The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Following his promotional tour of America in February 1971,[1] Bowie returned to Haddon Hall in England and began writing songs,[2] many of which were inspired by the diverse musical genres that were present in America.[3] Composing on piano rather than acoustic guitar like he had previously done,[4] he wrote over three-dozen songs, many of which would appear on his fourth studio album Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust;[5] among these were "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang On to Yourself", which he recorded with his short-lived band Arnold Corns in February 1971,[6] and subsequently re-recorded for Ziggy Stardust.[2][5] Work officially begun on Hunky Dory on 8 June 1971 at Trident Studios in London.[7] The sessions featured the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars – comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey.[8] Ken Scott, who previously worked as an engineer for Bowie's two previous albums and the Beatles, was chosen as producer.[9] The sessions also featured keyboardist Rick Wakeman on piano who,[10] after completing work on the album, declined Bowie's offer to join the Spiders to instead join the English progressive rock band Yes.[11] According to Woodmansey, Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust were almost recorded back-to-back. However, the Spiders realised that most of the songs on Hunky Dory were not suitable live material, so they needed a follow-up that could be toured behind.[12]

After Bowie's manager Tony Defries terminated his contract with Mercury Records, Defries presented the album to multiple labels in the US, including New York City's RCA Records. The head of the label, Dennis Katz, heard the tapes and saw the potential of the piano-based songs, signing Bowie to a three-album deal on 9 September; RCA became Bowie's label for the rest of the decade.[13][14] Hunky Dory was released on 17 December to very positive reviews from critics but sold poorly and failed to break the UK Albums Chart,[15] partly due to poor marketing from RCA; the label had heard that Bowie was going to be changing his image for his next record so they did not know how to promote the album.[16][17]

The former Trident Studios building in 2018, where the album was recorded.

The first song to be properly recorded for Ziggy Stardust was the Ron Davies cover "It Ain't Easy", on 9 July 1971. Originally slated for release on Hunky Dory, the song was passed for inclusion on that album and subsequently placed on Ziggy Stardust.[19] With Hunky Dory being readied for release, the sessions for Ziggy Stardust officially began at Trident on 8 November 1971,[18] using much of the same personnel as Hunky Dory. In 2012, co-producer Ken Scott said that "95 percent of the vocals on the four albums I did with him as producer, they were first takes."[20] According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, Bowie's "sense of purpose" during the sessions was "decisive and absolute"; he knew exactly what he wanted for each individual track. Since most of the tracks were recorded almost entirely live, Bowie recalled that he at some points had to hum Ronson's solos to him.[21] Due to Bowie's generally dismissive attitude during the sessions for The Man Who Sold the World (1970),[22][23] Ronson had to craft his solos individually and had very little guidance.[21] However, Bowie had a much better attitude when recording Hunky Dory[22][9] and Ziggy Stardust, and gave guidance Ronson on what he was looking for.[24] For the album, Ronson used an electric guitar plugged to a 100-watt Marshall amplifier and a wah-wah pedal;[20] Bowie played acoustic rhythm guitar.[25]

Using a 16-track 3M M56 tape recorder,[26] the band recorded initial versions of "Star" (then titled "Rock 'n' Roll Star") and "Hang On to Yourself", both of which were deemed unsuccessful. Both songs were re-recorded three days later on 11 November, along with "Ziggy Stardust", "Looking For a Friend", "Velvet Goldmine" and "Sweet Head".[18][21] The next day, the band recorded two takes of "Moonage Daydream", one take of "Soul Love", two takes of "Lady Stardust" and two takes of a new version of The Man Who Sold the World track "The Supermen". Three days later on 15 November, the band recorded "Five Years" and unfinished versions of "It's Gonna Rain Again" and "Shadow Man".[27][28] Woodmansey described the recording process as very fast-paced, saying they would record the songs, listen to them back and if they didn't capture the sound they were looking for, they recorded them again.[21] On this day, a running order is created, which included the Chuck Berry cover "Round and Round", the Jacques Brel cover "Amsterdam" (which would be released as the B-side of "Sorrow" in 1973[29]), a new recording of "Holy Holy" and "Velvet Goldmine"; "It Ain't Easy is absent from the list.[27] According to Pegg, the album was to be titled Round and Round as late as 15 December.[21]

Following the 15 November session, the group took a break for the holiday season.[21] Reconvening on 4 January 1972, the band underwent rehearsals for three days at Will Palin's Underhill Studios in Blackheath, in preparation for the final recording sessions.[30] After recording some of the new songs for radio presenter Bob Harris's Sounds of the 70s as the newly dubbed Spiders from Mars in January 1972,[31] the band returned to Trident that month to begin work on "Suffragette City" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide".[21] After receiving a complaint from RCA executive Dennis Katz that the album did not contain a single,[32] Bowie wrote "Starman", which replaced "Round and Round" on the track listing at the last minute;[21] according to biographer Kevin Cann, the replacement occurred on 2 February.[33] Writing about the song's replacement of "Round and Round", Pegg says: "It's extraordinary to consider that one of Bowie's definitive songs replaced a Chuck Berry cover almost as an afterthought".[34] Two days later on 4 February, the band recorded "Starman", "Suffragette City" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide",[33] bringing the sessions to a close.[20] Bowie also intended "All the Young Dudes",[35] "Rebel Rebel" and "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" to be on a Ziggy Stardust musical, which was later aborted.[36][37]

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars is about a bisexual alien rock superstar named Ziggy Stardust.[38][39] Ziggy Stardust was not conceived as a concept album and much of the story was written after the album was recorded.[40][41] The characters were androgynous. Mick "Woody" Woodmansey, drummer for the Spiders from Mars, said the clothes they had worn had "femininity and sheer outrageousness", and that the characters' looks "definitely appealed to our rebellious artistic instincts".[42] Nenad Georgievski of All About Jazz said the record was presented with "high-heeled boots, multicolored dresses, extravagant makeup and outrageous sexuality".[43] Bowie had already developed an androgynous appearance, which was approved by critics, but received mixed reactions from audiences.[44] His love of acting led his total immersion in the characters he created for his music. After acting the same role over an extended period, it became impossible for him to separate Ziggy Stardust from his own offstage character. Bowie said that Ziggy "wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour ... My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity."[45] Fearing that Ziggy would define his career, Bowie quickly developed the persona of Aladdin Sane in his subsequent album. Unlike Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane was far less optimistic, instead engaging in aggressive sexual activities and heavy drugs.[46]

Singer Vince Taylor (pictured in 1963), one of the main inspirations for the character Ziggy Stardust.

The character was inspired by English rock 'n' roll singer Vince Taylor, whom David Bowie met after Taylor had had a breakdown and believed himself to be a cross between a god and an alien.[47] However, Taylor was only part of the blueprint for the character.[48] Other influences included the cult musician Legendary Stardust Cowboy[49] and Kansai Yamamoto, who designed the costumes Bowie wore during the tour.[50] An alternative theory is that, during a tour, Bowie developed the concept of Ziggy as a melding of the persona of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed, producing "the ultimate pop idol".[44][51]

A girlfriend recalled his "scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy", and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character "who looks like he's landed from Mars".[44]

The Ziggy Stardust name came partly from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and partly because Ziggy was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter 'Z'".[52] In 1990, Bowie explained that the "Ziggy" part came from a tailor's shop called Ziggy's that he passed on a train. He liked it because it had "that Iggy [Pop] connotation but it was a tailor's shop, and I thought, Well, this whole thing is gonna be about clothes, so it was my own little joke calling him Ziggy. So Ziggy Stardust was a real compilation of things."[53][54] He later asserted that Ziggy Stardust was born out of a desire to move away from the denim and hippies of the 1960s.[55] Along these lines, some critics assert that Bowie's artificial concoction of a rock star persona was a symbolic critique of the artificiality seen in the rock world of the time.[56]

The album's concept is loose, and pieced together after many of the songs were already recorded.[57] Indeed, before the album's initial release Bowie told a US interviewer:

What you have there on that album when it does finally come out, is a story which doesn’t really take place, it’s just a few little scenes from the life of a band called Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, who could feasibly be the last band on Earth—it could be within the last five years of Earth. I’m not at all sure. Because I wrote it in such a way that I just dropped the numbers into the album in any order that they cropped up. It depends in which state you listen to it in.[57]

In the album's story, the Earth is saved by the rock n' roll messiah, Ziggy Stardust, with only five years to survive. He wins the hearts of teens, scares parents, seduces everyone in his path, and eventually dies a victim of his own fame. According to Bowie, he "takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples". During the song "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", the infinites (extraterrestrials) arrive, and tear Ziggy Stardust to pieces on stage.[58]

Ziggy Stardust has been retrospectively described as glam rock,[59][60][25] rock opera[61][62][63] and proto-punk.[64] Nenad Georgievski felt the record represents Bowie's interests in "theater, dance, pantomime, kabuki, cabaret and science fiction."[43] The concept and music of Ziggy Stardust were influenced by Bowie's earlier album The Man Who Sold the World,[65] Iggy Pop, singer/songwriter of the proto-punk band the Stooges,[65] Lou Reed, singer/songwriter and guitarist of the Velvet Underground,[65] Marc Bolan, singer/songwriter and guitarist of glam rock band T. Rex,[39][51] guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix;[66] and progressive rock band King Crimson.[66] Following the departure of Rick Wakeman on piano, the songs on Ziggy Stardust are considerably less piano-led than the songs on Hunky Dory and are more guitar-led.[67] Along with guitar and composing the string arrangements, Ronson played piano on the album, and according to Pegg, his playing on tracks like "Five Years" and "Lady Stardust" foreshadow the skills he would showcase on Lou Reed's Transformer (1972).[67] The album's lyrics discuss the artificiality of rock music in general, political issues, drug use, sexual orientation and stardom.[56][68] Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album's lyrics as "fractured, paranoid" and "evocative of a decadent, decaying future".[39] Bowie uses American slang and pronunciations throughout, such as "news guy", "cop" and "TV" (instead of "newsreader", "policeman" and "telly", respectively).[69][70]

Commemorative plaque for Ziggy Stardust in Heddon Street, where the original album cover photo was taken.

The album cover photograph was taken by photographer Brian Ward[143] outside furriers "K. West" at 23 Heddon Street, London on 13 January 1972,[144][145] looking south-east towards the centre of the city. Bowie said of the sign, "It's such a shame that sign went [was removed]. People read so much into it. They thought 'K. West' must be some sort of code for 'quest.' It took on all these sort of mystical overtones."[146] The post office in the background (now "The Living Room, W1" bar) was the site of London's first nightclub, The Cave of the Golden Calf, which opened in 1912. As part of street renovations, in April 1997 a red "K series" phonebox was returned to the street, replacing a modern blue phonebox, which in turn had replaced the original phonebox featured on the rear cover.[147]

Of the album's packaging in general, Bowie said:

The idea was to hit a look somewhere between the Malcolm McDowell thing with the one mascaraed eyelash and insects. It was the era of Wild Boys, by William S. Burroughs. [...] [It] was a cross between that and Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become. [...] Everything had to be infinitely symbolic."[146]

The cover was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.[148][149]

The rear cover of the original vinyl LP contained the instruction "TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME" (in caps). The instruction was omitted, however, from re-releases.[150]

In March 2012, The Crown Estate, which owns Regent Street and Heddon Street, installed a commemorative brown plaque at No. 23 in the same place as the "K. West" sign on the cover photo. The unveiling was attended by original band members Woodmansey and Bolder, and was unveiled by Gary Kemp.[144] The plaque was the first to be installed by The Crown Estate and is one of the few plaques in the country devoted to fictional characters.[151]

David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust Tour.

Widely considered to be Bowie's breakthrough album,[152][153][154] Ziggy Stardust was released on 16 June 1972 in the UK.[155][lower-alpha 1] An ambiguity surrounding Bowie's sexuality (even after Bowie declared himself as gay)[158] and a performance of "Starman" on Top of the Pops[159] brought public attention to the album.[160] Indeed, the Top of the Pops performance helped to solidify Bowie as a controversial pop icon.[46] In a 2010 interview in Rolling Stone, Bono said, "The first time I saw him was singing 'Starman' on television. It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space – with an Irish mother."[46]

Ziggy Stardust entered the top 10 in its second week on the UK Albums Chart. In its first week, the album sold 8,000 copies in Britain. After dropping down the chart in late 1972, the album began climbing the chart again; by the end of 1972, the album had sold 95,968 units in Britain. It peaked at number 5 on the chart in February 1973.[161] In the US, the album peaked at number 75 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in April 1973.[162] It was eventually certified platinum and gold in the UK and US respectively.[163][164] The first single from the album, "Starman", charted at number 10 in the UK while peaking at 65 in the US.[165]

The album returned to the UK chart on 31 January 1981,[166] amid the New Romantic era that Bowie had helped inspire.[167] It was followed by a reissue of Aladdin Sane, which spent the first of 24 weeks on the chart in March 1982.[168] After Bowie's death from cancer on 10 January 2016, the album reached a new peak of 21 in the US Billboard 200.[169] It has sold an estimated 7.5 million copies worldwide, making it Bowie's second-best-selling album.[170][171]

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[39]
Blender	[187]
Chicago Tribune	[188]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+[189]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[190]
Pitchfork	10/10[179]
Q	[191]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[192]
Spin	[193]
Uncut	[194]

Upon release, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars received highly favourable reviews by music critics. James Johnson of New Musical Express (NME) said the album has "a bit more pessimism" than on previous releases, and called the album's songs "fine".[195] Michael Watts of Melody Maker published that, while Ziggy Stardust had "no well-defined story line", it had "odd songs and references to the business of being a pop star that overall add up to a strong sense of biographical drama."[196] In Rolling Stone, writer Richard Cromelin gave the album a favourable review of "at least a 99" (assumed out of 100). But while Cromelin thought it was good, he felt that the record and its style might not be of lasting interest: "We should all say a brief prayer that his fortunes are not made to rise and fall with the fate of the 'drag-rock' syndrome".[122][197] Circus wrote that the album is "from start to finish [...] of dazzling intensity and mad design", and called it a "stunning work of genius".[198] With the album, The Philadelphia Inquirer declared that "David Bowie is one of the most creative, compelling writers around today".[199] Jon Tiven of Phonograph Record praised the album, calling it "the Aftermath of the Seventies", where there are no filler tracks. He further called Bowie "one of the most distinctive personalities in rock" and believed that should Bowie ever become a star "of the Ziggy Stardust magnitude", he deserves it.[200] The album was placed at the top of Creem's end of year list.[201]

Ziggy Stardust has been retrospectively acclaimed by critics, and recognised as one of the most important glam rock albums.[64][202][203] Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote for AllMusic: "Bowie succeeds not in spite of his pretensions but because of them, and Ziggy Stardust – familiar in structure, but alien in performance – is the first time his vision and execution met in such a grand, sweeping fashion."[39] Greg Kot, writing for Chicago Tribune, described the album as a "guitar-fueled song cycle", saying it "enacted the deaths of Joplin, Morrison, Hendrix and the '60s and presaged the dread, decadence and eroticism of a new era."[188] Ian Fortnam wrote for Classic Rock that "Ziggy Stardust is David Bowie's crowning achievement. Obviously, contrarians will insist other albums have proven to carry greater cultural weight or defined his artistic legacy better, but revisit Ziggy today and its visceral and emotional impact remains undeniable. Especially when played, as advised, 'at maximum volume'... Ziggy reflected and shaped its time and its audience like no other album".[204]

The concept of Ziggy Stardust was revisited by Bowie himself in his next album Aladdin Sane (1973), which topped the UK chart, and was his first number-one album. Described by Bowie as "Ziggy goes to America", it contained songs he wrote while travelling to and across the US during the earlier part of the Ziggy tour.[205][175]

In 2004, Brazilian singer Seu Jorge contributed five cover versions of Bowie songs, three of them from Ziggy Stardust, to the soundtrack for the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[206] Seu Jorge would later re-record the songs as a solo album called The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions. On the album's liner notes, Bowie wrote "Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with".[207] In 2016, Seu Jorge toured performing his Portuguese covers of Bowie's songs in front of sailboat-shaped screens.[208]

Musician Saul Williams named his 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, a play on the title of Bowie's album.[209]

The album was covered as part of rock band Phish's Halloween 'musical costume' on 31 October 2016.[210] In June 2017, an extinct species of wasp was named Archaeoteleia astropulvis after Ziggy Stardust ("astropulvis" is Latin for "stardust").[211][212]

All tracks written by David Bowie, except where noted.[226]

Side one

1. "Five Years" – 4:42
2. "Soul Love" – 3:34
3. "Moonage Daydream" – 4:40
4. "Starman" – 4:10
5. "It Ain't Easy" (Ron Davies) – 2:58

Side two

1. "Lady Stardust" – 3:22
2. "Star" – 2:47
3. "Hang On to Yourself" – 2:40
4. "Ziggy Stardust" – 3:13
5. "Suffragette City" – 3:25
6. "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" – 2:58

1990 reissue bonus tracks

12. "John, I'm Only Dancing" (1972 single version, new 1990 remix) – 2:43
13. "Velvet Goldmine" (Single B-side from the 1975 RCA re-release of "Space Oddity") – 3:09
14. "Sweet Head" – 4:14
15. "Ziggy Stardust" (February 1971 demo) – 3:35
16. "Lady Stardust" (March 1971 demo) – 3:35

2002 reissue bonus tracks[227]

12. "Moonage Daydream" (Arnold Corns version)  – 3:53
13. "Hang On to Yourself" (Arnold Corns version)  – 2:54
14. "Lady Stardust" (demo)  – 3:33
15. "Ziggy Stardust" (demo)  – 3:38
16. "John, I'm Only Dancing"  – 2:49
17. "Velvet Goldmine"  – 3:13
18. "Holy Holy" (1971 re-recording)  – 2:25
19. "Amsterdam" (Jacques Brel, Mort Shuman)  – 3:24
20. "The Supermen" (Alternate version, recorded for the Glastonbury Fayre in 1971, originally released on Glastonbury Fayre Revelations – A Musical Anthology, 1972[228])  – 2:43
21. "Round and Round" (Chuck Berry)  – 2:43
22. "Sweet Head" (take 4)  – 4:52
23. "Moonage Daydream" (new mix)  – 4:47

Ziggy Stardust was first released on CD in November 1984 by RCA.[227] The digital master recording was made from the equalised master tapes used for the LP release.[229] Dr. Toby Mountain remastered the album at Northeastern Digital Recording, Southborough, Massachusetts,[230] from the original master tapes for Rykodisc. The reissue was released on 6 June 1990, with five bonus tracks:[231] The album was remastered by Peter Mew and released on 28 September 1999 by Virgin.[232]

On 16 July 2002, a 2-disc version was released by EMI/Virgin. The first in a series of 30th Anniversary 2CD Editions, this release included a newly remastered version as its first CD. The remaster on this edition reverses the left and right stereo channels on the first disc and many of the songs have been edited. Among other things, the three-note bridge between "Ziggy Stardust" and "Suffragette City", and the count-in to "Hang On to Yourself" are missing.[233] The second disc contained twelve tracks, most of which had been previously released on CD as bonus tracks on the 1990–92 reissues. The new mix of "Moonage Daydream" was originally done for a 1998 Dunlop television commercial.[234]

On 4 June 2012, a "40th Anniversary Edition" was released by EMI/Virgin. This edition was remastered by original Trident Studios' engineer Ray Staff.[235] The 2012 remaster was made available on CD and on a special, limited edition format of vinyl and DVD, featuring the new remaster on an LP, together with 2003 remixes of the album by Ken Scott (5.1 and stereo mixes) on DVD-Audio. The latter included bonus 2003 Ken Scott mixes of "Moonage Daydream" (instrumental), "The Supermen", "Velvet Goldmine" and "Sweet Head".[227][236][237] The 2012 remaster of the album and the 2003 remix (stereo mix) were both included in the Parlophone box set Five Years (1969–1973), released on 25 September 2015.[238][239] The album, in its 2012 remastering, was also rereleased separately, in 2015–2016, in CD, vinyl, and digital formats,[240] with Parlophone releasing the separate LP on 26 February 2016 on 180g vinyl.[241] On 16 June 2017, Parlophone reissued the album as a limited edition LP pressed on gold vinyl.[242]

• Weisbard, Eric; Craig Marks (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.

• The Ziggy Stardust Companion
• Moonage Daydream: The Life & Times of Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie and Mick Rock
• Ziggy Stardust album cover shoot marked with plaque at BBC News