RIP Ziggy, June 16, 1972 - July 3, 1973

July 3, 2018 8:46 PM

45 years ago tonight, David Bowie pulled the plug on his Ziggy Stardust persona. Rock And Roll Suicide, indeed.
posted by hippybear (7 comments total)

Kind of reminds me of what they said about the Blues Brothers band!
posted by thelonius at 10:07 PM on July 3, 2018

An interview with Bowie in which he talks about why he created Ziggy (and other personas in general) and how he knew when it was time to leave them behind.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:03 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]

Weird fact: the Ziggy Stardust character was inspired by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, who really does sound like he's from Mars.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:17 PM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

An interview with Bowie

When Bowie says "I mean he was half out of sci-fi rock and half out of the Japanese theater" he pronounces "sci-fi" (1:22) with a hard c like sky-fi.
posted by pracowity at 3:46 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

More Legendary Stardust Cowboy: I Took A Trip (On A Gemini Spaceship) and a truly terrible version of Space Oddity. Also on Wikipedia.

In retrospect, of course Jandek has a brother.
posted by Nelson at 8:36 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

great songwriting is such a magical thing...there's not much to this tune, musically, just a doo-wop chord progression, which you wander up and down in a few times. Throw in a brilliant arrangement and some unforgettable lyrical hooks, and you're done!
posted by thelonius at 11:18 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Obligatory: Cobbler Bob.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 12:54 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]