I recently saw Sinbad on the television, and he was talking about 8-tracks. He pointed out that since there was no fast forward option, "The whole album had to be good! You like a song, you have to drive around until you hear it again!" That is exactly how I operate when I am listening to The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
Can we talk about the magic that is The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars? Let's do just that! Is there a better loosely strung together concept album in this whole world? No! There is not! Is Ziggy Stardust better than Bat Out Of Hell? Yes! Is Ziggy Stardust better than any record ever? Well, no. But is Ziggy Stardust one of the best albums ever? Absolutely!
Ziggy Stardust is like a bag of potato chips. No matter how much you listen to Ziggy Stardust, you have to have more! You cannot stop enjoying Ziggy Stardust. And you cannot fast forward. Even if you possess the technical abilty to fast forward, you shouldn't. If you want to hear a song again, follow Sinbad's rule and keep driving around. Ziggy Stardust is like that really good Tilt-A-Whirl ride that Joejung and I had at the zoo that one time when only some teenagers and us were on it. The nice carney just let the ride run for somewhere between five minutes and half an hour. Best Tilt-A-Whirl ride ever. And we still wanted to go again! That was the carnival ride version of Ziggy Stardust. I always want to hear it again.
Here are some things I extra like about the album:
First of all, the album is called The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. It is a giant mouthful of an album title that tells you everything you need to know. Okay, it tells you a couple of things that you need to know. There is a "rise" and a "fall" so you know there is a story to hear. And you know that the people who had the rise and fall also had really cool names.
Then there is the disclaimer on the back of the record jacket. It says TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME. All caps. It was such an important point, they could not risk you missing it. (Here you could point out that everything on the back of the jacket is in all caps, but don't steal my thunder! Just enjoy the all capitalized goodness of TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME!)
Five Years
Five Years starts the record and makes reference to an ice cream parlor. Any song that involves "thought I saw you at the ice cream parlor...smiling and waving and looking so fine..." is a-ok with me. I used to live near a genuine ice cream parlor, and sometimes I wondered if I should hang out there at a table near the window. But then I remembered that even if I was sitting in an ice cream parlor, smiling, and waving, and looking so fine, well, the odds of someone I knew walking by weren't great. And the odds of that person being Bowie Talented were even lower. So I just stayed home and listened to Ziggy Stardust instead.
Soul Love
You have to do some sort of cheesy samba-based dance during the first half of the verse. This is non-negotiable. Second half of the verse, the song starts building, so you have to do a more vigorous version of the cheesy dance. This is also non-negotiable. And then the chorus hits. It smacks you upside the head and you have to strike a Pete Townsend inspired pose. (I recently hurt my hand doing that. Don't try striking a Pete Townsend pose in a Dodge Neon.)
Then comes Moonage Daydream. I will freak out in a Moonage Daydream, thank you. I don't actually know what that means, but it is Bowie-endorsed, so it must be cool.
The next four songs are all really mellow. You know, this album is damn near perfect, but sometimes I wonder why I like it, because I am not a big fan of slow songs or mid-tempo numbers. I have the no slow songs rule at the sockhop for a reason! And even though it is almost all moderate tempo, I would not have Ziggy Stardust any other way.
I think much of it has to do with Bowie's great vocals. Okay. I have to say it. I don't think David Bowie is the strongest singer in the world. He does not fit my criteria for great rock singers, but it doesn't matter. He has something more. His delivery is what counts, particularly on this album. There is a quality of despair in his voice through most of the songs, and it is just breathtaking. It doesn't sound as if he himself is despairing, but he sounds like he is desperate to get his point across. He is desperate to tell me, the listener, the story of Ziggy Stardust. So the songs may be slow, but they are the perfect backdrop for his story.
But then along comes the end of the album. All of a sudden, boom! An all-out rock number in the form of Hang On To Yourself. But just when you start to rock, it gets taken down a notch again with the song Ziggy Stardust. It's not as slow as the rest of the album, but it gives you a chance to recover from Hang On To Yourself. Which is good, because you need all of your energy for Suffragette City.
Mmm, Suffragette City. That intro is another invitation to do some Pete Townsend windmills. Suffragette City is full steam ahead rock and roll. Most of the songs on the album either contain really short guitar solos, or saxophone solos. Not Suffragette City. In Suffragette City, Mick Ronson gets to let loose with a searing guitar solo. Oh, that solo is just beautiful. It's not quite blistering, he would need a different tone for it to be blistering, but it is close enough. It definitely smokes. Mmm...Mick Ronson's solo in Suffragette City.
Suffragette City ends with as much authority as it began, and then it is time for the album's closer, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide. What? This is the slowest song yet! Then why do I love it ever so? Because it starts out as a depressing song, and morphs into a happy song, all without speeding up. It just gets more intense, and the urgency in Bowie's vocals hits a new high. When the music stops and Bowie howls, "You're not alone!" man, oh man, do you believe him. The horns get louder, Bowie gets more intense, and then, a little too suddenly, the record ends with strings. And you are done. And you have to play it again. And three weeks later, you realize you haven't listened to anything else since you put it in the car or on the turntable. And you don't care, because it is just that good.