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

by David Bowie

Overview

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 and 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

Product Details

Release Date:	08/02/2024
Label:	Rhino / Parlophone
UPC:	5054197591839
Rank:	183823

Album Credits

Performance Credits

David Bowie   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Saxophone
Mick Ronson   Guest Artist,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Mellotron,Synthesizer
Rick Wakeman   Harpsichord
Trevor Bolder   Bass,Guitar
Dana Gillespie   Vocals (Background)
Mick "Woody" Woodmansey   Drums,Percussion

Technical Credits

Chuck Berry   Composer
Jacques Brel   Composer
Ron Davies   Composer
Ron Davis   Composer
Nigel Reeve   Project Coordinator
Mick Ronson   Arranger
David Bowie   Arranger,Composer,Producer,Original Album Producer
Edward Elgar   Composer
Englyriss Shuman   Composer
Jo Blair   Project Coordinator
Terry Pastor   Artwork
Henry Wrenn-Meleck   Project Coordinator
Brian Ward   Photography
Mort Shuman   Composer
Ray Staff   Remastering Engineer
Ken Scott   Producer,Original Album Producer