Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardus [Enhanced]

By the time 1972 came into being, David Bowie had already experimented with more musical sounds than most artists end up experimenting with in their entire careers! His 1967 self-titled debut featured oldies-style pop reminiscent of Donovan, 1969's Space Oddity featured somewhat of a folksy-rock sound, 1970's The Man Who Sold The World experimented with a harder rock sound in many places, and 1971's Hunky Dory experimented with the popular pop stylings of that era. Although these were all good albums, it was pretty obvious that Bowie had yet to discover his sound. It was in 1972 that Bowie switched over to the subgenre of rock that would make him a living legend - classic glam rock. 1972 featured the release of what would be his biggest album released to the time - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (could he have possibly come up with a longer title?) Would his first attempt at glam rock be an earth-shattering success, or would it leave Bowie out in the cold? Read on for my review.

This was David Bowie's first true five-star album. Some musical artists come of age as soon as their career starts, but some of them are seriously late bloomers. David Bowie is a late bloomer, but after listening to this album, you'll agree - it was worth sitting through four mediocre albums just to be able to hear this one! Two huge hits emerged from this album, the most obvious one of which being the title track. This is a stripped-down, acoustic track - not what you'd expect Bowie to do, but he does it excellently. The other fairly big hit is Suffragette City, one of my favorite Bowie songs of all time. It's a fast paced hard and heavy blues-based rocker with a backing piano track. Why can't every artist makes songs as cool as this one? Bowie explored many styles on his earlier albums, and this album brings all of those stylings together in perfect harmony. Many people say that this album is to the early seventies glam rock uprising what The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper was to rock and roll of the late sixties, and I agree with this. In the end, Ziggy Stardust stands as one of Bowie's crowning achievements.

This album has been released a ton of times over the years. But the three main versions of the album available (as of June 16, 2004) are the standard domestic version, the two-disc deluxe edition, and the foreign Rykodisc reissue. Dont bother with the Rykodisc reissue, it only has a couple of bonus tracks, and it isn't worth the inflated import price. If you're just getting into Bowie, the standard, single-disc edition of the album will do just fine. But if you're a big-time Bowie fan, and you want to experience some lost treasures, shell out the extra cash and get the deluxe version.

David Bowie released a number of popular albums throughought the course of the seventies, but he'd never release another Ziggy Stardust. He'd come very close with several of his releases, but this is an album all in a league of its own. If you're new to David Bowie, this album would make an excellent starting point in your collection. If you only buy one classic glam rock album this year, make it this one.