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Rating: 1972: an orange-haired alien dressed like a drag queen lands on our planet with his entourage of the Spider From Mars, his name is Ziggy Stardust.
This is the golden period of David Bowie a complete artist with a chameleon-like personality, who spanned almost four decades of his career across all genres, from glam-rock to disco music, from jungle music to krautrock, from soul to reggae. In the early '70s, the not yet widely known Bowie invented this character, Ziggy, who propelled him up the UK and US charts, granted him worldwide fame, and started a new trend among young bohemians who began dressing in sequins, platform boots, and adopted sexual ambiguity as a lifestyle. All thanks to the genius of Bowie-Ziggy.
Ziggy is an alien who embodies the obscenity and rule-breaking of the Stones, the charisma of James Dean, the wild anarchy of Jim Morrison, the dandyism of Oscar Wilde.
The album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars" begins with a beat marked by the drums emerging from nothing to which gradually the piano and Bowie's very poetic voice are added, announcing that there are five years left until earth's end; all this in "Five Years." It continues with a love ballad "Soul Love" with rhythms from the '50s fused with Caribbean ones; then comes "Moonage Daydream," the masterpiece within the masterpiece, where Ziggy opens with "I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa coming for you, I'm a space invader, I'll be your rock'n'rolling bitch for you." Moving on, we find "Starman" (who doesn't know it), a space ballad with wonderful lyrics; "It Ain't Easy," the only cover of the album by Ron Davies; "Lady Stardust" thought to be dedicated to Marc Bolan or Lou Reed, yet to a man; "Star" a self-celebratory song in which Ziggy says he can sleep or fall in love like a rock'n'roll star; "Hang On To Yourself" a punk ante-litteram song in every way, marked by a heavily distorted guitar and a nice pulsing bass; "Ziggy Stardust" where the Spider From Mars, Wierd and Gilly are introduced, but in reality are the group that accompanied David Bowie during this period both in the studio and on the tour (Mick Ronson guitar and piano, Woody Woodmansey drums, Trevor Bolder bass); it is in this song that Ziggy's personality and story are presented in a few lines. Then it continues with "Suffragette City" with explicit sexual references and ends with "Rock'n'roll Suicide" the poignant decline of Ziggy.
The entire album is a true explosion of pure rock'n'roll that resonates in the mind for a long time after listening and does not disappoint the expectations of a great work. For those who enjoyed the album, it is obviously recommended, besides all of David Bowie's albums from the early '70s which, although different, are nonetheless wonderful, the 1983 film based on the tour following the album's release: "Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture"; in this concert, it is impossible to discern the slight boundary between theatricality and reality because Bowie becomes Ziggy and, like him, while singing these songs he immerses himself in the frustration, dissatisfaction, in the pure fun of rock that characterizes these lyrics.
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