The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Part 2
Added 2025-05-18 18:07:48 +0000 UTCIt Ain't Easy - https://youtu.be/8xKKlTMDqX0?si=AcuseMKK6h3jLZmY
David Bowie - Lady Stardust - live 1972 - https://youtu.be/iARDYHakmC0?si=k6LsHfLmJEYlQHwc
Star - https://youtu.be/u0iF_fJ8yf4?si=El7HlzNXp9ZdklbZ
David Bowie - Hang On To Yourself (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1973) - https://youtu.be/_igoQ1y3eLM?si=DkF1DZZ4cDR9VLDV
Comments
I always thought that, too. Of course, nearly every English punk band in the late 70s drew a lot of influence from Bowie. There’s a famous photo of a 16-year-old Sid Vicious with a Bowie haircut and T-shirt going to a Bowie gig at Earl’s Court in 1973.
Thomas
2025-05-20 09:46:23 +0000 UTCNever heard Hang On To Yourself before but it seems a bit like proto-punk to me.
Graeme Frew
2025-05-19 19:55:16 +0000 UTCThe final three tracks are amazing.
Thomas
2025-05-19 08:36:19 +0000 UTCThat’s so cool to have gone to the same school. Didn’t Peter Frampton go there, too? Frampton’s dad was Bowie’s art teacher and had a big influence on him. The best I can do in terms of famous ex-pupils at my school are Jimmy Carr, Ulrika Jonsson (Bob Mortimer’s old pal), and Tracey Ullman. All at different times to me, I might add.
Thomas
2025-05-19 07:03:56 +0000 UTCEnjoyed that! One or two i've not heard before
Daz Parker
2025-05-19 06:15:03 +0000 UTCOh boy, what an album (I have just posted on Part 1.) We both went to the same school, although he had left before I joined it. Starman in 1972 on Top of the Pops was really a huge moment as this androgynous character burst on to scene. My life changed at that moment. I recall going to school the next day - omg. Everyone one was talking about it. We discovered he was one of our fellow students - several black and white pictures of old year groups of the school kids hung on the wall. There he was - shock of white (blond) hair, looking rather like the artwork picture on of him on the front of the album. In a rather bland photo of rows of kids, some teachers - all in black and white, he kind of shone out. Then hearing this album and my school mate Martins house - it was awesome. It's said he didn't think it was a concept album but to us it was completely unique and different to anything that predated it.
David Bingham
2025-05-19 00:21:18 +0000 UTCPossibly androgyny too? Considering the arguments raging today, it shows just why he appealed so much to those who refused to follow convention.
OrdinaryDave
2025-05-18 23:36:18 +0000 UTCMick Ronson was hugely important to that era of Bowie. I don't know anything as much as I should about him, in spite of being a huge Bowie fan like you, but I'm guessing he must have been shocked and left feeling betrayed by Bowie when the latter announced his retirement during his final gig as Ziggy (which came as news to the band, I think?). I didn't even realise he died of liver cancer like Bowie; one suspects in Bowie's case that might be the product of the excessive drug habit of his earlier years, but I have no idea if drugs or alcohol addiction played a part in Ronson's untimely death.
OrdinaryDave
2025-05-18 23:33:17 +0000 UTCI love Bowie so much. That gig in 1973 is one of the gigs I wish I could travel back in time to go to. But I wasn’t born till waaay later. Love Mick ronson on guitar too, he sadly passed away in the early 90’s from liver cancer. My mum met him in the 70’s when she was about 16 and still has his autograph, apparently he was a super nice guy.
DG
2025-05-18 22:56:06 +0000 UTCLady Stardust is easily my favourite song on the album. The greatest art, for me, always packs an emotional punch, and this song communicates such sad, inexplicable, beautiful longing.
OrdinaryDave
2025-05-18 22:06:47 +0000 UTCBowie denied that this was concept album. He said: “The whole idea about the concept album thing… there are some songs that fit together on a certain story. But I dispute the idea that it’s a concept album, because why would you have ‘It Ain’t Easy’, which was recorded for Hunky Dory?”
Thomas
2025-05-18 19:15:17 +0000 UTCThat Ziggy Stardust cover was taken on Heddon Street in London. There was a phonebox there too, which is the reverse art, but not sure if it is still there
Danny
2025-05-18 19:14:47 +0000 UTCLady Stardust is about homo- or bisexuality. It’s fairly clear from the lyrics. “Lady Stardust sang his songs of darkness and disgrace”, and “I smiled sadly for a love I could not obey”. The studio version is worth a listen, as it’s quite beautiful.
Tim Pindar
2025-05-18 19:09:57 +0000 UTCThe Hammersmith Odeon performance in 73 is his last show as Ziggy Stardust. I just sent you the Cracked Actor documentary from 1975 . It's better quality than the one on YouTube. Its a 2013 rerelease with an intro by the director. I'll send you the BBC career retrospective documentary I have too that they put out the year after his death. Both about an hour
Danny
2025-05-18 19:08:27 +0000 UTCThe Hammersmith Odeon concert is legendary, but I won’t say why as the ending of the album is behind the story. One incredible side story concerns a break-in at the theatre in the small hours after the first of the two (I think) Hammersmith shows. Microphones and some of the drumming gear was stolen and the band had to borrow stuff for the next show. Years later, the thief revealed himself. It was Steve Jones, who went on to become the guitarist in the Sex Pistols, a legendary punk band whose 1977 album Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols is probably up there with Ziggy as one of the greatest albums of the decade. Steve Jones discussed this years later in a radio with the drummer Woody Woodmansey, who confirmed what had been stolen.
Thomas
2025-05-18 18:59:31 +0000 UTCIt Ain’t Easy is not a Bowie original. It was recorded for the previous album Hunky Dory, but wasn’t used. Good observation about the blues sound. Bowie came up in the 60s when many of the English bands, such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Animals were heavily influenced by the likes of BB King and Howlin’ Wolf.
Thomas
2025-05-18 18:40:54 +0000 UTC
