David Bowie 5: Ziggy Stardust

Many have pointed to Ziggy Stardust as Bowie’s pinnacle achievement, but they fail to mention what it doesn’t accomplish: by setting itself as a story, and one that’s barely there, it falls flat. Luckily, most of the tunes are pretty good.

“Five Years” creeps in nicely, and sets up the story of an imminent alien invasion, though its references to “the black” and “the queer” show its age. “Soul Love” sports an interesting 7/4 time signature and a pleasant sax solo by the man himself. “Moonage Daydream” gives Ronno a chance to shine both on guitar and in the strings. “Starman” is the hidden gem here, a nice conversation between the kids suggesting that the imminent invasion might not be such a bad thing (shades of Childhood’s End here). “It Ain’t Easy” is a cover left over from the Hunky Dory sessions; it doesn’t fit the plot, but then again neither did Chuck Berry’s “Round And Round”, which was in the running order for a while.

“Lady Stardust” attempts to bring the story back to music, though it’s hard to tell where the aliens come in. Still, it’s a wonderful piano performance. “Star” plows ahead, but it’s an unnecessary detour before “Hang On To Yourself”, supposedly the title character’s theme song (and indeed the opening number at all the concerts of this era). “Ziggy Stardust” crams all the details into three minutes, and goes directly into “Suffragette City”, which doesn’t seem to be about much of anything. “Rock ‘N Roll Suicide” takes us back to Ziggy’s demise, and ends the proceedings on a properly “showstopping” note.

Some of the bonus tracks on the Ryko reissue (and subsequently the 30th anniversary double-disc) are worth a listen, notably the decadent “Velvet Goldmine” and “Sweet Head”. Demos of “Lady Stardust” and “Ziggy Stardust” have alternate lyrics, as do the early “Arnold Corns” versions of “Moonage Daydream” and “Hang On To Yourself”; in all cases, the album versions are the best. Completing the picture is “John, I’m Only Dancing”, a contemporary single that probably doesn’t fit on the album thematically, but is musically on the level of anything else. Ten years later, the 40th Anniversary edition of the album apparently restored the music to the proper stereo channels. That was the limit of the CD version; a deluxe LP set offered the same, but added a DVD with 5.1 surround sound and other mixes of the album as well as “The Supermen”, “Velvet Goldmine”, “Sweet Head”, and an instrumental of “Moonage Daydream”.

If any Bowie album would have gotten the expanded box set treatment, Ziggy Stardust was always the strongest candidate; such a thing was rumored as far back as the Rykodisc days. Once 50th anniversary sets became de rigeur, one finally appeared, though production limitations and the after-effects of the Covid pandemic delayed it for two years. Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! followed the template of previous posthumous Bowie exhumations by devoting five discs to the rise of Ziggy from demos to the studio. (Of course, the package included two books and a Blu-ray with audio in various resolutions.)

The first disc has eight demos, mostly acoustic, in varying quality, well before the lyrics were finalized (such as “So Long 60s”, which is basically “Moonage Daydream”). Then we hear the so-called Arnold Corns songs, followed by a lo-fi peek into band rehearsals of the new tunes. Two discs cover BBC appearances; most of these were already available, there’s a lot of repetition, and the one session not out before is pretty scratchy, but they do add the audio from two TV shows. Disc four offers outtakes, single versions, and the five surviving songs from a Boston show, all but one previously released. Disc five is where it gets nutty, with alternate mixes of familiar tracks, plus the occasional alternate take. We get two more versions of “Looking For A Friend”, “Hang On To Yourself” without the title line in the song, “Shadow Man”, the mythic “It’s Gonna Rain Again”, and an earlier, faster take on the Who’s “I Can’t Explain”. For whatever reason, the by-now-familiar outtake “Sweet Head” is heard only in a mix that focuses on the acoustic for the first verse.

In all, the set is not the revelation it might have been. It is certainly a companion to the original album, and not an expansion. If you want more, collections like Santa Monica ‘72 and Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture fill out the rest of the story.

David Bowie The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)—4
1990 Rykodisc: same as 1972, plus 5 extra tracks
2002 30th Anniversary Edition: same as 1990, plus 7 extra tracks
David Bowie Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! (2024)—3