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

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is a 1972 concept album by David Bowie, praised as the definitive album of the 1970s by Melody Maker magazine. It peaked at #5 in the United Kingdom and #75 in the United States on the Billboard Music Charts.

Overview

The album presents the story, albeit vaguely, of Ziggy Stardust, a Martian who comes to earth to liberate humanity from banality. Ziggy Stardust is the definitive rock star, sexually promiscuous, wild in drug intake and with a message, ultimately, of peace and love; but he is destroyed by his own excesses of drugs and sex, and torn apart by the fans he inspired. The mythological story cycle of the doomed Messiah endeared itself to fans then and now.

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The plot of Ziggy Stardust was expanded on in the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, which starred David Bowie in the title role.

Related Topics:
The Man Who Fell to Earth - David Bowie

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The album was later turned into a Rock Opera for the stage by Patrick Foti of the Endicott Performing Arts Center. The show first ran from July 7-10, 2005.

Related Topics:
Patrick Foti - Endicott Performing Arts Center - 2005

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The album was released in the UK on June 6, 1972, and later in the US on September 1, 1972. The single "Starman" was released on April 28, 1972 to promote the album.

Related Topics:
June 6 - 1972 - September 1 - April 28

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The name may come from Iggy Pop (singer, friend of Bowie) and/or Twiggy (model, friend of Bowie), and Bowie has claimed that it came from a tailor's shop in London called Ziggy's; he claims to have chosen the name because the album was going to be all about clothes. Bowie later told Rolling Stone it was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter 'Z'." "Stardust" comes from one of Bowie's labelmates, a country singer named Norman Carl Odom, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. (Bowie covered a Legendary Stardust Cowboy song, "I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship", 30 years later on his critically acclaimed Heathen album.)

Related Topics:
Iggy Pop - Twiggy - London - Rolling Stone - Norman Carl Odom - Heathen

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The album cover has become an object of veneration for fans (similar to Abbey Road), who make pilgrimages to see the exact spot. The phone box depicted on the back cover was removed in 1998.

Related Topics:
Abbey Road - 1998

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The album is considered archetypal glam rock, full of hard rock guitar riffs, catchy choruses and confusing, opiate lyrics. It is both gloomy, as in the first song, "Five Years", where it is revealed that the Earth will be destroyed in five years, and joyous, as in the optimism of Ziggy in "Starman". Though Bowie's previous albums had built him a serious fanbase (particularly the hit song "Space Oddity"), his music was largely inaccessible and avant-garde. Ziggy Stardust was still innovative and pioneering, but was also accessible to people who couldn't hear or understand the significance of Bowie's revolutionary techniques and style. Songs like "Starman", "Suffragette City", "Five Years", "Lady Stardust" and "Ziggy Stardust" are strange mixtures of pop rock and art rock. Mick Ronson's guitar work is especially beloved on this album; on previous Bowie compositions, he had displayed talent and occasional spots of brilliance (e.g., Hunky Dory's "Queen Bitch") but he shone on this album, playing the chords that (in the story) awakened the consciousness of humanity.

Related Topics:
Glam rock - Space Oddity - Mick Ronson - Hunky Dory

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