Post by paulclarkson on Feb 5, 2006 12:43:47 GMT
FROM ANTHONY NEWLEY
TO
ZIGGY STARDUST
THE RISE AND RISE OF DAVID BOWIE
“I’m a writer, I really wouldn’t like to make singing a full time occupation”, a young David Bowie told Melody Maker in 1969. This was shortly after he had finally broken through with his major hit ‘Space Oddity’.
I was 12 when ‘Space Oddity’ was in the Hit Parade, it was different to everything else at the time but captured everyone’s imagination as the moon landings had happened earlier in the year. The next time I was aware of David Bowie was in June 1972 when I saw him on Top Of The Pops singing ‘Starman’. I was then introduced by a friend to the album, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars’. I remember saying to my friend “This is that bloke who did Space Oddity”. The album was a massive hit that year and took David Bowie to super-stardom. The character of ‘Ziggy Stardust’ captured the imagination of millions of teenagers. The music was fantastic, ‘out of this world’ one might say. As the Beatles did 10 years earlier, David Bowie was starting a new trend. The music was like nothing we had heard before, it was new and exciting and it was great to be a teenager at that time.
The album hardly left my turntable in 1972, all the songs except ‘It Ain’t Easy’ were written by David and they had a definite ‘space-age’ sound. Mick Ronsons guitar sound was perfect for this, especially on the title track ‘Ziggy Stardust’. It was years ahead of its time, ‘Star’ and ‘Hang On To Yourself’ were forerunners of the ‘Punk Era’ and would not have been out of place in 1978. ‘Suffragette City’ was a real rocker and was the ‘B’ side of the single ‘Starman’. The opening song on the album was ‘Five Years’ which was about the earth’s destruction, a strange choice to open with but it works, as does the closing song ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’. My personal favourite ‘Moonage Daydream’ really took you to the future, the fade out of guitar and echo was a unique sound at that time and you knew you were listening to something very special.
I had to know more about David Bowie so went to my local record store to find his earlier work and I found his first album titled ‘David Bowie’ from 1967. He looked very different on the cover, a lot like ‘Peter Noone’. When my Mum heard it she said he sounds like Anthony Newley, I liked it, the songs each told a different story. ‘Love You till Tuesday’ was released as a single but didn’t make an impact at the time. ‘She’s Got Medals’ was probably the first ‘Trans-gender’ song, about a girl who joins the army as a man and then gets fed up and goes back to civvy street as a woman. What a subject for 1967!
I then jumped forward to 1969 and bought the album ‘Space Oddity’, released in the same year as the single. Expecting to hear more of the same from the first album, I was amazed to hear yet another new sound. As a 12 year old I remember really liking the single but I never thought about buying the album. Albums were a luxury at 39/11d anyway and my pocket money didn’t stretch that far. Rick Wakeman and John Lodge of the Moody Blues appear on the album along with several other musicians. Songs that stood out were ‘Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed’ and ‘Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud’, at over 9 minutes ‘Cygnet Committee’ was another new trend, as at that time I don’t think there had been a song over 7 minutes long. ‘Memory of a Free Festival’ is a very anthemic song and is on the album three times. It has a catchy chorus “The sun machine is coming down and we’re gonna have a party”. It wouldn’t have been out of place in ‘Hair’ or ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’.
The next album caused a bit of a stir when released in 1971 as it shows David on the front cover wearing a dress, only David Bowie could have done that at the time. ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ had some great songs. It starts with ‘The Width of a Circle’ at over 8 minutes long, the one thing I found with this album was the bass level, it was very prominent which was great but you feared for your stylus. A particular favourite of mine is ‘Black Country Rock’, a good song with some excellent guitaring by Mick Ronson. ‘She Shook Me Cold’ starts off with a Hendrix ‘Voodoo Chile’ guitar riff and ‘All The Madmen’ was a horrific story of life in a lunatic asylum.
The same year, 1971, ‘Hunky Dory’ was released. Although ‘Ziggy Stardust’ was the album that brought David Bowie fully into the public eye and was a great album, for me, ‘Hunky Dory’ was the album that showed that David Bowie was an extremely talented musician and songwriter. Except for ‘Fill Your Heart’, which has some excellent piano playing, David wrote all the songs. ‘Changes’ starts the album, a great song that leads nicely into ‘Oh You Pretty Things’. The wonderful thing about this album is that the songs are so diverse. ‘Quicksand’ has a brilliant melody and beautiful orchestration with very intelligent lyrics, whereas ‘Queen Bitch’ is again straight from 6 years in the future with its punk feel to it. ‘Kooks’ has a nice sing-along feel to it, ‘Song For Bob Dylan’ says exactly what it says in the title and could have been written and sung by Bob Dylan himself. ‘Life On Mars’ is another extra terrestrial adventure by David, again with beautiful orchestration.
By now I had come full circle and was back to ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Around this time, David wrote and sung backing vocals on ‘All The Young Dudes’ for Mott the Hoople. This song brought Mott the Hoople into the charts and gave them a huge hit. I believe Mott would have eventually made it as Ian Hunter was such a huge talent and they were such a good band. It just needed a great chart song to bring them into view, they had been around for some time and deserved their success.
If any artist made the journey from the 60’s into the 70’s with major success it was David Bowie. His music started off sounding very 60’s but he developed his style and took it into the 70’s. David Bowie set the trend for outrageous fashion, both on and off the stage, he was one of the main reasons ‘glam-rock’ happened. He opened the flood- gates for his audience to wear the most flamboyant clothes and make-up to his concerts. I went to see him in 1973 and it looked like most of the boy’s had raided their sister’s wardrobes for the night, but it was okay, this was the Ziggy Stardust tour, it was David Bowie.
So 4 years had passed since that quote by David in 1969 of “I’m a writer, I really wouldn’t like to make singing a full time occupation”. I for one am glad he did because for the last 30 years David Bowie has set trends for other musicians to follow. He has constantly re-invented himself and showed the way forward. As the first song on his next album in 1973, ‘Aladdin Sane’ said, ‘Watch That Man’, I have and it has been an incredible journey, which continues to this day.
Paul Clarkson
TO
ZIGGY STARDUST
THE RISE AND RISE OF DAVID BOWIE
“I’m a writer, I really wouldn’t like to make singing a full time occupation”, a young David Bowie told Melody Maker in 1969. This was shortly after he had finally broken through with his major hit ‘Space Oddity’.
I was 12 when ‘Space Oddity’ was in the Hit Parade, it was different to everything else at the time but captured everyone’s imagination as the moon landings had happened earlier in the year. The next time I was aware of David Bowie was in June 1972 when I saw him on Top Of The Pops singing ‘Starman’. I was then introduced by a friend to the album, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars’. I remember saying to my friend “This is that bloke who did Space Oddity”. The album was a massive hit that year and took David Bowie to super-stardom. The character of ‘Ziggy Stardust’ captured the imagination of millions of teenagers. The music was fantastic, ‘out of this world’ one might say. As the Beatles did 10 years earlier, David Bowie was starting a new trend. The music was like nothing we had heard before, it was new and exciting and it was great to be a teenager at that time.
The album hardly left my turntable in 1972, all the songs except ‘It Ain’t Easy’ were written by David and they had a definite ‘space-age’ sound. Mick Ronsons guitar sound was perfect for this, especially on the title track ‘Ziggy Stardust’. It was years ahead of its time, ‘Star’ and ‘Hang On To Yourself’ were forerunners of the ‘Punk Era’ and would not have been out of place in 1978. ‘Suffragette City’ was a real rocker and was the ‘B’ side of the single ‘Starman’. The opening song on the album was ‘Five Years’ which was about the earth’s destruction, a strange choice to open with but it works, as does the closing song ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’. My personal favourite ‘Moonage Daydream’ really took you to the future, the fade out of guitar and echo was a unique sound at that time and you knew you were listening to something very special.
I had to know more about David Bowie so went to my local record store to find his earlier work and I found his first album titled ‘David Bowie’ from 1967. He looked very different on the cover, a lot like ‘Peter Noone’. When my Mum heard it she said he sounds like Anthony Newley, I liked it, the songs each told a different story. ‘Love You till Tuesday’ was released as a single but didn’t make an impact at the time. ‘She’s Got Medals’ was probably the first ‘Trans-gender’ song, about a girl who joins the army as a man and then gets fed up and goes back to civvy street as a woman. What a subject for 1967!
I then jumped forward to 1969 and bought the album ‘Space Oddity’, released in the same year as the single. Expecting to hear more of the same from the first album, I was amazed to hear yet another new sound. As a 12 year old I remember really liking the single but I never thought about buying the album. Albums were a luxury at 39/11d anyway and my pocket money didn’t stretch that far. Rick Wakeman and John Lodge of the Moody Blues appear on the album along with several other musicians. Songs that stood out were ‘Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed’ and ‘Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud’, at over 9 minutes ‘Cygnet Committee’ was another new trend, as at that time I don’t think there had been a song over 7 minutes long. ‘Memory of a Free Festival’ is a very anthemic song and is on the album three times. It has a catchy chorus “The sun machine is coming down and we’re gonna have a party”. It wouldn’t have been out of place in ‘Hair’ or ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’.
The next album caused a bit of a stir when released in 1971 as it shows David on the front cover wearing a dress, only David Bowie could have done that at the time. ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ had some great songs. It starts with ‘The Width of a Circle’ at over 8 minutes long, the one thing I found with this album was the bass level, it was very prominent which was great but you feared for your stylus. A particular favourite of mine is ‘Black Country Rock’, a good song with some excellent guitaring by Mick Ronson. ‘She Shook Me Cold’ starts off with a Hendrix ‘Voodoo Chile’ guitar riff and ‘All The Madmen’ was a horrific story of life in a lunatic asylum.
The same year, 1971, ‘Hunky Dory’ was released. Although ‘Ziggy Stardust’ was the album that brought David Bowie fully into the public eye and was a great album, for me, ‘Hunky Dory’ was the album that showed that David Bowie was an extremely talented musician and songwriter. Except for ‘Fill Your Heart’, which has some excellent piano playing, David wrote all the songs. ‘Changes’ starts the album, a great song that leads nicely into ‘Oh You Pretty Things’. The wonderful thing about this album is that the songs are so diverse. ‘Quicksand’ has a brilliant melody and beautiful orchestration with very intelligent lyrics, whereas ‘Queen Bitch’ is again straight from 6 years in the future with its punk feel to it. ‘Kooks’ has a nice sing-along feel to it, ‘Song For Bob Dylan’ says exactly what it says in the title and could have been written and sung by Bob Dylan himself. ‘Life On Mars’ is another extra terrestrial adventure by David, again with beautiful orchestration.
By now I had come full circle and was back to ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Around this time, David wrote and sung backing vocals on ‘All The Young Dudes’ for Mott the Hoople. This song brought Mott the Hoople into the charts and gave them a huge hit. I believe Mott would have eventually made it as Ian Hunter was such a huge talent and they were such a good band. It just needed a great chart song to bring them into view, they had been around for some time and deserved their success.
If any artist made the journey from the 60’s into the 70’s with major success it was David Bowie. His music started off sounding very 60’s but he developed his style and took it into the 70’s. David Bowie set the trend for outrageous fashion, both on and off the stage, he was one of the main reasons ‘glam-rock’ happened. He opened the flood- gates for his audience to wear the most flamboyant clothes and make-up to his concerts. I went to see him in 1973 and it looked like most of the boy’s had raided their sister’s wardrobes for the night, but it was okay, this was the Ziggy Stardust tour, it was David Bowie.
So 4 years had passed since that quote by David in 1969 of “I’m a writer, I really wouldn’t like to make singing a full time occupation”. I for one am glad he did because for the last 30 years David Bowie has set trends for other musicians to follow. He has constantly re-invented himself and showed the way forward. As the first song on his next album in 1973, ‘Aladdin Sane’ said, ‘Watch That Man’, I have and it has been an incredible journey, which continues to this day.
Paul Clarkson