When Bowie Created Ziggy: 50 years of Sci-Fi Rock ‘n Roll
Written by Caitlin Vaughn Carlos
50 years ago, the world was introduced to Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie’s iconic, early seventies alter-ego. Ziggy was the titular character in Bowie’s 1972 masterpiece album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – a record which charted completely new waters in popular music, bringing together diverse genres and kicking off the sound worlds of glam rock and proto-punk.
David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton England in 1947. He first began recording and performing under the name Davie Jones in the mid-sixties, but eventually changed to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees. From the beginning, his music stood apart and he explored many different styles, from blues and folk, to the diverse interests of the mods. His first album was not very commercially successful and his first breakthrough hit came from his second album…the timely 1969 “Space Oddity” – a haunting track that explored the darker, more anxious side of space travel and was released just ahead of the first moon landing.
As he moved into the seventies, Bowie started experimenting with different stage personas, one of which was Ziggy Stardust. He also started exploring darker thematic concepts and harder rock sounds. Ziggy’s character was groundbreaking – an adrogynous, alien rockstar from Mars who had come to save the world. As Bowie explained in 1977: “I wanted to define the archetype of the messiah rock star. That’s all I wanted to do. And I used the trappings of Kabuki theater, mime technique, fringe New York music (my references were Velvet Underground)….so Ziggy for me was a very simplistic thing. It was what it seemed to be – an alien rock star.”
But for audiences, Ziggy was so much more. As the album introduced more background information on the character and as he developed across Bowie’s stage shows, David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust in the eyes of the public.
The album’s opening track, “Five Years,” introduces the dramatic and conceptual ideas of the album. It describes earth’s collapse, and the reactions of the people as they learn they only have five more years left to live. The song has a lilting feel and the repetition of the “five years” chorus occurs several times in the song. The chorus and its bright, block chords on the piano create a dizzying, almost carousel-like effect.
“Soul Love” goes in a different direction musically. “Five Years” and “Soul Love” are rhythmically similar, but “Soul Love” uses different percussive effects including hand-clapping and hand drums.The addition of the brass instruments, and a brighter musical arrangement give a more optimistic tone despite the fact that the song is still detailing reactions of humans to earth’s demise. Only this time, the lyrics focus on their actions of love towards one another.
With “Moonage Daydream,” we are finally introduced to the character of Ziggy Stardust, who has come to save the world. The song was actually originally recorded in 1971 and released under Bowie’s short-lived band Arnold Corns. Bowie reimagined the song for Ziggy Stardust with a new first verse introducing the character as an “alligator”, “mama-papa”, “space invader” and “rock and roll bitch”. The new version, recorded in a lower key, is vocally stronger for Bowie and is performed with a confident swagger that fits his Ziggy persona perfectly.
The album’s fourth track also provides its lead single. With “Starman,” Ziggy introduces the people of earth to their first sense of hope. He explained to Beat writer William S. Burroughs in a conversation for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973: “Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a starman, so he writes “Starman”, which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately. The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don’t have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black-hole jumping. Their whole life is traveling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie the Infinite Fox.”
“Starman” starts out mellow, with an acoustic guitar and Bowie’s gentle vocals. But it builds as the song progresses, adding keyboard, string orchestration and guitar solos. Its iconic chorus still resonates with generations today. The song is a fantastic blurring of rock ‘n roll nostalgia with contemporary, fully orchestrated songwriting. The song ends with a fuzzy guitar solo while Bowie sings nonsensical “la la” lyrics (in a sound reminiscent of early rock and roll and doo wop). And yet the orchestration and thematic concepts are clearly post-sixties rock writing.
“It Ain’t Easy” represents a departure from the rest of the album. Written by American singer-songwriter Ron Davies, it’s the only cover song in the entire album. Released in 1970 by Davies, it also was covered by Three Dog Night that same year on their album of the same name. Lyrically, It’s reflective of changing environments and times. The song has more of an American, country-influence sound to it, with a harder guitar sound on the chorus. Despite being a cover song (never intended by its author for the context of Ziggy’s apocalyptic Earth), in the hands of Bowie and his musicians, the song fits into the raw, rock ‘n roll mythology of the Ziggy Stardust album.
“Lady Stardust” brings us back to a piano heavy track, with clear musical similarities to Elton John’s work of the same time. It opens with lyrics that nod to Glam Rock as Bowie sings “People stared at the makeup on his face, laughed at his long black hair and animal grace.” Glam rock was an emerging style at this time and certainly Bowie made his mark on this style through Ziggy and other performative works. But he wasn’t the first artist to explore costumes, stage personas and makeup. And this song idolizes that particular scene. It also has an air of tragedy to it. The piano part is almost sentimental as lyrics and melody (especially in the chorus) nostalgically remember a past musical experience.
“Star” builds up the energy again with its pulsating keyboard part and early rock ‘n roll energy. Like the end of “Starman” it incorporates nonsensical vocal parts, this time very much in the style of doowop and early rock ‘n roll background vocals. The lyrics directly address the idea of becoming a rock ‘n roll star and, in the context of Ziggy, show the challenges he faced in coming to earth to save a people who no longer wanted rock ‘n roll. In his conversation with Burroughs, Bowie explained: “Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock & roll band and the kids no longer want rock & roll.”
“Hang on to Yourself” is another song originally recorded and released under Bowie’s band Arnold Corns. Like “Moonage Daydream,” it was re-imagined and re-recorded for inclusion on Ziggy Stardust. The lyrics in the verses are quite different from the Arnold Corn version. In the Ziggy version, it specifically references the “Spiders from Mars,” which is the name of Ziggy’s rock and roll band. It continues the rock ‘n roll energy of “Star” but with a more aggressive, proto-punk edge. While both versions are guitar driven, with its classic riff, the Ziggy version has a harder edge and, in fact, has been credited with influencing the Sex Pistol’s ‘God Save the Queen.” The bassline, according to Sex Pistol’s Glen Matlock, also influenced his playing on “No Feelings” from the band’s debut album.
It isn’t until halfway through the second side that we finally get to Ziggy’s title track. The song was written in 1971, around the same time as “Lady Stardust”. The song gives a portrait of Ziggy’s character and is incredibly descriptive. In addition to his physical appearance, the song describes that Ziggy played guitar left-handed. Many interpretations connect this reference to Jimi Hendrix, especially since later in the song he sings: “Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we were voodoo.” The song is a narrative masterpiece so that by the end of it, we have a very clear understanding of many facets of the Ziggy character.
But it is also musically fascinating. A fuzzy guitar riff, played by Mick Ronson, opens up the track with a clear rock ‘n roll sound. The acoustic guitar was played by Bowie and brings a warmth to what is otherwise a bright, treble-y track. Trevor Bolder plays bass on the song with a fantastic line that moves across registers, sometimes paralleling the melody. The drums were played by Mick Woodmansey, and relies on the cymbals and hi-hat for its color, rather than a deep, heavy drumming sound.
The vocals on “Ziggy Stardust” showcase Bowie’s abilities to explore different sounds, colors and textures. The verses use pretty heavy reverb. The song does not have a clear chorus, because it lacks lyrical repetition. It’s really the texture of the section (as the vocals switched to an obviously double-tracked sound) which serves the energy building function of a chorus in the song.
“Suffragette City” brings together the glam rock, the hard rock and the proto-punk in a high-energy track. It’s certainly guitar driven, but the pounding, Little Richard style piano also gives it some of that early rock ‘n roll vibe. One of the most memorable moments in the song is the false ending, where Bowie exclaims “Wham Bam, thank you man” before the band launches back into the song’s groove. This line directly references a Charles Mingus track, while other lyrics reference Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange, or the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.”
The final song on the album, “Rock ‘n Roll Suicide” details Ziggy’s ultimate demise. In the narrative, the “infinites” described in the song Starman have finally come to earth. Bowie explained: “When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make themselves real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist on our world. And they tear him to pieces onstage during the song “Rock and Roll Suicide.” As soon as Ziggy dies onstage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible.”
It’s a science fiction ending appropriate for its age. An age fascinated by space travel while also expressing fear of an apocalyptic future. Bowie captured all of these fears, excitements and fascinations, and managed to weave them into a groundbreaking musical album. As Bowie told journalists in 1973: “I’m really just a phosphate machine…I pour out what has already been fed in. I merely reflect what is going on around me.”
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was recorded at Trident Studios in London. The sessions began on the 8th of November, 1971,soon after Bowie finished his previous album, Honky Dory. The album featured the talents of Mick Ronson on electric guitar, piano and backing vocals. Ronson is also credited with arranging the string parts. Trevor Bolder played bass and Mick Woodmansey played drums. Although Rick Wakeman had left the group prior to the album’s production, some sources credit him with harpsichord on “It Ain’t Easy” The album was produced by Bowie and Ken Scott. Scott is also credited with engineering and mixing the album. It was released by RCA on June 16, 1972
Despite its incredible success as a concept album, there is quite a bit of indication that its creation as such was not premeditated. In January 1972, Bowie explained “It wasn’t really started as a concept album. It got kind of broken up because I found other songs that I wanted to put in the album that wouldn’t fit in with the story of Ziggy…what you have on that album when it finally comes out is a story which doesn’t really take place. It’s just a few little scenes from the life of a band called Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, who could feasibly be the last band on earth, because we’re living the last five years of earth.” Likewise producer Ken Scott said “[Ziggy Stardust] was never discussed as a concept album from the start…We were recording a bunch of songs – some of them happened to fit together, some didn’t work.” However, as Ziggy became a stage show in addition to the album the pieces were filled in and fans have largely constructed a whole world around Ziggy Stardust, even reconciling those songs which Bowie and Scott did not imagine fitting into the Ziggy narrative. As Bowie admitted “…when an artist does his work it’s no longer his…I just see what people make of it.”
And people have made a lot of Ziggy Stardust. Fans and critics alike have praised the album as one of Bowie’s greatest works. It peaked at number 5 in the UK, and, while it only hit number 75 in the US, it remained an important influence on American popular music for generations to follow him. Magazines and polls have consistently ranked it as one of the best albums of all time. It was even designated for preservation by the National Recording Registry of the United States in 2017.
Fifty years later, Ziggy Stardust remains one of the era’s most important albums because it captured the sounds and ideas of its time and presented them back to the world in the most unexpected way. It was both forward looking and reflective; with Bowie’s fantastical imagination, it brought together new sounds and futuristic science-fiction, and wrapped it in rock ‘n roll nostalgia.