It may surprise some people that
\nThe Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From
\nMars<\/i> was not David Bowie’s first record – though it was the
\nfirst that truly established him as an art rocker.<\/p>\n
Re-released by Rykodisc almost a decade ago, this 1972 release
\nproved to be a hard one to top for Bowie, though he would come
\nclose sometimes. Still, at the quarter-century mark, there are good
\nmoments as well as some very dated sounds on this one.<\/p>\n
\nZiggy Stardust<\/i> is best known for its title track and
\n“Suffragette City,” as well as the appearance of Mick Ronson (later
\nto join Mott The Hoople), but sometimes it is the unheralded tracks
\nthat provide the most entertainment on this album.<\/p>\n
The opening cut, “Five Years,” takes a few listens to warm up
\nto, and is a tad bombastic. But the following track, “Soul Love,”
\nis one of the hidden treasures on the album (featuring saxophone by
\none D. Bowie). The slow groove worked up by the song is instantly
\nappealing, even if the diction isn’t the greatest. Until I looked
\nat the album cover, I thought the song was “Stoned Love.” Oops.<\/p>\n
The best track on
\nZiggy Stardust<\/i> is “Starman,” where the trademark Bowie voice
\nis given a true chance to come forward in all its glory. A true
\npiece of art rock that has rarly been equaled, Bowie has rarely
\nsounded better.<\/p>\n
With the exception of the two “hits” from the album, the rest of
\nthe cuts tend to be dated and bland, if not at least listenable.
\nPart of the distraction from the songs themselves is the
\n“plink-plink-plink” piano from Ronson – maybe it’s me, but I’d
\nrather hear some real piano playing rather than Ronson diddling
\nwith the same chord. Listen to the end of “Suffragette City” to
\nhear what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n
And I don’t want to say that
\nZiggy Stardust<\/i> is a bad album, ’cause it’s not. But art
\nrock, like all art, has its times when it fits in with the rest of
\nthe world picture, and there are times it sticks out like a sore
\nthumb. (Two words: King Crimson – who are now back in fashion.)
\nBowie purists may consider this to be sacrilege, but let’s remember
\nwhat was in vogue in 1972 doesn’t stay in fashion for 25 years
\nnon-stop.<\/p>\n
Sure, some of the sounds are a tad ancient and repetitive, but
\nZiggy Stardust<\/i> is by no means a poor album. It is one that
\nneeds time to grow on you – I listened to it three times before
\nwriting this, and I’m
\nstill<\/i> not certain I caught all the nuances. It may not be
\nthe place to start for the new Bowie fan, but it definitely is one
\nto return to down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5671],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-35547","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35547"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35547"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}