#40 David Bowie, 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' (1972)

Previously #35

David Bowie’s magnum opus, his fifth studio album is also his fifth entry into the list. It’s a rock opera about the titular Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous, bisexual rock star who is sent to Earth as a saviour. Kinda sounds like Bowie himself, doesn’t it? Unlike its piano-driven predecessor, ‘Hunky Dory’ (#88), this record is very much guitar-driven. Immediately following the recording of that record pianist, Rick Wakeman, left Bowie’s band to join Yes and guitarist, Mick Ronson to on a more prominent role as Bowie’s sideman. The Glam-Rock album was inspired by Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Marc Bolan.

‘Ziggy Stardust’ made Bowie a household name, it was a major cultural zeitgeist in pop culture. Remarkably, it only sold 8,000 copies in the UK on its week of release, but by the second week it entered the Top 10. The songs flow as if straight out of a musical. ‘Five Years’ builds into ‘Soul Love,’ considerably more upbeat and even poppier. Into the heavier ‘Moonage Daydream,’ featuring an iconic, improvised guitar solo by Ronson. And then… ‘Starman.’ Bowie’s signature song, or one of them, he had a few; “I had to phone someone so I picked on you/Hey, that's far out, so you heard him too.” I love those lyrics. Its chorus is loosely based on ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ from The Wizard Of Oz. Bowie and Ronson channel Elton on ‘Lady Stardust.’ Around this time, Bowie would cheekily say “I consider myself responsible for a whole new school of pretensions,” Bowie said. “They know who they are. Don’t you, Elton? Just kidding. No, I’m not.” The title track is a triumph in songwriting, while ‘Suffragette City’ is straight out of the Velvet Underground playbook. This release was monumental and one of the most important albums in Glam Rock, and Rock in general. It’s Bowie at his absolute best.

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