40. David Bowie, "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"

 

On July 5, 1972, David Bowie and his band recorded a performance of "Starman," one of the several brilliant tracks on this album, for BBC's Top of the Pops.  Broadcast the next day, the performance, which featured Bowie playing a bright blue guitar and wearing what appears to be either the upholstery from a particularly loud couch or a rug from your entryway, galvanized an entire generation of British youth and sent the album to number 5 on the British charts.

According to Bowie's Youtube channel, "Those watching that night included U2’s Bono, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Boy George, Adam Ant, Mick Jones of the Clash, Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet, Morrissey and Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Siouxsie Sioux, Toyah Willcox, John Taylor and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode and many more."  It's possible that not every person who saw it started a groundbreaking 80s band but not likely.

The week this album was released, the number 1 record in the US was the Stones' Exile on Main Street (which we will surely see); other artists in the Top 10 included Roberta Flack, Stephen Stills, the Chi-Lites, and Neil Young.  Bowie was on some different shit than any of that.

Loosely organized as a concept album (although the "concept" was retrofitted onto it after the songs were mostly written), the record introduced Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona, a half-alien glam-rock star, sent to Earth to blow some minds (and do some blow).  The songs are weird and operatic and daring for the time, although by now the culture has fully digested it so it's hard to appreciate how out there it was at the time.  Along with "Starman," with its soaring chorus and tinge of sadness, there's also "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City," whch Bowie first offered to Mott the Hoople.  With a piano riff lifted from Little Richard, a Velvet Underground vibe, and absolutely stellar guitar work by Mick Ronson, "Suffragette" anticipates both full glam rock and punk.  (I always assumed DJ/producer Mark Ronson was Mick's son.  He is not, but his stepfather is Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones.  OK we are on a tangent here.)  Believe it or not, it's not actually about women getting the right to vote; "Suffragette City" is slang for Manchester.  The song also includes the indelible line "This mellow thighed chick just put my spine out of place."

"Star" is another raveup, with the same kind of banging piano that "Suffragette" has.  It makes one of the themes of the album - rock stardom - overt ("So inviting, so enticing to play the part/I could play the wild mutation as a rock & roll star").  "Moonage Daydream," which I actually don't love, is one of the most show-tuney songs, and has some absolutely blasting guitar work by Ronson.  

The one outlier is "It Ain't Easy; " it doesn't really feel like the rest of the album, probably because it's a cover of a Ron Davies song, and was covered earlier by Three Dog Night.  It's a big 70s-rock anthem, which is fine, it just doesn't seem weird enough for this record.

So overall I have to say this is an album I respect more than love.  I don't think I've ever really been a full-on Bowie Guy (although I was lucky enough to see him live once, which I am grateful for now), but I appreciate the significant impact he had.  And the good songs on this album are really, really good.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? No.