strangely androgynous Bowie invented
glam rock, helped launch heavy metal
and disco, and even inspired punk.’
The album also garnered much praise
at the time; with Richard Cromelin
of Rolling Stone giving the album rave
reviews in the July 1972 issue of the
magazine. Describing it as Bowie’s
‘most thematically ambitious, musically
coherent album to date’, Cromelin also
recognised that Bowie had united
the major strengths of his previous
works, as well as introducing
some great rock and roll with the
newly acquired Spiders from Mars
backing band.
However, Bowie failed to see
that the album was particularly
theatrical, stating, ‘I didn’t
really think any of them were
that experimental. I was always
thwarted by the presumption that
the Beatles had done everything
anyway, so you might as well
just get into the fun of it. It wasn’t until
later that it became apparent that some
of things we’d done were actually quite
innovative in their own way, even the
choice of musicians. That was essentially
eclectic, to say the least.’
In an interview with NY Rock from
February 1997, Bowie rather amusingly
quipped, ‘I think that [Ziggy] would
probably be fairly shocked that, one, I was
still alive and that, two, I seem to have
regained some sense of rationality about
life and existence.’
The tour backing the album would
be, as all of Bowie’s later tours turned
out to be, wild and excessive. With the
character of Ziggy Stardust central to the
1972 tour, the Spiders from Mars were
also ever-present. The album hit No. 3
in the UK album charts, and thanks toits success, the previous album Hunky
Dory also entered the Top 10, actually
managing to eclipse Ziggy Stardust and
peaking at No. 3 in the charts.
Taken from the July 1972 Record
Mirror review of a Bowie gig at the
Royal Festival Hall, Charles Webster
described the electricity of Bowie’s
performance on the night, even going so
far as to prophetically state that, ‘DavidBowie will soon become the greatest
entertainer Britain has ever known’,
adding that his performance was a
‘triumph for the showmanship as well
as music’, something about which I’m
sure Bowie would’ve been most proud.
Finishing off the review in another show
of Nostradamus-like prophecy, Webster
pronounced that Bowie’s ‘talent seems
unlimited and he looks certain to become
the most important person in
pop music on both sides of the
At la nt ic .’
As well as fast becoming the
biggest star of the early 1970s,
Bowie also began to produce and
promote his own personal rock and
roll heroes. Lou Reed, formerly of
The Velvet Underground, released
his breakthrough solo album with
the help of production by Bowie
and Spiders guitarist Mick Ronson.
As well as this, the Stooges,
featuring future running mate Iggy
Pop as the band’s frontman, also signed
on to Bowie’s management and recorded
the album Raw Power, which Bowie later
mixed with great success.
Following the success of the
breakthrough album Ziggy Stardust, the
Spiders from Mars came together again
for the recording of 1973’s Aladdin Sane.
Another conceptual album, this time
the concept was that of a disintegrated“I was always thwarted by
the presumption that theBeatles had done everything
anyway, so you might as well
just get into the fun of it...”
DAVID BOWIE
David Bowie performing in the USA in the early 1970’s.