1972 · Behind the Songs
An alien rock star, a five-minute warning and glam’s defining anthem.
“Ziggy Stardust” is the title song of the album that made David Bowie a star — and the obituary of the character who did it. On The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, released in June 1972, it arrives near the end of the record, telling the story of Ziggy’s rise and collapse in five blazing minutes.
Bowie wrote and recorded the song at Trident Studios in London with co-producer Ken Scott and the Spiders from Mars — Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, Mick Woodmansey on drums. The “Stardust” in the name came from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a rockabilly oddity Bowie admired, while the character drew on real fallen rockers such as Vince Taylor. Ziggy was a composite: part alien messiah, part cautionary tale about what fame does to the famous.
The song was never released as a single in Britain or America — “Starman” did that job, reaching the UK Top 10. Instead “Ziggy Stardust” became the centerpiece of the stage show, the moment each night when the persona burned brightest. Bowie retired Ziggy for good at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, announcing from the stage that it was the last show they would ever do — a line his own band took to mean the end of everything.
What to listen for: Ronson’s guitar, which answers Bowie’s vocal line for line; the song’s compact drama, a whole career compressed into five minutes; and the finality in Bowie’s delivery. He already knew Ziggy’s fate when he sang it — the fall was always part of the rise.