ronson, with a slight country twang, as the song was originally written by Ron Davies, a country performer.
“Lady Stardust” utilises a little of the melody of “Starman” and indeed also borrows a little from “Life on Mars”, and is generally accepted as being a tribute to Marc Bolan, who would die five years later --- spooky, huh? In the story, Ziggy's appeal increases as he nears cult hero status, and begins to lose himself in his own personality (no doubt an allegory, whether intended or not, to the struggle Bowie himself would have against his own “Jekyll and Hyde” syndrome). “Star” is driven on a Jerry Lee Lewis/Little Richard style piano, with a rhythm and melody that would surface again in “Suffragette City”, later on in the album. Ronson's guitar again makes its mark, particularly near the end of the song.
Perhaps strangely --- even uniquely --- for a concept album, “Ziggy Stardust” does not contain any long or epic songs, or any multi-part ones. In fact, there are only three songs over four minutes on the album, and four under three minutes, or just on three minutes. “Hang on to yourself” is a fast, rocky, almost fifties-style song with punk overtones, lots of guitar and sharp riffs. The title track starts off with a classic, famous riff, and details the rising career of Ziggy, and his fall from grace as he becomes too big for his own good. This of course would become Bowie's signature song in respect of his persona of Ziggy, and would or should have served as a cautionary tale for other musicians who pushed things too far: body and soul can only take so much. It's a rough, raw song that almost completely encompasses the album and its overall arc.
It runs into “Suffragette City”, the fastest track on the album, with mad guitar and thundering drums, great sax and fifties rock piano. It also features the immortal line
“Wham bam, thank you ma'am!” It's really Ziggy's last hurrah on the album, as the next one, the closer, is a much more introspective and acoustic number. “Rock 'n' roll suicide” features the arrival of the Infinites, who approach Ziggy onstage and tear him to pieces, in order to make their own antimatter bodies compatible with being on the Earth. It starts off with a strummed acoustic guitar and a lone vocal from Bowie, then begins building to a climax, and again although it fits into the story as told above, it can also be seen as another warning to aspiring musicians and rock stars to keep control of their excesses.
Saxophone breaks in and electric guitar picks up the melody as the percussion drives the song on towards its conclusion, and Bowie's vocal gets more frenzied and desperate as the track, and the album, reaches its end. “Rock a
'n' roll suicide” can also be seen in less metaphorical terms than the destruction of Ziggy by the Infinites, taking this as an allegory for his fans taking so much of him that he is left with nothing, and collapses, due either to age, drug or alcohol addiction, or just plain exhaustion.
If you're a Bowie fan, you've heard, and most likely loved, this album. If you're not a fan, you've certainly heard of it, as much of its parlance has passed over into the mainstream, and there's probably very few people over even eighteen now whom you ask who Ziggy Stardust is associated with, who would not know the answer. A seminal album, a timeless classic, and a fitting way to bring our sojourn through the 1970s to a satisfying end.
TRACKLISTING
1. Five years
2. Soul love
3. Moonage daydream
4. Starman
5. It ain't easy
6. Lady Stardust
7. Star
8. Hang on to yourself
9. Ziggy Stardust
10. Suffragette City
11. Rock and roll suicide
Suggested further listening: "Diamond dogs”, “Aladdin Sane”, “Station to station”, “Heroes”, “Scary monsters and super creeps”, “Let's dance” and many more!