Ziggy Stardust

• Artist: David Bowie
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1972
• Total Time: 54:40
• Type: Lyrics are included with the album, Enhanced CD-ROM
• Genre: Rock

Review

Borrowing heavily from Marc Bolan's glam rock and the future shock of A Clockwork Orange, David Bowie reached back to the heavy rock of The Man Who Sold the World for The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Constructed as a loose concept album about an androgynous alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust, the story falls apart quickly, yet Bowie's fractured, paranoid lyrics are evocative of a decadent, decaying future, and the music echoes an apocalyptic, nuclear dread. Fleshing out the off-kilter metallic mix with fatter guitars, genuine pop songs, string sections, keyboards, and a cinematic flourish, Ziggy Stardust is a glitzy array of riffs, hooks, melodrama, and style and the logical culmination of glam. Mick Ronson plays with a maverick flair that invigorates rockers like "Suffragette City," "Moonage Daydream," and "Hang Onto Yourself," while "Lady Stardust," "Five Years," and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" have a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll. And that self-conscious sense of theater is part of the reason why Ziggy Stardust sounds so foreign. 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. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Five Years (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(4:43)
Soul Love (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(3:33)
Moonage Daydream (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(4:39)
Starman (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(4:13)
It Ain't Easy (Lyrics)	Ron Davies	David Bowie	(2:57)
Lady Stardust (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(3:21)
Star (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(2:46)
Hang on to Yourself (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(2:38)
Ziggy Stardust (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(3:13)
Suffragette City (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(3:25)
Rock & Roll Suicide (Lyrics)	David Bowie	David Bowie	(2:58)

Credits

Rick Wakeman (Harpsichord), Rick Wakeman (Keyboards), David Bowie (Guitar), David Bowie (Arranger), David Bowie (Keyboards), David Bowie (Saxophone), David Bowie (Vocals), David Bowie (Producer), David Bowie (Main Performer), Dana Gillespie (Vocals (Background)), Mick Ronson (Guitar), Mick Ronson (Piano), Mick Ronson (Arranger), Mick Ronson (Vocals), Mick Ronson (Group Member), Ken Scott (Producer), Trevor Bolder (Bass), Trevor Bolder (Group Member), Peter Mew (Remastering), Mick "Woody" Woodmansey (Drums), Mick "Woody" Woodmansey (Group Member), Mick Rock (Photography), Brian Ward (Photography), Paul Hicks (Surround Sound), Nigel Reeve (Remastering), Nigel Reeve (Project Coordinator), Kevin Cann (Repackaging Design), Terry Pastor (Artwork), Brian Ward (Photography)