The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
| The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | ||||
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| Studio album by David Bowie | ||||
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Publication |
1972 |
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| Label (s) | RCA Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC, SACD |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
38 min 37 s |
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| occupation |
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David Bowie and Ken Scott |
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Studio (s) |
Trident Studios, London |
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The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars or Ziggy Stardust for short is a concept album by David Bowie from 1972. It was described by the music magazine Melody Maker as the "definitive album of the 1970s" and reached number 5 in the UK as well as number 75 on the American Billboard charts and provided the material for the 1973 documentary film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by DA Pennebaker .
The album was released on June 16, 1972 in the UK and on September 1, 1972 in the USA. The single Starman appeared as a preview of the album on April 14, 1972.
overview
The album tells the story of Ziggy Stardust, the symbol of a promiscuous rock star marked by drug excesses , whose concern for humanity, the proclamation of the message of love and peace, ultimately fails because of his dissolute lifestyle, which divides him and his fans into one personal abyss. Parallels with Bowie's lifestyle in the late 1970s, as well as the archetype of the damned Messiah, are obvious. Bowie himself claims that the eccentric rock musician Vince Taylor was the main inspiration .
At concerts, Bowie slipped androgynous make- up, decadently dressed and with dyed red hair into the role of Ziggy Stardust. He performed with a band that, based on the fictional band accompanying his character, was called Spiders from Mars . Bowie's last concert in this role in London's Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, at which Bowie not only declared the end of Ziggy Stardust, but also that of his own career and also dismissed his entire band unannounced, is considered fateful .
The origin and meaning of the name have not been fully clarified. Bowie himself initially referred to a London tailor shop called Ziggy’s and argued that clothing is one of the subjects he deals with on the album. He later remarked to Rolling Stone that Ziggy was one of the few first names beginning with the letter Z that came into his mind. An allusion to the musician Iggy Pop and the model Twiggy , both of whom were Bowie's friends, is also possible. Stardust goes back to the country singer Norman Carl, known as Legendary Stardust Cowboy , who like Bowie was under contract with Mercury at the time. 30 years later, Bowie covered his song I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship on his Heathen album.
The original album cover shows a location on London's Heddon Street, which later, like the Beatles' Abbey Road crosswalk , developed into a place of pilgrimage for fans. The phone booth shown on the back was removed in 1998 and later replaced by a replica.
To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the album, four selected pieces from the album were sent to distant regions of space in July 2003 with the help of a high-power laser. The titles had been put together by fans as part of an online survey, and they chose Five Years , Starman , Ziggy Stardust and Rock 'n' Roll Suicide .
Style and Influences
The album has with concise Hard Rock - guitar riffs and catchy choruses, the defining features of the Glam Rock on, influenced by genre pioneers like T. Rex and Mott the Hoople . Bowie's guitarist Mick Ronson made a decisive contribution to the new sound garb , who put his stamp on many songs with his memorable playing and also emerged as a pianist and arranger. More than the previous albums , which were more determined by psychedelic and experimental echoes, Ziggy Stardust addressed the mass audience, but without completely sacrificing innovative aspects. Titles like Starman , Suffragette City , Five Years , Lady Stardust and Ziggy Stardust stand on the threshold between pop rock and art rock . On the lyrical level, a broad spectrum between pessimistic and cheerful moods opens up; the first piece, Five Years , already contains the announcement of an imminent end of the world due to an undetermined natural disaster, while Starman reports on Ziggy's optimism about the imminent salvation.
Numerous songs by David Bowie are homages to his musical role models. Often certain motifs or chord progressions are adopted and transferred into a glam rock attitude. Star begins similarly to Pinball Wizard from The Whos rock opera Tommy , Suffragette City , on the other hand, is influenced by surf rock , such as the Beach Boys played. Ziggy's dream in Star is preceded by “just watch me now”, an allusion to a line from Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground . Starman , the album's single, has been described as a cross between mod culture and Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Jim Bickhart, Phonograph Record Magazine, July 1972). Soul Love makes innovative use of a jazzy saxophone.
action
The fragment-like form of the work leaves room for interpretation, which is why the following table of contents should not be regarded as definitive. The widespread assumption that Ziggy Stardust was a Martian was apparently rejected in a draft by Bowie on a possible later theatrical performance ( Ziggy cosmology ). Accordingly, he is himself human and only sees extraterrestrials in dreams.
Before Ziggy steps in, Five Years announces the doom of mankind due to an undetermined natural disaster in five years. Soul love deals with different types of love , especially with "soul love" as religious, adoring love. Next to it are “stone love” as love for the past, “new love” as romantic, lustful love and “idiot love” as painful, degenerate love. Moonage Daydream finally introduces Ziggy, hinting at his fate as a rock 'n' roll messiah and perfect governor of soul love . In Starman - a song that Ziggy writes after he himself had contact with extraterrestrials in a dream - an extraterrestrial sends a message over the radio to the youth on earth, he promises speedy redemption and announces a cautious approach. It ain't easy , the only piece written by Ron Davies and not by Bowie, deals with the teething problems of a rock star career.
The second side of the LP opens with Lady Stardust , Bowie's homage to his friend Marc Bolan , in which Ziggy's androgynous demeanor is described from the perspective of an enthusiastic fan. Star contains (only hinted at) Ziggy's idea or intention to participate as a rock star in changing the world. Linked to this is Hang on to yourself as a description of the actual circumstances: After starting out on stolen instruments, Ziggy and his band sound out the extremes and gradually lose the ground under their feet. Ziggy Stardust sums up Ziggy's development from the point of view of a band member and announces the breakup of the band in the last line. The impending descent is indicated by two visions of death that illuminate Ziggy's tendency towards self-destruction. In Suffragette City , the well-intentioned advice of a true friend will be ignored before the album Ziggy end up being broken rock star in Rock 'n' Roll Suicide is completed.
Track list
- Five Years - 4:42
- Soul Love - 3:33
- Moonage Daydream - 4:37
- Starman - 4:16
- It Ain't Easy - 2:57
- Lady Stardust - 3:21
- Star - 2:47
- Hang on to Yourself - 2:38
- Ziggy Stardust - 3:13
- Suffragette City - 3:25
- Rock 'n' Roll Suicide - 3:02
- Bonus tracks
- John, I'm Only Dancing (Previously unreleased mix) - 2:43
- Velvet Goldmine (Single B-Side) - 3:09
- Sweet Head (Previously unreleased track) - 4:14
- Ziggy Stardust (Previously unreleased original demo) - 2:35
- Lady Stardust (Previously unreleased original demo) - 3:35
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust was re-released several times on CD: First in 1990 on Rykodisc / EMI with five bonus tracks and in 1999 on EMI / Virgin , in the same time as Bowie's further back catalog , as a 96 kHz / 24-bit remaster without Bonus tracks. A 30th anniversary version on two CDs with the remastered version and additional bonus material was released in 2002. The remastered version is still the basis of an SACD version that contains both stereo and 5.1 mixes in 96 kHz / 24 bit. The 30th anniversary version appeared in small numbers and is now a coveted collector's item.
Awards and influence on rock and pop
In 1997, Ziggy Stardust was voted 20th in the Music of the Millennium poll by HMV , Channel 4 , the Guardian and Classic FM in the "best album of all time" category. In 1998, readers of Q Magazine ranked it 24th, while TV channel VH1 saw it at 48th place in 2003. The Rolling Stone praised it as number 35 of the 500 "best albums of all time," Q recorded it in 2000 as number 25 of the 100 "best British rock albums" from. The album went gold and platinum on January 25, 1973 in the UK and gold in the United States on June 12, 1974.
Influences on rock and pop music are widely spread: Reggae icon Bob Marley was said to be so impressed with Bowie's character that he nicknamed his son David Ziggy, under which his albums were released from now on. The punk rock anarchists Crass named themselves after the line of text "The kids was [sic] just crass" from the title track of the album. Moby's 2005 album Spiders pays homage to Bowie. In Wes Anderson's film The Deep Sea Divers , Seu Jorge plays a Brazilian sailor with a guitar who sings several songs by Ziggy Stardust and other Bowie albums in Portuguese. The Smashing Pumpkins wrote in 2000 on MACHINA II / The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music : “He likes his loud guitars / And his spiders from Mars”. Nina Hagen's appearance is inspired by Ziggy Stardust, and she has also recorded a cover version of the title track. Elton John paid tribute to Bowie in 1973 with the song Bennie and the Jets on the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road , which is obviously a tribute to Ziggy Stardust and his Spiders .
Shock rocker Marilyn Manson openly admits that Ziggy Stardust has a significant influence. This is particularly evident in his glitter rock opus Mechanical Animals , an album that has aesthetic similarities to Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane . The plot line of the earlier album Antichrist Superstar already follows a similar rise and fall pattern as Ziggy Stardust and the pieces Minute of Decay and Man That You Fear take up musical elements from Bowie's work.
Awards for music sales
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
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 Italy (FIMI)
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 gold
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25,000 |
 United States (RIAA)
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gold
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500,000 |
 United Kingdom (BPI)
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 Platinum (RCA Records)+ 2 × Platinum (Parlophone)
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(900,000) |
| All in all |
2 × gold 3 × platinum |
1,425,000 |
Main article: David Bowie / Music Sales Awards
Works of art
"Five Years" is an art object created on January 8, 2018 by the German artist Roland Eugen Beiküfner as a multiple in an edition of five limited single copies in five future years. Consists of a showcase, an emergency hammer, a music CD by David Bowie and part of a bamboo pole with the inscription “Please open five years before the end of the world”. At the opening of the “Treibgut” exhibition in Markt Feucht , the artist said: “My objects are not current, but really acute.” The work is in the Erhard Witzel Collection in Munich and Dornbirn .
Web links
- 5 Years - The Ziggy Stardust Companion
- Manuela Wurm: ZIGGY STARDUST. Fictional character. Superstar. Musician myth. Thesis. 2010, accessed January 8, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Ziggy Stardust Companion: FAQ - Who was Ziggy Stardust based on? ( Memento from October 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The Ziggy Stardust Companion: Starman, Section 'Analysis'
- ↑ Levy, Joe (Ed.): Rolling Stone. The 500 best albums of all time . (Original edition: Rolling Stone. The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time . Wenner Media 2005). Translation: Karin Hofmann. Wiesbaden: White Star Verlag, 2011, p. 55