David Bowie was one of the greatest creative and artistic talents of all time. He created characters and distinct personalities and stories for each of his albums. This includes Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, and The Thin White Duke. Specifically, the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars includes characters like Ziggy Stardust and Lady Stardust. This album creates a story around these characters and many others using beautiful music and aesthetics. Some of the best songs on this album are “Five Years”, “Moonage Daydream”, “Starman”, “Lady Stardust”, “Star”, “Ziggy Stardust”, and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”. Most of these songs have a space theme to them to go with the alien main character Ziggy Stardust. These songs are some of the best ever released and go so well together along with the other songs on the album. 

The first song on this album is called “Five Years.” “Five years” is about Earth only having five years left before a disaster is going to happen. The song explains the sadness that the speaker (Bowie) and many other extremely different people feel about this event. Obviously, most are extremely upset and feel some of the same feelings even though they are all different but some are blissfully unaware. Bowie sings, “I never thought I’d need so many people” (Bowie). This is to show that even though all of those people are different, he needs all of them to feel alive in the world. The song ends by asking an alien, the character Ziggy Stardust, to help save the planet. Overall this song has a beautiful meaning and should be way more popular than it is. 

The next song to be spoken about will be the song “Moonage Daydream”. Before this, the song “Soul Love” talks about people finding love before the end of the world. This song explains the character of Ziggy Stardust. They call themself a lot of things like an alligator, and a space invader. One of the more interesting things about the introduction is when they say “I’m a mama-papa comin’ for you” (Bowie). This is important because the character is an alien and genderless. Calling themself a mama-papa is a humorous way of saying that. The song goes on to explain the character further. They are an untroubled alien with a whimsical feeling attitude. The character can be compared to Dr. Frank-N-Furter of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This song is one of the greatest because it has a beautiful beat and lyrics. 

The most popular and iconic song on the album is called “Starman”. When your average person thinks of a song by David Bowie, this is the song they think of. “Starman” tells the story of how Ziggy Stardust would save the world, they would do it through music on the radio. They were advised to do so by the infinites. The music is directed toward children because they are more able to believe the message than adults. The chorus of the song states, “There’s a starman/Waiting in the sky/He’d like to come and meet us/But he thinks he’d blow our minds…He’s told us not to blow it/’Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile/He told me/Let the children lose it/Let the children use it/Let all the children boogie” (Bowie). Ziggy thinks to save the world, children need to hear his music. This song is extremely beautiful and hopeful and one of the best songs of all time. We are lucky to have had David Bowie. 

The next song is “It Ain’t Easy” basically says that it’s not easy to get what you want when you are struggling. This song is beautiful but there isn’t much to be said for the story of the album. The song” Lady Stardust”, however, is very important. The way I personally interpret the song “Lady Stardust”, it is about Ziggy as a drag queen. The song talks about how Lady Stardust was made a joke before they started singing. Then the song states, “And Lady Stardust sang his songs/Of darkness and disgrace/And he was alright, the band was all together/Yes he was all right the song went on forever/He was awful nice/Really quite out of sight, he sang all night long” (Bowie). In my interpretation, this means that Ziggy was generally disliked upon their appearance but once they sang, everything seemed to melt away and feel beautiful again. I believe this song is about Ziggy’s journey in music and how they saved the world with all of their music, even if it was taboo at the time. Drag queens were extremely taboo at the time and they still are so this song gives the reader a good idea about what Bowie stood for. The song was made to be a tribute to the glam rock artist Marc Bolan from T-Rex but in the content of the album, it can be connected to Ziggy.

The next song on the album is called “Star”. It is about the rise to stardom for Ziggy. They explain the band members, or the Spiders From Mars, named Johnny, Rudi, Bevan, and Sonny who all went their separate ways. Ziggy thinks about becoming a rockstar himself in this song. He says that he could “make it all worthwhile” and “make a transformation” as a Rock ‘N’ Roll star. Ziggy says, on becoming a star, “So inviting, so enticing to play the part/I could make a wild mutation as a rock and roll star…I could do with the money(you know that I could)/I’m so wiped out with things as they are (you know that I could)/I’ll send a photograph to my honey/And I’d come on like a regular superstar” (Bowie). This chorus looks at the bright side of becoming a rockstar. Ziggy sees it as a way to make money and that they are enticed by the idea of becoming a star. Thinking about it this way will lead to conflict in later parts of the album but for now, Ziggy is happy with their rise to stardom. This song ends with the line “Just watch me now” (Bowie). Alluding to the fact that they will now become a rockstar.

The song “Hang on to Yourself” talks about trying to rely on yourself and stay true as a musician but ultimately giving up on the social aspect of it all. More importantly, the song “Ziggy Stardust” is the central piece of the whole album. First, the speaker explains the Spiders From Mars and how Ziggy played guitar for the band, but took a wrong turn. “He played it left hand/But made it too far/Became the special man/Then we were Ziggy’s band” (Bowie). This gives the listener an idea of how Ziggy’s ego got to them. They spent their life becoming a musician because they wanted to save the world but ended up being taken away by all of it and letting it get to their head. The rest of the band, the Spiders from Mars, didn’t like what Ziggy was becoming. They explain this by saying, “He could leave ‘em to hang/He came on so loaded, man…So where were the spiders/While the fly tried to break our balls?” (Bowie). The Spiders left Ziggy, emotionally, however, they were still physically playing with him. They continued to play, whether that be for the better or for the worse. Again, the speaker states, “He took it all too far/But boy, could he play guitar/Making love with his ego/Ziggy sucked up into his mind, ah/Like a leper messiah/When the kids had killed the man/I had to break up the band.” (Bowie). Clearly, the fame had gotten to Ziggy, leading to the demise of their career. The band has officially broken up and Ziggy was left out to dry. This song is beautiful even though it had a sad ending. There are still two more songs, though. 

The very next song on the album is very upbeat and explains an alternate ending to the album. This song is called “Suffragette City”, it talks about the love-life of Ziggy. It examines their bisexuality talking about both a woman and a man that they spend their time with. This song seems to have a happy ending with Ziggy finding some sort of love but the last track on the album shows the reality. The song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” is as sad as it sounds. The song talks about the now washed up rockstar Ziggy singing to their fans. The song talks about time and the sadness in time passing. The speaker states, “You’re too old to lose it, too young to choose it/And the clock waits so patiently on your song” (Bowie). This means that Ziggy didn’t want this for themself. However, the singer goes on to reassure their audience that they aren’t alone, even though they all feel like it. In this, they try to stay relevant by stating, “I’ve had my share, I’ll help you with the pain/You’re not alone/Just turn on with me, and you’re not alone/Lets turn on and be not alone/Gimme your hands, ‘cause you’re wonderful” (Bowie). The singer wanted to stay relevant while also helping their fans, also realizing that their fans help Ziggy as well. The song is sung with desperation, sounding like the speaker is begging for their fans to stay with them and continue to sing together. This song is probably the most meaningful and beautiful song on the album wrapping up The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars beautifully but also on a melancholy note.

Ultimately, this album is filled to the brim with emotion and astonishing musical and lyrical talent from David Bowie. The people of Earth were immensely lucky to have him while we did. Bowie wrote some of the most creative, artistic, and beautiful songs in his 69 years of life. Even though this album came out about 52 years ago, in my opinion, it is still one of the most influential albums of all time. It was taboo at the time and that’s what Bowie was best at, being different. We should all learn something from him because he was truly the most amazing musical talent of all time.