At the house I am staying at this weekend, there is a picture of David Bowie on the refrigerator. Seems appropriate that today’s album is “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”. I also recall my son having a poster of this album cover in his dorm room at college. This classic release from Bowie, which is a concept album framed around the fictional music superstar Ziggy Stardust, is the #40 rated album on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
This is a great record, with several familiar tunes and many others I didn’t know before but also love. I really love the opening track, “Five Years”, and it flows perfectly into the second song “Soul Love” which is equally great. Later on side one, we have “Starman”, one of the most infectious Bowie melodies I have ever heard.
As the album rolls on, songs like “Lady Stardust” and “Star” continue the theme before we hit the two-song powerhouse of “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City”. The title track truly captures Bowie’s eclectic sound and his unique ability to make something alternative and different sound so perfectly rock and roll. And with “Suffragette City”, we have my unequaled favorite David Bowie song of all time. The guitar riff in this song is outstanding, and the up-tempo pace of this song always gets me going.
I don’t know if I will hear a Bowie album I like better than this one, although I’m guessing this countdown will give me that chance. This is definitely one record that fully lives up to the hype and the high rating.
A Lifetime-Plus of Music 