Three years after the revelation with the piece space oddity, David Bowie finally establishes himself on the musical landscape with the character of Ziggy Stardust. An androgynous alien born on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, who turned 50 on June 16. An opus on which we find the titles Five Years, Soul Love, Starman, Ziggy Stardust and City of the Suffragettes.
With this disc, his fifth, the Brit David Robert Jones will find his way.
Propelled by the success of the single Starman, performed on the BBC’s waves on 5 July 1972 during the Top of the Pops programme, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars will reach the 5th edition seven months later. position in the UK Singles Chart and will climb to number 21 in the United States.
On this album, the androgynous character of Ziggy Stardust is sent to earth as a savior in anticipation of an apocalypse. The glamorous-sounding album will sell 7.5 million copies worldwide and become one of the Thin White Duke’s most important and formative albums.
At the BBC, Bowie, who was obsessed with space, wore colorful jumpsuits, astronaut boots and red hair. The musicians, the Spiders, were just as colourful.
More rock ‘n’ roll
Bono, lead singer of U2, sat in front of the TV. He saw Bowie for the first time.
“It was like a creature falling from the sky. The Americans had sent a man to the moon. We had our Brit from space,” he said in Rob Sheffield’s book On Bowie.
After the Hunky Dory album, David Bowie wanted to embrace more rock ‘n’ roll sounds. It was in this spirit that he found himself at Trident Studios in London in November 1971, along with guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansev.
The 11 songs will be recorded in 10 days. Bowie was inspired. He knew what he wanted. He directed the musicians and even hummed the guitar solos for Mick Ronson. Five Years, for example, was recorded in one take on November 15, 1971.
The British artist is influenced by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Marc Bolan and Iggy Pop.
“I’m a person who can take on the looks of people I meet. I’m a collector, I collect personalities and ideas,” he said,” bassist Trevor Bolder said in an interview published in NME magazine.
“He wanted to go beyond all his influences and combine everything because he wanted to change the music industry. He found it boring.”
Dennis Katz, head of the record label RCA Records, stated that among those who made up the album there was not a song that could be easier for the radio. In this context, Starman was recorded at the end of the studio sessions.
Ziggy Stardust will have a short lifespan. On July 3, 1973, during a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, three months after the release of the Aladdin Sane album, David Bowie announced that it was the last performance of this odd character, allowing him to make his mark.