The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie (1972)

ideated from: a favorite album that starts with ‘R’.

Bowie is an endlessly fascinating character to me. The sheer depth and breadth of what he accomplished in his life, the effortless style he seemed to do it with, and the profound influence he had on the world of music are just staggering. Only Dylan and Miles Davis are in that same space, in my opinion.

I don’t know what to say about this one that hasn’t already been said. It’s the first full Bowie record I heard, I think, when I was still in my classic rock phase. Then I just heard the cool 60s instrumentation and the odd lyrics. A few years later, with a more developed taste for artsy rock, I started to appreciate it for the amazing piece of work it was.

Tracks I Liked

Five Years - A great sci fi premise to start it all off, but with so much humanity

Starman - a yearning song of childlike wonder, with a heavy dose of dread and tension underneath

Ziggy Stardust - A lot of people joked that Bowie was an alien, but consider this: he wrote what is essentially the story of Kurt Cobain, 20 years before it happened (even down to playing the guitar left-handed), and Cobain was so devoted to Bowie’s music that it’s hard to tell if it was prophetic or self-fulfilling.

Suffragette City - a turn-it-up-and-tear-off-the-knob banger