He continued to work on it whilst sitting cross-legged in the garden of Haddon Hall, that battered 12-string resting in his lap as he scribbled and toyed with a tune that would soon be called, ‘ Moonage Daydream’. It was still without flesh, without a title, but it had the makings of what would become a chorus and the verses were almost complete, but the imagery it began to conjure, as Bowie cut up individual words and lines and then continually rearranged them, excited the singer and sparked his creative imagination. “ I sort of hoodwinked him into working with me.”Īlongside ‘ Queen Bitch’, Bowie had written another song. “ My Jeff Beck,” as Bowie always alluded. It may have started with gentle strumming upon a 12-stringed guitar but it had ended in a rocking cacophony from the roaring, gold 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom belonging to Mick Ronson. Unbeknownst to those listening to ‘ Changes’ and ‘ Life On Mars?’, or trying to work out the meaning, if any, behind ‘ The Bewlay Brothers’, this song, lasting little over 3 minutes, was a sign of the mania that was about to land. Tucked away on the B-side of Hunky Dory though, after the tributes to Warhol and Dylan, was ‘ Queen Bitch’, a song largely inspired by, and dedicated to, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground. It was all kind of written and ready to roll,” he told the B.B.C. Bowie may have taken to the stage of The Old Grey Whistle Test to perform songs from Hunky Dory, but he was already looking and acting like Ziggy, and his band were, already, The Spiders.Īs drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey revealed: “ We only had a two week break between Hunky Dory and starting Ziggy. Critically it had been well received, but, as its first single Changes was released, David Bowie had already moved on, and the songs that would go on to grace The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, had already been written. The album Hunky Dory had been released in November, 1971. Okay, so where were we? Oh yeah, Hunky Dory. “ The initial framework in ’71, when I first started thinking about Ziggy,” Bowie told MOJO magazine, “ was as a musical-theatrical piece… it kind of became something other than that.” “ It lit the blue touch paper of imagination,” according to Holly Johnson. “ It is one of my favourite LPs, still,” Joy Division bassist Peter Hook revealed to the B.B.C. “ He revolutionised the music business,” says the late Mick Rock in the documentary, whose photographs of Ziggy and The Spiders, both on stage and in the studio, are now iconic. I mean, my plastic rock and roller was much more plastic than anybody’s.” He hadn’t known it at the time, but his “ plastic rock and roller”, with those beautifully sculptured cheek bones, tight colourful androgynous costumes and highly sexualised gestures, would go on to change the world. “ What I did with my Ziggy Stardust was package a totally credible, plastic rock and roll singer,” Bowie would say, looking back on his most famous, most inspirational alter-ego, “ much better than the Monkees could ever fabricate. for their documentary, David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust. “ It still sounds amazing,” he told the B.B.C. It was like, ‘Wow!’” Elton John says, before going on to readily admit that, “ Without Ziggy Stardust, without Starman there would have been no Rocket Man.” “ When he came out with Ziggy Stardust, it was like an art installation.
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“ It had only lasted, what little over a year?” Elbow’s frontman Guy Garvey supposes, “ but it changed the world: David Bowie had changed the world… Everything was suddenly full of bright colour and kaleidoscope dreams.” David Bowie had just killed Ziggy Stardust live on stage, as prophesied. The young frenzied crowd, adorned in glitter and make-up, duly cheered on cue and banged on the barriers as they yelled up at the stage, but then, quickly, fell into a disbelieving hum of incredulous, shocked mutterings whilst exchanging confused and anxious glances the last few words from their newly discovered alien messiah slowly washing over them. “ Not only is it, not only is it the last show of the tour,” David Bowie announced breathlessly to an enraptured audience packed into Hammersmith Odeon on the 3rd July 1973, “ but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do. “ Like a leper Messiah, when the kids had killed the man I had to break up the band.”
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