LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JUNE 16, 2019…ON THIS DATE IN 1972 DAVID BOWIE RELEASED ‘THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS’
THE ALBUM IS A LOOSE CONCEPT ALBUM BASED ON BOWIE’S ALTER EGO ZIGGY STARDUST, A FICTIONAL BISEXUAL ROCK STAR WHO ACTS AS A MESSSENGER FOR EXTRATERRISTERAL BEINGS. BEFORE THE ALBUM’S RELEASE, BOWIE TOLD AN INTERVIEWER:
“What you have there on that album when it does finally come 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—it could be within the last five years of Earth. I’m not at all sure. Because I wrote it in such a way that I just dropped the numbers into the album in any order that they cropped up. It depends on which state you listen to it in.”
IT WAS BOWIE’S FIFTH ALBUM AND IT WAS HUGE. AS OF 2016 THE ALBUM HAD SOLD OVER 7.5 MILLION COPIES. IT ALSO WAS SELECTED FOR PRESERVATION IN THE NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY BEING DEEMED “CULTURALLY, HISTORICALLY, OR ARTISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT” BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
THE ALBUM FEATURED ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOWIE SONGS
