by Harry Windsor

Created on: January 03, 2008

Ziggy Stardust is an incredible album and was an important factor in Bowie's rise to fame in the early 70s. It is a concept-like album telling the faintly ludicrous story of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars but the music is tight and every song is a winner. The opening track builds slowly but by about halfway through 'Five Years' Bowie lets you know what you are in for - faultless rock and roll til the end - when the vocals build to "I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk" followed by the chorus. By the time 'Starman' arrives, for many non-Bowie fans the first really familiar tune, it is clear that it is just one more good rock and roll song on an album filled with them. At the beginning of this review I was planning on describing each one separately but thats not really the point because it is when they are heard in sequence that everything comes together so that by the time 'Rock'n'Roll Suicide' closes the album it is time to hear it again. This has it all soul, proto-punk, good old rock and roll and awesome lyrics. Just listen to it and if you're like me you'll come away just thinking what a stone cold legend Bowie/Ziggy is. "You're blessed, we're the spiders from Mars".

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