David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

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

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