Line #138 Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/david_bowie_the_rise_and_fall_of_ziggy_stardust_and_the_spiders_from_mars_no_logo.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''He could lick 'em by smiling, he could leave 'em to hang\
3	He came on so loaded, man, well-hung, snow-white tan'']]
4
5	->''"Wherein Ziggy Stardust makes himself manifest to all."''
6	-->--'''{{Tagline}}''' from the album's advertising campaign.
7
8	''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' (often shortened to ''Ziggy Stardust'' or even just ''Ziggy'') is the fifth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1972 through Creator/RCARecords. "Ziggy Stardust", "Starman", "Suffragette City" and "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" were big international hits at the time.
9
10	Conceived after the songs were already finished, the ambiguous story of this ConceptAlbum revolves around Ziggy Stardust, a bisexual rock star (either from space or TouchedByVorlons) who rises to stardom in a time when Earth is on its last legs and its people need hope. However, he succumbs to the hedonistic lifestyle that comes with fame, and it's his own fans who are responsible for his death. Ironically, Bowie himself nearly fell into the same trap, as "Ziggy Stardust" became such a global phenomenon that he did everything to distance himself from the "Ziggy" character, in essence reinventing himself each album.
11
12	The album was a major commercial success in Bowie's native UK, peaking at No. 5 on the UK Albums chart, being certified double-platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, and marking Bowie's true BreakthroughHit in the British mainstream. The album was less successful in the United States despite favorable critical reviews, peaking at a much more modest No. 75 on the Billboard 200, though it was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America two years after its release; the album was also certified gold in Italy. It did however see belated American success following Bowie's death in 2016, peaking two years later at both No. 3 on Billboard's Top Catalog Albums charts and No. 21 on the mainline 200.
13
14	As has apparently become standard practice by this point, ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' was supported by two singles: "Starman" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide". The former was recorded specifically with the intent of being a hit single, at the request of Creator/RCARecords; the song ended up replacing a cover of Music/ChuckBerry's "Around and Around".
15	----
16	!! Tracklist:
17
18	[[AC: Side One]]
19
20	# "Five Years" (4:44)
21	# "Soul Love" (3:33)
22	# "Moonage Daydream" (4:35)
23	# "Starman" (4:13)
24	# "It Ain't Easy"[[note]]Originally by Ron Davies.[[/note]] (3:00)
25
26	[[AC: Side Two]]
27
28	# "Lady Stardust" (3:20)
29	# "Star" (2:50)
30	# "Hang On to Yourself" (2:40)
31	# "Ziggy Stardust" (3:13)
32	# "Suffragette City" (3:25)
33	# "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" (3:00)
34
35	----
36	!! Tracklist (2002 Bonus Disc):
37
38	# "Moonage Daydream (alternate version)"[[note]]From Bowie's old band Arnold Corns[[/note]]
39	# "Hang On to Yourself"[[note]]from Bowie's old band Arnold Corns[[/note]]
40	# "Lady Stardust (demo)"
41	# "Ziggy Stardust (demo)"
42	# "John, I'm Only Dancing"
43	# "Velvet Goldmine"
44	# "Holy Holy"
45	# "Amsterdam"
46	# "The Supermen"
47	# "Round and Round"[[note]]Originally by Music/ChuckBerry[[/note]]
48	# "Sweet Head"
49	# "Moonage Daydream (remix)"
50
51	----
52	!! "Trope is not troping":
53
54	* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: The song "Ziggy Stardust" itself, which is sung from the point of view of his Spiders from Mars band-mates, claims Ziggy grew egotistical once he became famous. Two of Bowie's actual band-mates from this period, Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey, claim this actually happened to the real Bowie -- that he spent less and less time off-stage with them and other old acquaintances as his star rose -- and Bowie later admitted that he wrote the song partially as an apology to his loyal bandmates for his behaviour during the recording of ''Music/HunkyDory''.
55	* ActorISTheTitleCharacter: The album was promoted with an ad proclaiming "David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust"; at the bottom, in smaller type, it read "Ziggy Stardust is David Bowie". According to Music/LouReed, Bowie apparently did start to think he was Ziggy after a few drinks!
56	* AlbumTitleDrop: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]; "Ziggy Stardust" name-drops some words from the title, but never the entire title.
57	--> ''Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly and the Spiders from Mars''.
58	* AlterEgoActing: Ziggy in relation to Bowie is a Type 3 example (alternate persona of the performer).
59	* AmbiguouslyGay: Ziggy (with Bowie himself following suit!).
60	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite what the narrator of "Five Years" may tell you, the human brain is incapable of feeling pain as a result of it lacking sensory nerve endings; any physical pain felt in the head typically comes from the rest of the head (if not referred pain), assuming that the line "my brain hurts a lot" doesn't refer to ''emotional'' distress.
61	* BiggerIsBetterInBed: "Ziggy Stardust" describes the title character as "well-hung," tying in with the hypersexuality associated with rock stardom.
62	* BittersweetEnding: "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", despite its title, is actually one of the album's most uplifting songs. Yes, Ziggy dies during the song, but at the same time he uses his death to signal out a final message of lasting hope for a (maybe) saved Earth.
63	* BookEnds: "Five Years" features the narrator complaining about how much his brain hurts from having to absorb so much dire information about the world's end at such a young age. In "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide", the bridge features a line about how "all the knives seem to lacerate your brain."
64	* BreakingTheFourthWall: In "Starman", Ziggy notes during the second verse that "I had to phone someone, so I picked on ''you''," implicitly referring to the listener; this is accentuated by Bowie's performance of the song on ''Series/TopOfThePops'', where he intentionally points at the camera (and by extent, the viewer) during the line.
65	* BrieferThanTheyThink: The Ziggy Stardust stage persona (and Aladdin Sane {{Expy}}) lasted less than two years and only covers two albums, one tour, and the ''1980 Floor Show'' TV special. The Ziggy ''look'' persisted into early 1974, as can be seen on the cover of ''Music/DiamondDogs'', but by the time he toured for that album it was gone too, with the distinct red mullet being the last bit to go (it was gradually phased out during the tour, and was completely gone by the second leg).
66	* CallBack: The album evokes the space imagery Bowie used earlier in "Music/SpaceOddity" and ''Music/HunkyDory''.
67	* {{Camp}}: Ziggy Stardust is the most famous example of this in David Bowie's work, intentionally evoked.
68	* ChronicallyKilledActor: Ziggy is one of the many, many Bowie personae who dies.
69	* ClimacticMusic: "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", beginning in the third verse when the horns enter.
70	* ConceptAlbum: Ziggy's entire life is told on this album.
71	* CosmicHorrorStory: According to an interview that Bowie gave with Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, this is a possible interpretation:
72	-->The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. "All The Young Dudes" is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite... The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I've made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage... Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes "Starman", which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately... The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox... Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide". As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible.
73	* CoverVersion: The only song on the album not written by Bowie is a cover of Ron Davies' "It Ain't Easy"... not that you can tell without looking at the credits, as the lyrics are excluded from the liner notes and Davies is still a fairly obscure artist to this day.
74	* DigitalDestruction: The 30th anniversary expanded edition of the album in 2002 reverses the stereo channels.
75	* DiscountLesbians: If one goes with the interpretation that Ziggy is TouchedByVorlons, then he's a discount bisexual, being an otherworldly figure who engages in same-sex relationships with regular humans.
76	* EarlyBirdCameo: Done with an instrument of all things: "Suffragette City" prominently features buzzes from an ARP synthesizer, a tool which would be brought front-and-center on [[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum the]] [[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum Berlin]] [[Music/{{Lodger}} Trilogy]] at the tail end of the decade.
77	* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: Ziggy ''Stardust'' lived up to his name when it came to make-up -- including, on occasion, a glittering circle in the middle of his forehead known as a "love jewel".
78	* FaceOnTheCover: Bowie in costume as Ziggy Stardust, shown from a distance.
79	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Very subtly done in the transition from the TitleTrack to "Suffragette City", and from "Suffragette City" to "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide", all through cold ends.
80	* FakeBand: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The Spiders From Mars actually ''was'' the name of Bowie's backing band, but the album features a fictionalized version of them.
81	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Suffragette City" has a false ending, followed by Bowie's cry of "Aaaaawww ''wham bam thank you ma'am!''" before the band gets back into the groove, which ends with Bowie shrieking "Suffragette!"
82	* FanDumb: Occurs in-universe: Ziggy's fans love him so much that they accidentally lynch him.
83	* GlamRock: One of the best-known examples of this genre; in exchange, it's the one that made David Bowie truly famous.
84	* InelegantBlubbering: The newsreader in "Five Years". It's something the narrator sees as a sign of honesty.
85	-->''News-guy wept and told us\
86	Earth was really dying\
87	Cried so much his face was wet\
88	Then I knew he was not lying''
89	* IntercourseWithYou: It's hard to imagine any other explanation for the "Aaaaawww ''wham bam thank you ma'am!''" in "Suffragette City".
90	* JustBeforeTheEnd: "Five Years" is a look at how people respond to the news that TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is only five years off. Some take it with cheerful indifference, but the main result is chaos, panic, and suicidal depression:
91	-->''A girl my age went off her head\
92	Hit some tiny children\
93	If the black hadn't pulled her off\
94	I think she would've killed them\
95	A soldier with a broken arm\
96	Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac\
97	A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest\
98	And a queer threw up at the sight of that''
99	* LongestSongGoesFirst: The album opens with the 4:44 "Five Years".
100	* LostInCharacter: After playing Ziggy for awhile, Bowie reportedly had difficulty figuring out where Ziggy ended and the real him began. On-stage at a concert, to the surprise of his fans (and his band), he announced that Ziggy would be retiring, as it was difficult for him (Bowie) to keep his sanity.
101	* LoveMakesYouDumb: "Soul Love":
102	-->''Love is careless in its choosing\
103	Sweeping over cross a baby\
104	Love descends on those defenseless\
105	Idiot love will spark the fusion''
106	* MessianicArchetype: Ziggy Stardust is worshipped to the point that he believes the hype about himself by the time he dies at the hands of his fans.
107	* NonAppearingTitle: Ziggy ''and'' the Spiders from Mars are mentioned, but never the entire title.
108	* TheNotRemix: Received one in 2003 by producer Ken Scott, but it wasn't officially released until the 2012 remastered release by EMI, being included on the supplementary DVD-Audio disc. The remix would later be made available on CD, LP, and digitally exclusively as part of the ''Five Years [1969-1973]'' BoxedSet by Creator/ParlophoneRecords in 2015.
109	* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: The 1990 and 1999 remasters shorten the album's memorably unwieldy title to ''Ziggy Stardust''; the full title is still included on the CD and LP disc labels (as well as on cassette labels outside North America), however.
110	* OneManSong: "Starman" and "Ziggy Stardust". "Lady Stardust" is both this and a OneWomanSong, thanks to the intentionally AmbiguousGender of the title character.
111	* PepTalkSong: Surprising from the title, but "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" is one:
112	-->''Oh no love! You're not alone\
113	You're watching yourself but you're too unfair\
114	You got your head all tangled up\
115	But if I could only make you care''
116	* RearrangeTheSong:
117	** "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang On to Yourself" were originally released by [=B&C=] Records as two sides of a 1971 non-album single with the Arnold Corns, made while Bowie's manager was weaseling the artist out of his contract with Creator/PhilipsRecords and Creator/MercuryRecords out of discontent with the labels' practices. For this album, Bowie re-recorded both songs from the ground up with the Spiders from Mars. Following the success of this album, [=B&C=] [[RereleaseTheSong reissued the original single]] with the sides switched around.
118	** "Starman" was substantially remixed for its single release, with this version commonly being referred to by biographers as the "loud" version of the song. This mix would replace the original version on the UK release of the album thanks to its commercial success.
119	* ReCut: After "Starman" became Bowie's most successful single since "Music/SpaceOddity", the British division of Creator/RCARecords went back to the album before release and altered the UK edition to both replace the album mix of "Starman" with the single one and fix a dropout on "Suffragette City". However, RCA would prioritize the US edition of the album worldwide, to the point where their CD releases exclusively used it. Reissues since 1990 combine elements of the two versions, featuring the album mix of "Starman" like the US edition but fixing the dropout on "Suffragette City" like the UK one; another dropout at the start of the album mix of "Starman" is also fixed on these later releases.
120	* TheRockStar: Ziggy Stardust is one of the most famous fictional examples of this trope, and Bowie's exploration of the concept via Ziggy made him a real life example!
121	* RockstarSong: "Star" and "Ziggy Stardust" are about the rise and fall of a rock star.
122	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Ziggy becomes a hedonist as his star rises.
123	* ShoutOut:
124	** ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' was a key visual inspiration for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and the term "droogie" is dropped in "Suffragette City".
125	** Speaking of "Suffragette City", the repeated shouts of "hey man" are taken from the Music/VelvetUnderground's "Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat", and the piano riff is audibly inspired by Music/LittleRichard, the artist who inspired Bowie to get into music.
126	** The starman in "Starman" is inspired by the Starchild in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. Also, the chorus is loosely based on "[[Film/TheWizardOfOz Over the Rainbow]]", and the song also has musical references to [[Music/MarcBolan T. Rex]] and the Diana Ross and the Supremes hit "[[Creator/{{Motown}} You Keep Me Hangin' On]]".
127	** Ziggy Stardust himself was inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendary_Stardust_Cowboy The Legendary Stardust Cowboy,]] where Bowie took the name from.
128	** Ziggy playing guitar left-handed is likely a reference to Music/JimiHendrix doing the same thing.
129	** "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" quotes "Jef" ("No, Love, You're Not Alone") by Music/JacquesBrel. Bowie was a noted fan of Brel's songs. Bowie also stated that the song was partly inspired by Music/TheWho's "Music/MyGeneration", specifically the line "hope I die before I get old" and the anxiety of losing one's youth.
130	* SpecialGuest: Music/{{Yes}} keyboardist and longtime Bowie collaborator Music/RickWakeman plays harpsichord on "It Ain't Easy", his final contribution to a Bowie album.
131	* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: Bowie uses GlamRock and Sci-Fi together to push the boundaries of gender, sexuality, and human experience.
132	* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: "Starman"
133	--> ''There's a starman waiting in the sky\
134	He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds''
135	* TimeTitle: "Five Years", named after how much time Earth has left in the album's story before it becomes uninhabitable by humans.
136	* TouchedByVorlons: One possible interpretation of Ziggy's story is that he went through a case of this.
137	* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: Referenced in "Star":
138	-->''Tony went to fight in Belfast''
139	* {{Tuckerization}}: Ziggy Stardust is partly named after the eccentric American musician Music/TheLegendaryStardustCowboy.
140	* UnbuiltTrope: The album already begins examining many popular [[TheRockstar Rockstar]] tropes in a more nuanced way, showing the pitfalls of the Rock N' Roll lifestyle and the rise to fame. But Ziggy himself would be a major inspiration and popularizer for rock stars to come. The aesthetic of rock stars with facepaint and makeup would be popularized through Ziggy and other GlamRock artists, influencing subsequent music genres such as PunkRock and its various subgenres as well as GlamMetal.
141	* UncommonTime: The first two measures of each verse of "Soul Love" are in 7/4.
142	* WritingAroundTrademarks:
143	** One promotional release of the Creator/{{Rykodisc}} remaster features both the expanded CD and a mock-RCA LP with [[StylisticSuck added surface noise]]. The LP is designed after the original RCA US release, but with the RCA logo replaced with "RYK" and the Dynaflex logo slightly adjusted to say "dynoflex."
144	** Since 2012, reissues of the album feature a disc label design patterned after the original RCA design from the 1970s, but with a stylized "Bowie" in place of the RCA logo. Parlophone's reissues go a step further and use the actual font that RCA used for their logotype. This would occur again with ''Music/AladdinSane'' in 2013, and would become standard for Parlophone's reissues of the Bowie back-catalog from 2015 onwards (with modifications to match each album's respective UK LP label). Perhaps not coincidentally, ''Ziggy Stardust'' and ''Aladdin Sane'' are the only two albums that Parlophone never remastered during their gradual reissuing campaign, instead choosing to recycle EMI's 40th anniversary remasters for both.
145	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: In the bridge of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", Ziggy notes how "you're watching yourself, but you're too unfair."
146	* YouAreNotAlone: The point of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", to the point where the bridge opens with the line "oh no, love, you're not alone!"
147	* YouNeedToGetLaid: Ziggy tells the listener to "get some pussy now" at the end of "Lady Stardust".

Context Music / TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars