Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Cafe Society
1

The Rise and Fall of, to be specific.

Okay, I dig on concept albums, for the most part, and I’ve been listening to this album for years now, (well, I dig it out and give it a spin every couple of months, or so) and it finally dawned on me…

I’ve got the massed wisdom of the Teeming Millions to explain it to me!

I get the general gist of it:
Five Years ~ For some reason, earth has five years left, and then it’s the big ka-blooey. Most folks is bummed.
Soul Love ~ Umm… actually, right here I get lost. Was this supposed to be part of the narrative, or just a single Dave had lying around and tossed in?
Moonage Daydream ~ Ziggy’s first transmission to earth, he’s on the way (to save the day with rock ‘n’ roll, maybe? Or just telling us to enjoy the five years we’ve got left?)
Starman ~ So, instead of NASA, the Russian Space Agency, or even Sears and Roebuck, Ziggy’s first message to earth gets picked up by a couple kids with transistor radios, who check to see if the signal’s bleeding over to channel 2’s wavelength.
It Ain’t Easy ~ Again, I can’t quite follow the story, here.
Lady Stardust ~ The effeminate, bisexual Ziggy hits the stage, and drives the guys and the girls wild. Though it sounds like he’s the prototype goth rocker.
Star ~ Possibly, one of the kids mentioned earlier, or just some other random guy is inspired by the Starman to make it as a rock ‘n’ roll star (although since he’s got five years max, his career is on shaky ground before he plays note one.)
Hang Onto Yourself ~ Ziggy gets jiggy wit’ da groupies.
Ziggy Stardust ~ One of the Spiders (whether they came from outerspace too, or are just a backup band he found after he landed, I dunno) gives us the inside track on Ziggy, and how living the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, and keeping his fans happy, eventually does him in.
Suffragette City ~ Okay… Whoever this guy is, he wants his buddy up off the couch, and out the door, 'cause this chick who sexually wiped him out the night before (At Ziggy’s show, maybe?) is coming over for another go 'round. (Dude! I’m so gonna score, man! Go sleep on your sister’s couch!) Narrative completely abandonded here, I think.
Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide ~ And, I think I need more help. It fits the feel of the album, but takes a left turn from the narrative.

There’re three tracks on the tape I’ve got that were never included on the original cut of the album (or so I gather) out of sequence, at the end of the second side. We’ll leave them be for a minute (though Sweet Head is catchy as all hell, and I’m baffled why it didn’t make the cut, first time 'round.)

So, can someone who’s down with the Thin White Duke more than I am educate me on what I’m missing, or completely misinterpretting?

[sub]Some cat was layin’ down some rock ‘n’ roll, lotta soul, he said.[/sub]

2

IANACBG (Complete Bowie Geek), but I do love Ziggy and think that it is one of the best albums ever.

My take has always been that Bowie was not really trying to write a contiguous storyline across the songs. Instead, he wrote some songs, many of which (but not all) have to do with either the same characters (e.g., Ziggy and the band) or at the very least, the atmosphere and the “scene”. So, in the strictest definition of the term, this is not a concept album, per se, as much as a collection of songs that capture the essence of the glam scene. The fact that Bowie titled it what he did gave it more cohesion than the songs really have. Very similar to Sgt. Pepper’s, where the songs are more or less un-related, other than the title and the fact that Paul had a beginning bit and an end bit that offers a semblance of closure (John said several times that the songs he contributed were in no way related to any concept McCartney might’ve been cooking up). But these two albums certainly are not the continguous concept albums that, say, Dark Side or The Wall or any number of other works are. (I think it is better stated that Sgt. Pepper’s is less of a concept album and more the first album that really alerted the world that a rock album should be looked at holistically as a work of art, which Sgt. Pepper’s definitely is).

Minor aside - I am pretty sure that It Ain’t Easy is a cover of somebody else’s tune, further pulling it out of any continuity. Also, I think Sufragette City was the result of spontaneous jamming in the studio, as opposed to being part of some big whole.

I am very open to having this wrong - I am sharing my interpretations and recollections. If you do research and find out otherwise, clue us in…

3

Just a bit of trivia. Back in 67-68 Mick Ronson was in a band from Hull (his hometown) called The Rats. In 68 they released an album called “The Rise and Fall of Bernie Gripplestone and the Rats from Hull”.

4

Weird. For years (and that’s a whole lotta moons, chilluns) I’ve been listening to this album, and not really getting all the details, but, who cares, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll, but I like it, y’know?

Then, about 8 hours after I sit and put all this down on paper (electronically speaking), forcing myself to think out exactly what goes on…

I’m in the shower, belting out Star, and sounding damned good, when realization belts me one right in the puss. I got it. I figured out what I’ve been missing.

Get this:

The whole album, with the exception of Moonage Daydream, is a continuing narrative, told by an unnamed member of the Spiders. See, he’s remembering first when everyone was convinced the world was coming to an end. Then, we get the vaguely melancholy song he composes (he’s already a musician, but fame has eluded him) in response. Then, we get the storyline about Ziggy, and the two cats who pick him up on the radio, one of whom is our humble narrator. So, Ziggy hits town, and hits the stage, and the two guys who first heard him, along with a couple others (namely, Weird and Gilley), get together as the Spiders, and end up as his back-up band. So now, we throw the three (I goofed that up in the OP) bonus tracks into the mix (general feel of the time, as WordMan summed it up pretty well) and we get his version of what happened as Ziggy toured the world, eventually burning himself out. But apparently he did save the world, as the last track is our narrator telling some other angsty teen type, “Look, man, I’ve been through this, and it can seem like life really sucks, sometimes. We thought the whole world was gonna blow up, but it ain’t always as bad as it seems. Don’t kill yourself over your problems, you can get through to the other side. Hey, we saved the world with rock ‘n’ roll, man, how cool is that?”

Whew. So, no research, but inspiration struck while I was reaching for the shampoo, and the story came clean for me. If I’m waaaay off base, eh, some one can enlighten me. And if anyone does have the straight dope, please do tell. In the meantime, I like this version of the story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

[sub]So bob your sweet head, Brother Ziggy gonna play, I’m just about the best that you’ll hear…[/sub]