We’re back again to review a classic album that we previously knew very little about. This time around it’s David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.” How did hosts E and Tank find their first experience with Bowie? Watch and find out!
What album have you just never got around to listening to? Let us know in the comments.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Once again, we're catching up ona classic album we missed today.
It's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Mars by David Bowie. I'm the Extended Play podcast
with Ian Tank. Welcome to the Extended Play
(00:20):
podcast. He's E.
I'm Tank and this is a music discussion show without hipster
snobbery. Yeah, not a trace.
Nope. And today we are doing another
of our classic Ketchup series. No, it's not a retrospective on
premium condiments. No, it's great albums from
(00:42):
before our time generally from before we were born and that
we're like, you know what? People talk about it.
Critics love it. We should probably listen to it.
It's more to save face when people say you guys have a music
podcast and then they ask us, doyou know David Bowie?
And we're like. This is an extended ass
covering. Extended ass covering?
Yes. What's the what's the original
(01:03):
name of this podcast? And it's also the name of my The
Sister podcast where I review adult films.
I don't know. All right, so this time around
it is the rise and fall of ZiggyStardust and the spiders from
Mars and. The spiders from Mars.
Yes, I I think. Not mentioned in the title or in
the. I fucked that up in the.
(01:25):
It's OK. That's fine.
You know, we all make mistakes. Yeah, it don't matter.
Thanks. None of this matters the but I
think most people refer to the element the Rise and fall of
Ziggy Stardust or even shorter Ziggy Stardust.
Right. I think very rarely do you get
the whole name. Good call.
It's like a Fiona Apple situation.
Right. So, David?
Bowie is a, a massive blind spotfor me, for both of us.
(01:50):
For both of us, absolutely. I never doubted it.
But it's like there's a lot of stuff out there.
He's wearing costumes. There's he's doing this, he's
doing that. And, you know, like most people,
I'd say if you did a pie chart of our exposure to David Bowie,
a giant chunk of it would be like dancing in the street with
Mick Jagger and the heroes. Yeah.
(02:11):
Because that became a kind of a big retro hit.
Yeah, let's dance too. Yes, right.
Yes. And I.
Really like that I'm. Afraid of Americans?
It's not the one with. That's pretty good, pretty good,
actually. It's not the one with Trent.
Yeah, yes. I'm afraid I can, Jesus.
Nailing it. I mean, there's something there.
Maybe there's a? Career in a tribute.
(02:33):
Band. I mean, you could do record an
entire album. The album that wasn't Yes.
The duet between Michael McDonald and David.
Yes. Yes, we half art rock, half the
yacht rock. I might work on that.
Got to make it home now. What a fool.
Beliefs. Yeah, I'm gonna be.
(02:58):
There how would the how would the reverse?
Work. We could be heroes for just one
day. Oh, so good.
Oh, oh, oh, all right. Sweating in here, Yeah.
(03:27):
It's getting hot in here gettingout for her.
They're not going to take off all our clothes.
That is not going to help. No, it's not anyone.
No, certainly not the viewers. Oh, all right.
Yeah, Reset. All right.
So Ziggy Stardust now this one Inominated.
(03:47):
Yes. What we do is we take kind of
take turn to nominating an album.
Doesn't really change much. You guys don't give a fuck.
But it does change the little game at the end where whoever
nominated nominated. It has to guess the three songs
on the album the other guy wouldlike the most.
Kind of a reverse inverse quasi playlist challenge.
(04:07):
And then we'll talk about if this was what just about what we
expected. Better than expected, yes.
Not, you know, we. Don't.
We don't. We don't give it a grade because
everyone knows it's classic. But to our expectations, did it
surpass, meet, or fail to achieve?
So I'll go ahead. And for those unfamiliar like I
(04:28):
was, I'll go ahead and hit you with the summary of the album.
Cool. Described as a loose concept
album and rock opera, Ziggy Stardust focuses on Bowie's
titular alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, a fictional
androgynous and bisexual rock star, which was no small feat in
the mid 70s. No, it couldn't have been.
Who was sent to Earth as a savior before an impending
(04:50):
apocalyptic disaster, which I believe was disco In the story,
Ziggy wins the hearts of fans but suffers a fall from grace
after succumbing to his own ego.It's very much like a Greek
tragedy. Yes, yeah, call.
So Greek tragedy. Also the name of my porn review
website. You only review Greek porn.
(05:13):
It's much darker, OK. Hold on.
I don't hold. That's the hard pass.
Literally 1972, right? Yes.
Yeah. OK.
So yeah, I mean, I got some notes on the album, but what are
your general thoughts on the? General thoughts on Yeah, let's
go, I guess. Let's go right into general
thoughts again, completely unfamiliar other than that, you
(05:34):
know, Bowie was one of these shape shifters, right?
Like from physical appearance tothe type of genres he covered.
His one album was vastly different to the next.
And so I didn't quite know what to expect.
I really didn't know what to expect.
I had no idea. I knew the loose framework of it
being like about this alien or whatever.
And I and I could picture the costume and all that kind of
(05:55):
stuff, the imagery which when I saw the album cover and I looked
down like, that's wait, what? And I thought Space Oddity was
on this. I assumed it's not which.
Would I did too. It's like 3 albums before this.
Yeah, yeah, that. Part was, I was taken aback by
I'm like, wouldn't this be? I mean, there's Mars, there's
spiders, right? My first reaction was this is
(06:18):
not what I thought Bowie soundedlike, like in his most because
if this is his most popular album or one of them, I thought
it'd be a lot more artsy. So it's pretty straightforward.
It's pretty straightforward. It's Blues, rocky, it's jazzy at
times. It's just straight up sort of
that classic 70's rock sound a lot of times.
But it's the execution and it's the lyrics that set it apart
(06:39):
from that kind of stuff. And I think some.
Nuance. Yes, absolutely.
And there's a lot, there's a lotto like.
There's a lot to pull, pick apart if you're a music nerd,
like we're not music snobs, but music nerds like in that we like
to notice all the little things.There's a lot of little things
of this album, so. Good segue from that is so there
(06:59):
if you When I was selecting the album, I knew I wanted a David
Bowie album. So then the question is which
one, right? So I had to go learn what I'm
sure a lot of people already know, which is OK.
In the pantheon of his albums, what are the best ones?
The general consensus seems to be it's this one.
Hunky Dory and Aladdin Singh arelike the trifecta.
(07:20):
So I kind of did a little research.
OK? I think this is going to be the
best. It seemed to be the consensus
number one. Yeah, But Hunky Dory and this
album were recorded at basicallythe same time.
Oh, wow. So the Spiders realized that
Hunky Dory didn't have any good live songs on it.
OK, so then the Spiders are the band kind of right?
(07:42):
They never officially called themselves the Spiders, but it's
the same backing band for both. Right.
Yeah, So they finished Hunky Dory and they're like, well,
great album, but what do we do live with this?
So they recorded this album and it makes sense 'cause these
songs do a lot of them do sound like, OK, these could, I could
see these being played. Live and some of them were
written before this session, right.
(08:03):
So or, or they even came, I think even one of them was even
a single before they even had the idea of the Ziggy Stardust
thing. So that also just a little side
note there. Yeah, it yes, rock opera, all
that kind of stuff. But they added a lot of that
mythology after the fact. That wasn't the initial.
They didn't set out to make a concept album.
It just they kind of tacked it on here and there, made the
(08:23):
lyrics fit it a little bit more.Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, sorry. Yeah, but it's to me, it's hard
to believe this album came out in 1972.
Yeah. So many things that followed
this because, again, since we'reviewing this decade in
retrospect, we weren't there formost of it.
Yeah, certainly not conscious remembering.
Yeah, I was a drunken stupor most of my toddler years.
(08:45):
This wasn't. Very dark.
I mean, toddlers are like drunk people.
They really are. But so many things that followed
in the 70s were so campy and cheesy, yeah, that it's hard to
think that something this may beauthentic and original sounding.
Preceded it, yeah. Absolutely.
Like, you know, again, shitty disco, shitty pop, shitty dance.
Yeah, followed this. Yeah, by 5 or 6-7 years like.
(09:08):
Cock rock like like Supertramp and shit like, well, that's
probably the 60s right? But you know what I mean.
But still a Grand Funk Railroad and shit like that.
Just like. So it it is easy for our age
group to dismiss the decade as awhole like like he has.
I have because the most popular bits they get all the play are
the dumb parts. That's true, with the exception
of Led Zeppelin and and there there are exceptions, but for
(09:30):
the most part it's the dumb, yeah, meaningless crap from the
70s. When people say 70s, they think
of that's why we're doing this. Largely, Yeah, absolutely.
But yeah, it's crazy that thoughtful, creative music was
being made before disco. Yes, in that decade, right?
Right. And that somehow disco over
(09:51):
shown it right Yeah yeah One thing I was struck by over and
over again was how influential this album must have been.
Yeah, I, I'm, I hear this album in dozens of music bands that I
listen to today. It it, it's really incredible,
Like, and I don't often make those connections, but it's
(10:12):
undeniable, right? And yeah, that.
Happened with with Kate Bush, like, Oh yeah.
As we get into this older stuff,yeah, I'm like, now I see how
obvious my favorite artists pulled from this.
Yes, I mean like black crows. I heard black crows in this.
It's right there OnStar, right? I have.
It's a bouncy song and like I feel the Black Crows pulled
influence from this. I wrote it down somewhere as
(10:34):
well. Blues rock.
That's what I mean like, but Blues rock in a not that Black
Crows didn't do was interesting,but it's straightforward Blues
rock. It'll be the first myth, the
derivative. Okay, they're.
Just good at there you go And but Bowie with his the
uniqueness of his voice, which Ithink we should get to, and just
with the song structure, it's just so different.
(10:55):
But anyway, as I was saying, like I heard like Zeppelin had
to have been influenced by some of this there.
There's I know they were being on English R&B and and blue
stuff, but there's that in it too.
I heard it Arctic Monkeys, like I heard all over the place over
and over again. It's just really a a record out
of time it sounds like to me. Yeah.
I mean and and what I was surprised by a little bit is
(11:17):
that. So overall, it's just a pleasant
listen. OK.
And what surprised me is there'snot an obvious smasher stand out
track. OK.
So like for albums like this, yeah, almost always there is a
lifetime top 100 of all time. Sure.
That anchors it. Sure.
And then the rest is considered good enough.
Yeah. But that's not the case here.
(11:38):
It's very level. Yes, I would agree with that.
I would agree with that. It definitely feels like a
comprehensive vision. Like you said, the concept part
of it was kind of backed into, yeah, But in terms of
inspiration and performance, it feels very solid throughout.
Yeah, if I like in my when we review out new albums, I talk
about consistency is one of my major scores.
(11:59):
This is so incredibly consistent, like it is an album
and an album. To your point, this is the age
of the album. Yeah, right.
And and I think it deserves a full listen through almost every
time. I can't imagine putting one of
these songs on a mix. Like I could definitely see in
1972, like someone putting on headphones, sitting down with
two albums and putting on side one and just listening.
(12:19):
Fat joint, I'm sure. Some LSD.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So another overall impression. His voice, man, he makes the
most of it. It's very odd, but he sounds
like 3 or 4 different singers onthis album.
He it's just so flexible. He can hit high notes, he can
(12:42):
hit incredibly low notes, he cando the raspy thing, he can make
it sound artsy, he can make it sound bluesy.
Really impressed by the flexibility of his voice.
Like it's what I always like when I didn't know any better or
like the first time I thought someone who had a flexible voice
was like Axel Rose, Yeah, who could do a definitely right?
He's kind of all over the place.You have an entire song in like
1 register or whatever and then I'll have another song in a
(13:05):
different one right second. Only to Mike Patton.
Well, there you go. The only man that I think has a
7 1/2 octave range. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Buckley, another example, like he's 4 octaves or something
like that. Yeah, because, but it's not
traditionally a great voice. Do you know what I mean?
Like he's not winning any contests, but he absolutely
strong. It's not strong.
(13:25):
It's good, but it's it doesn't have this gravitas, yes, but it
has a lot of quality. It does have a lot of quality
and you can't mistake his voice at the same time, even though
he's doing again, the work of three or four singers.
You know, it's Bowie when when you press play.
So again, really impressed. Imperfect in all the right ways,
(13:45):
yeah. Should I go ahead and guess your
three favorite songs? Do you have them?
Sure. Do you have them written down?
I. Do actually have them written
down this time? OK.
All right. Guess number one for the big
three. And yeah, we're doing a number
of points here. If you, however many you
guessed, you get a point. Yeah.
And at the end of this season, we'll add them up or something,
(14:06):
whatever. This matters we I think I'm
leading though I do think from the first couple times, yes,
I've got a little bit lead goinghere.
I. Fucked it up last time big time.
That's true. Yeah.
All right. So I'm gonna guess that one of
the three is Star Man. It is not.
Really. Actually, you do that just to
spite me? Nope.
All right, what's? The buzzer.
(14:27):
Oh, sorry, I want you to. Feel the shame.
Yeah, double up, double up. OK.
I mean, I figured that was easy.But it's like, so that according
to streams, again, we don't knowthese albums, right?
So I'm sure for big fans are like, how the fuck did you not
know that? But again, like over half a
million streams. And like, that was the big hit.
And I'm like, but it's got a great pop hook and it's easy to
(14:48):
remember. It's true.
It's true. OK, so for the second one, my
guess is it ain't easy. Yes.
All right, there we go. Got one, got one.
My note on that is I love the contrast from the verse to the
chorus. It's got a great build.
Yes, absolutely. It was also one of my top three.
OK, not part of the gimmick, butI might as well put mine.
(15:08):
Yeah, and Starman was one of mine.
I I like. That quite a bit.
OK, my final guess and I, I feelpretty good about this one.
OK, I'm going to go so far as tosay it's your number one.
If you did rank them, which you probably did, you never fucking
rank anything. I got I got other shit to do
with people. Right.
Look, he's busy. I'm going to go with Hang on to
yourself. No.
Really. No, there's my note on that,
(15:29):
that it has a Punky Bob mold feel.
It does have a. Punky, I wrote down Ramones, but
yeah, OK, absolutely. I agree.
All right, well, one out of. Three, you can see why you would
think I would like that though, if that makes sense.
No, the other ones I really likewere Moon Age Daydream.
OK. And Ziggy Stardust, OK.
Ziggy Stardust was one of my three.
OK but it sounds like Led Zeppelin and for Moon Age
Daydream I know it's fine. Great guitar solo.
(15:53):
That yeah. Is it, yes.
Great guitar solo. Yep, Yep, I said.
I hear, I hear talking heads andI hear even as far as like Black
Country, New Road, like you can throughout the years, Pink
Floyd, like solo at the end. Yep.
I mean, so dynamic, really impressive.
I think the last song, Rock'n'roll Suicide was very
well placed at the end of the album.
I agree the horns are a nice touch.
(16:14):
It was a good album closer. I I agree.
Ziggy Stardust, that riff. I knew that riff, but I didn't
know it was Ziggy Stardust. It's incredible.
And I can't get out of my head for, like the the week that
we've been listening to it or that I've been listening to it.
That's the one I wrote down Black Rose for Ziggy Stardust.
Yeah, but the rift sounds like astairway to heaven.
(16:34):
Yeah, like, yeah, I put sounds like Led Zeppelin.
That's why we do a show, folks. That's right.
So overall your impression like is it better than you expected
about the same again? Way better than I expected.
My expectations weren't low. They were.
I was optimistic going in, right?
But I didn't know that I would like it at all, right?
(16:54):
I thought it was totally possible that I would hate it.
Yeah, I that's, I also put slightly better than expected,
but I had high expectations. You did OK, OK.
So like I thought, OK, this is going to be a meets because I'm
expecting a lot from this, but it was again, a little bit, I
just didn't expect that something 53 years old.
God damn. Is this unique and complex?
(17:15):
I think that's The thing is thatit's easy to assume that
everything pre 1980 ish sure, with the exception of maybe
Zeppelin or a few things. It's like it's I assumed there
was no complexity right. So this, the certain depth
didn't really come of age and music until much later.
Yeah, but this proves that's notthe.
That's a good point because likein the tradition of music, you
go from classical music, which is incredibly complex, then to
(17:36):
like Blues and jazz, which everything gets simplified,
simplified, simplified, catchy, catchy, catchy.
But this is catchy. Yeah.
And complex, right. It really, it walks that line
so, so well. It's really impressive.
I know. Like.
It's not. I mean, that's why we're doing
these stuff, it seems. Ridiculous that we're saying all
this stuff, but we listen to this album for the first time.
(17:58):
This is the first time we've listened to it, right?
Yeah. And in a way, I mean it's kind
of renewing some faith and and rock criticism.
Yeah, right. That like if these ones that at
least stuff that's been passed through a filter over decades,
right? Not fucking Pitchfork from last
week. Yeah, I don't know where this
ranks in the top 500. Cents is top 100.
Ish top 100 ish OK, that's totally fair.
(18:20):
Yeah, I mean on and on and on sax solos, strings on every
track in the exact right time. Here's another thing I want to
say something that I have a realproblem with.
I've mentioned before in our other classic catch UPS which
were Joni Mitchell's Blue and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road is 70s production. I don't like in the sound of the
(18:43):
drums in particular and the sound of the guitars.
I don't particularly like them. But then they managed to fix
them. So.
So like in that song where therewas the A star man with that
does have an awesome guitar solo.
It sounds like like George Harrison.
Eric Clapton. Yeah, right.
It's Mick Ronson, apparently. Is that like the dad of the
(19:04):
producer? Yep.
OK. But like, so even if the guitar
sound like at through the choruses is not great, they'll
have these flourishes where the guitar will come way up high in
the mix and it'll just sound just have a cool tone to it.
Yeah, the strings were always great.
If a song was too spare at a certain point, strings would
would swell and they would add afullness and depth to the song.
(19:27):
Incredibly impressive. And that's really the trick, I
think, for great albums and why it's hard to verbalize it is
it's usually not something that beats you over the head.
It's how the nuances are applied, when and how.
Yes, absolutely. No, I mean can't say enough good
things about it. So I mean interesting side note
follow up, is it Aladdin Sane follow this album and and Bowie
(19:47):
sees that he views that album aslike Ziggy goes to America.
So interesting. So Aladdin Sane is largely like
this, this alien, OK, how they view America because it was his
like, first big tour in America.Oh.
OK, that makes sense. So, OK, yeah, they're kind of
related in that sense, is there?A big hit single from that one.
Do you know? I don't know.
OK. Maybe because I I wanted to keep
it, wanted to keep it fresh because maybe we're going to
(20:09):
bust that out next season. True, good point.
A lot of busting out next season.
I mean, every season we're trying to bust out.
We're busting Boston, but have you heard you've?
Busted. Makes me feel good actually.
You've heard that remix, right? No, whereas it's like the
Ghostbusters redo, but it just says busting over and over and
over again. Those are great.
(20:30):
Yeah, I'll show it to you. What's the the one week where
it's just it's been. Yeah, I think it's yeah, it's
just one week, but everything isit's been OK.
Yeah, it's. Been.
Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like that.
Yeah. Boston Buston.
All right. Have you listened to The Rise
and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars?
(20:50):
What did we miss? There's going to be a Bowie fan
hopefully in here who's like, fuck you guys.
I can't believe you missed this.You didn't know that.
Remember we were virgins. Yeah, with regards to.
And I would encourage you to come at this again
optimistically like we do and think like this is a cool,
right? This is a cool.
Discovery we made exactly. You should be enthused.
I would hope you would be enthused for us, right?
(21:11):
And say, hey, if you like this, you'll like these other Bowie
albums or you're like other artists that you might not know
from the 70s. We're also doing weird
avant-garde but also traditionalstraightforward rock songs.
So, yeah, let us know in the comments if you your opinions of
the album, if you haven't checked it out.
And then you do listen to this album as a result of this
banter. We'd love to know what you think
for sure. Yeah.
(21:32):
Please like and subscribe if youhaven't already.
If you have any recommendations for other classic albums that we
may not have listened to, we probably haven't listened to
them. Probably not.
Sorry, not sorry. Yeah, 'cause it makes for great
content. But we will.
Yeah, for you. For you with the extended
family. That's right.
All right, like and subscribe. Smash the bell, you know.
(21:54):
Drink Shanky's whip, Yeah? And that's that on that folks,
we'll. See you next time.
Once again, we're catching up ona classic album we missed today.
It's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Mars by David Bowie. I'm the Extended Play podcast
with Ian Tank. Welcome to the Extended Play
(00:20):
podcast. He's E.
I'm Tank and this is a music discussion show without hipster
snobbery. Yeah, not a trace.
Nope. And today we are doing another
of our classic Ketchup series. No, it's not a retrospective on
premium condiments. No, it's great albums from
(00:42):
before our time generally from before we were born and that
we're like, you know what? People talk about it.
Critics love it. We should probably listen to it.
It's more to save face when people say you guys have a music
podcast and then they ask us, doyou know David Bowie?
And we're like. This is an extended ass
covering. Extended ass covering?
Yes. What's the what's the original
(01:03):
name of this podcast? And it's also the name of my The
Sister podcast where I review adult films.
I don't know. All right, so this time around
it is the rise and fall of ZiggyStardust and the spiders from
Mars and. The spiders from Mars.
Yes, I I think. Not mentioned in the title or in
the. I fucked that up in the.
(01:25):
It's OK. That's fine.
You know, we all make mistakes. Yeah, it don't matter.
Thanks. None of this matters the but I
think most people refer to the element the Rise and fall of
Ziggy Stardust or even shorter Ziggy Stardust.
Right. I think very rarely do you get
the whole name. Good call.
It's like a Fiona Apple situation.
Right. So, David?
Bowie is a, a massive blind spotfor me, for both of us.
(01:50):
For both of us, absolutely. I never doubted it.
But it's like there's a lot of stuff out there.
He's wearing costumes. There's he's doing this, he's
doing that. And, you know, like most people,
I'd say if you did a pie chart of our exposure to David Bowie,
a giant chunk of it would be like dancing in the street with
Mick Jagger and the heroes. Yeah.
(02:11):
Because that became a kind of a big retro hit.
Yeah, let's dance too. Yes, right.
Yes. And I.
Really like that I'm. Afraid of Americans?
It's not the one with. That's pretty good, pretty good,
actually. It's not the one with Trent.
Yeah, yes. I'm afraid I can, Jesus.
Nailing it. I mean, there's something there.
Maybe there's a? Career in a tribute.
(02:33):
Band. I mean, you could do record an
entire album. The album that wasn't Yes.
The duet between Michael McDonald and David.
Yes. Yes, we half art rock, half the
yacht rock. I might work on that.
Got to make it home now. What a fool.
Beliefs. Yeah, I'm gonna be.
(02:58):
There how would the how would the reverse?
Work. We could be heroes for just one
day. Oh, so good.
Oh, oh, oh, all right. Sweating in here, Yeah.
(03:27):
It's getting hot in here gettingout for her.
They're not going to take off all our clothes.
That is not going to help. No, it's not anyone.
No, certainly not the viewers. Oh, all right.
Yeah, Reset. All right.
So Ziggy Stardust now this one Inominated.
(03:47):
Yes. What we do is we take kind of
take turn to nominating an album.
Doesn't really change much. You guys don't give a fuck.
But it does change the little game at the end where whoever
nominated nominated. It has to guess the three songs
on the album the other guy wouldlike the most.
Kind of a reverse inverse quasi playlist challenge.
(04:07):
And then we'll talk about if this was what just about what we
expected. Better than expected, yes.
Not, you know, we. Don't.
We don't. We don't give it a grade because
everyone knows it's classic. But to our expectations, did it
surpass, meet, or fail to achieve?
So I'll go ahead. And for those unfamiliar like I
(04:28):
was, I'll go ahead and hit you with the summary of the album.
Cool. Described as a loose concept
album and rock opera, Ziggy Stardust focuses on Bowie's
titular alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, a fictional
androgynous and bisexual rock star, which was no small feat in
the mid 70s. No, it couldn't have been.
Who was sent to Earth as a savior before an impending
(04:50):
apocalyptic disaster, which I believe was disco In the story,
Ziggy wins the hearts of fans but suffers a fall from grace
after succumbing to his own ego.It's very much like a Greek
tragedy. Yes, yeah, call.
So Greek tragedy. Also the name of my porn review
website. You only review Greek porn.
(05:13):
It's much darker, OK. Hold on.
I don't hold. That's the hard pass.
Literally 1972, right? Yes.
Yeah. OK.
So yeah, I mean, I got some notes on the album, but what are
your general thoughts on the? General thoughts on Yeah, let's
go, I guess. Let's go right into general
thoughts again, completely unfamiliar other than that, you
(05:34):
know, Bowie was one of these shape shifters, right?
Like from physical appearance tothe type of genres he covered.
His one album was vastly different to the next.
And so I didn't quite know what to expect.
I really didn't know what to expect.
I had no idea. I knew the loose framework of it
being like about this alien or whatever.
And I and I could picture the costume and all that kind of
(05:55):
stuff, the imagery which when I saw the album cover and I looked
down like, that's wait, what? And I thought Space Oddity was
on this. I assumed it's not which.
Would I did too. It's like 3 albums before this.
Yeah, yeah, that. Part was, I was taken aback by
I'm like, wouldn't this be? I mean, there's Mars, there's
spiders, right? My first reaction was this is
(06:18):
not what I thought Bowie soundedlike, like in his most because
if this is his most popular album or one of them, I thought
it'd be a lot more artsy. So it's pretty straightforward.
It's pretty straightforward. It's Blues, rocky, it's jazzy at
times. It's just straight up sort of
that classic 70's rock sound a lot of times.
But it's the execution and it's the lyrics that set it apart
(06:39):
from that kind of stuff. And I think some.
Nuance. Yes, absolutely.
And there's a lot, there's a lotto like.
There's a lot to pull, pick apart if you're a music nerd,
like we're not music snobs, but music nerds like in that we like
to notice all the little things.There's a lot of little things
of this album, so. Good segue from that is so there
(06:59):
if you When I was selecting the album, I knew I wanted a David
Bowie album. So then the question is which
one, right? So I had to go learn what I'm
sure a lot of people already know, which is OK.
In the pantheon of his albums, what are the best ones?
The general consensus seems to be it's this one.
Hunky Dory and Aladdin Singh arelike the trifecta.
(07:20):
So I kind of did a little research.
OK? I think this is going to be the
best. It seemed to be the consensus
number one. Yeah, But Hunky Dory and this
album were recorded at basicallythe same time.
Oh, wow. So the Spiders realized that
Hunky Dory didn't have any good live songs on it.
OK, so then the Spiders are the band kind of right?
(07:42):
They never officially called themselves the Spiders, but it's
the same backing band for both. Right.
Yeah, So they finished Hunky Dory and they're like, well,
great album, but what do we do live with this?
So they recorded this album and it makes sense 'cause these
songs do a lot of them do sound like, OK, these could, I could
see these being played. Live and some of them were
written before this session, right.
(08:03):
So or, or they even came, I think even one of them was even
a single before they even had the idea of the Ziggy Stardust
thing. So that also just a little side
note there. Yeah, it yes, rock opera, all
that kind of stuff. But they added a lot of that
mythology after the fact. That wasn't the initial.
They didn't set out to make a concept album.
It just they kind of tacked it on here and there, made the
(08:23):
lyrics fit it a little bit more.Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, sorry. Yeah, but it's to me, it's hard
to believe this album came out in 1972.
Yeah. So many things that followed
this because, again, since we'reviewing this decade in
retrospect, we weren't there formost of it.
Yeah, certainly not conscious remembering.
Yeah, I was a drunken stupor most of my toddler years.
(08:45):
This wasn't. Very dark.
I mean, toddlers are like drunk people.
They really are. But so many things that followed
in the 70s were so campy and cheesy, yeah, that it's hard to
think that something this may beauthentic and original sounding.
Preceded it, yeah. Absolutely.
Like, you know, again, shitty disco, shitty pop, shitty dance.
Yeah, followed this. Yeah, by 5 or 6-7 years like.
(09:08):
Cock rock like like Supertramp and shit like, well, that's
probably the 60s right? But you know what I mean.
But still a Grand Funk Railroad and shit like that.
Just like. So it it is easy for our age
group to dismiss the decade as awhole like like he has.
I have because the most popular bits they get all the play are
the dumb parts. That's true, with the exception
of Led Zeppelin and and there there are exceptions, but for
(09:30):
the most part it's the dumb, yeah, meaningless crap from the
70s. When people say 70s, they think
of that's why we're doing this. Largely, Yeah, absolutely.
But yeah, it's crazy that thoughtful, creative music was
being made before disco. Yes, in that decade, right?
Right. And that somehow disco over
(09:51):
shown it right Yeah yeah One thing I was struck by over and
over again was how influential this album must have been.
Yeah, I, I'm, I hear this album in dozens of music bands that I
listen to today. It it, it's really incredible,
Like, and I don't often make those connections, but it's
(10:12):
undeniable, right? And yeah, that.
Happened with with Kate Bush, like, Oh yeah.
As we get into this older stuff,yeah, I'm like, now I see how
obvious my favorite artists pulled from this.
Yes, I mean like black crows. I heard black crows in this.
It's right there OnStar, right? I have.
It's a bouncy song and like I feel the Black Crows pulled
influence from this. I wrote it down somewhere as
(10:34):
well. Blues rock.
That's what I mean like, but Blues rock in a not that Black
Crows didn't do was interesting,but it's straightforward Blues
rock. It'll be the first myth, the
derivative. Okay, they're.
Just good at there you go And but Bowie with his the
uniqueness of his voice, which Ithink we should get to, and just
with the song structure, it's just so different.
(10:55):
But anyway, as I was saying, like I heard like Zeppelin had
to have been influenced by some of this there.
There's I know they were being on English R&B and and blue
stuff, but there's that in it too.
I heard it Arctic Monkeys, like I heard all over the place over
and over again. It's just really a a record out
of time it sounds like to me. Yeah.
I mean and and what I was surprised by a little bit is
(11:17):
that. So overall, it's just a pleasant
listen. OK.
And what surprised me is there'snot an obvious smasher stand out
track. OK.
So like for albums like this, yeah, almost always there is a
lifetime top 100 of all time. Sure.
That anchors it. Sure.
And then the rest is considered good enough.
Yeah. But that's not the case here.
(11:38):
It's very level. Yes, I would agree with that.
I would agree with that. It definitely feels like a
comprehensive vision. Like you said, the concept part
of it was kind of backed into, yeah, But in terms of
inspiration and performance, it feels very solid throughout.
Yeah, if I like in my when we review out new albums, I talk
about consistency is one of my major scores.
(11:59):
This is so incredibly consistent, like it is an album
and an album. To your point, this is the age
of the album. Yeah, right.
And and I think it deserves a full listen through almost every
time. I can't imagine putting one of
these songs on a mix. Like I could definitely see in
1972, like someone putting on headphones, sitting down with
two albums and putting on side one and just listening.
(12:19):
Fat joint, I'm sure. Some LSD.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So another overall impression. His voice, man, he makes the
most of it. It's very odd, but he sounds
like 3 or 4 different singers onthis album.
He it's just so flexible. He can hit high notes, he can
(12:42):
hit incredibly low notes, he cando the raspy thing, he can make
it sound artsy, he can make it sound bluesy.
Really impressed by the flexibility of his voice.
Like it's what I always like when I didn't know any better or
like the first time I thought someone who had a flexible voice
was like Axel Rose, Yeah, who could do a definitely right?
He's kind of all over the place.You have an entire song in like
1 register or whatever and then I'll have another song in a
(13:05):
different one right second. Only to Mike Patton.
Well, there you go. The only man that I think has a
7 1/2 octave range. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Buckley, another example, like he's 4 octaves or something
like that. Yeah, because, but it's not
traditionally a great voice. Do you know what I mean?
Like he's not winning any contests, but he absolutely
strong. It's not strong.
(13:25):
It's good, but it's it doesn't have this gravitas, yes, but it
has a lot of quality. It does have a lot of quality
and you can't mistake his voice at the same time, even though
he's doing again, the work of three or four singers.
You know, it's Bowie when when you press play.
So again, really impressed. Imperfect in all the right ways,
(13:45):
yeah. Should I go ahead and guess your
three favorite songs? Do you have them?
Sure. Do you have them written down?
I. Do actually have them written
down this time? OK.
All right. Guess number one for the big
three. And yeah, we're doing a number
of points here. If you, however many you
guessed, you get a point. Yeah.
And at the end of this season, we'll add them up or something,
(14:06):
whatever. This matters we I think I'm
leading though I do think from the first couple times, yes,
I've got a little bit lead goinghere.
I. Fucked it up last time big time.
That's true. Yeah.
All right. So I'm gonna guess that one of
the three is Star Man. It is not.
Really. Actually, you do that just to
spite me? Nope.
All right, what's? The buzzer.
(14:27):
Oh, sorry, I want you to. Feel the shame.
Yeah, double up, double up. OK.
I mean, I figured that was easy.But it's like, so that according
to streams, again, we don't knowthese albums, right?
So I'm sure for big fans are like, how the fuck did you not
know that? But again, like over half a
million streams. And like, that was the big hit.
And I'm like, but it's got a great pop hook and it's easy to
(14:48):
remember. It's true.
It's true. OK, so for the second one, my
guess is it ain't easy. Yes.
All right, there we go. Got one, got one.
My note on that is I love the contrast from the verse to the
chorus. It's got a great build.
Yes, absolutely. It was also one of my top three.
OK, not part of the gimmick, butI might as well put mine.
(15:08):
Yeah, and Starman was one of mine.
I I like. That quite a bit.
OK, my final guess and I, I feelpretty good about this one.
OK, I'm going to go so far as tosay it's your number one.
If you did rank them, which you probably did, you never fucking
rank anything. I got I got other shit to do
with people. Right.
Look, he's busy. I'm going to go with Hang on to
yourself. No.
Really. No, there's my note on that,
(15:29):
that it has a Punky Bob mold feel.
It does have a. Punky, I wrote down Ramones, but
yeah, OK, absolutely. I agree.
All right, well, one out of. Three, you can see why you would
think I would like that though, if that makes sense.
No, the other ones I really likewere Moon Age Daydream.
OK. And Ziggy Stardust, OK.
Ziggy Stardust was one of my three.
OK but it sounds like Led Zeppelin and for Moon Age
Daydream I know it's fine. Great guitar solo.
(15:53):
That yeah. Is it, yes.
Great guitar solo. Yep, Yep, I said.
I hear, I hear talking heads andI hear even as far as like Black
Country, New Road, like you can throughout the years, Pink
Floyd, like solo at the end. Yep.
I mean, so dynamic, really impressive.
I think the last song, Rock'n'roll Suicide was very
well placed at the end of the album.
I agree the horns are a nice touch.
(16:14):
It was a good album closer. I I agree.
Ziggy Stardust, that riff. I knew that riff, but I didn't
know it was Ziggy Stardust. It's incredible.
And I can't get out of my head for, like the the week that
we've been listening to it or that I've been listening to it.
That's the one I wrote down Black Rose for Ziggy Stardust.
Yeah, but the rift sounds like astairway to heaven.
(16:34):
Yeah, like, yeah, I put sounds like Led Zeppelin.
That's why we do a show, folks. That's right.
So overall your impression like is it better than you expected
about the same again? Way better than I expected.
My expectations weren't low. They were.
I was optimistic going in, right?
But I didn't know that I would like it at all, right?
(16:54):
I thought it was totally possible that I would hate it.
Yeah, I that's, I also put slightly better than expected,
but I had high expectations. You did OK, OK.
So like I thought, OK, this is going to be a meets because I'm
expecting a lot from this, but it was again, a little bit, I
just didn't expect that something 53 years old.
God damn. Is this unique and complex?
(17:15):
I think that's The thing is thatit's easy to assume that
everything pre 1980 ish sure, with the exception of maybe
Zeppelin or a few things. It's like it's I assumed there
was no complexity right. So this, the certain depth
didn't really come of age and music until much later.
Yeah, but this proves that's notthe.
That's a good point because likein the tradition of music, you
go from classical music, which is incredibly complex, then to
(17:36):
like Blues and jazz, which everything gets simplified,
simplified, simplified, catchy, catchy, catchy.
But this is catchy. Yeah.
And complex, right. It really, it walks that line
so, so well. It's really impressive.
I know. Like.
It's not. I mean, that's why we're doing
these stuff, it seems. Ridiculous that we're saying all
this stuff, but we listen to this album for the first time.
(17:58):
This is the first time we've listened to it, right?
Yeah. And in a way, I mean it's kind
of renewing some faith and and rock criticism.
Yeah, right. That like if these ones that at
least stuff that's been passed through a filter over decades,
right? Not fucking Pitchfork from last
week. Yeah, I don't know where this
ranks in the top 500. Cents is top 100.
Ish top 100 ish OK, that's totally fair.
(18:20):
Yeah, I mean on and on and on sax solos, strings on every
track in the exact right time. Here's another thing I want to
say something that I have a realproblem with.
I've mentioned before in our other classic catch UPS which
were Joni Mitchell's Blue and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road is 70s production. I don't like in the sound of the
(18:43):
drums in particular and the sound of the guitars.
I don't particularly like them. But then they managed to fix
them. So.
So like in that song where therewas the A star man with that
does have an awesome guitar solo.
It sounds like like George Harrison.
Eric Clapton. Yeah, right.
It's Mick Ronson, apparently. Is that like the dad of the
(19:04):
producer? Yep.
OK. But like, so even if the guitar
sound like at through the choruses is not great, they'll
have these flourishes where the guitar will come way up high in
the mix and it'll just sound just have a cool tone to it.
Yeah, the strings were always great.
If a song was too spare at a certain point, strings would
would swell and they would add afullness and depth to the song.
(19:27):
Incredibly impressive. And that's really the trick, I
think, for great albums and why it's hard to verbalize it is
it's usually not something that beats you over the head.
It's how the nuances are applied, when and how.
Yes, absolutely. No, I mean can't say enough good
things about it. So I mean interesting side note
follow up, is it Aladdin Sane follow this album and and Bowie
(19:47):
sees that he views that album aslike Ziggy goes to America.
So interesting. So Aladdin Sane is largely like
this, this alien, OK, how they view America because it was his
like, first big tour in America.Oh.
OK, that makes sense. So, OK, yeah, they're kind of
related in that sense, is there?A big hit single from that one.
Do you know? I don't know.
OK. Maybe because I I wanted to keep
it, wanted to keep it fresh because maybe we're going to
(20:09):
bust that out next season. True, good point.
A lot of busting out next season.
I mean, every season we're trying to bust out.
We're busting Boston, but have you heard you've?
Busted. Makes me feel good actually.
You've heard that remix, right? No, whereas it's like the
Ghostbusters redo, but it just says busting over and over and
over again. Those are great.
(20:30):
Yeah, I'll show it to you. What's the the one week where
it's just it's been. Yeah, I think it's yeah, it's
just one week, but everything isit's been OK.
Yeah, it's. Been.
Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like that.
Yeah. Boston Buston.
All right. Have you listened to The Rise
and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars?
(20:50):
What did we miss? There's going to be a Bowie fan
hopefully in here who's like, fuck you guys.
I can't believe you missed this.You didn't know that.
Remember we were virgins. Yeah, with regards to.
And I would encourage you to come at this again
optimistically like we do and think like this is a cool,
right? This is a cool.
Discovery we made exactly. You should be enthused.
I would hope you would be enthused for us, right?
(21:11):
And say, hey, if you like this, you'll like these other Bowie
albums or you're like other artists that you might not know
from the 70s. We're also doing weird
avant-garde but also traditionalstraightforward rock songs.
So, yeah, let us know in the comments if you your opinions of
the album, if you haven't checked it out.
And then you do listen to this album as a result of this
banter. We'd love to know what you think
for sure. Yeah.
(21:32):
Please like and subscribe if youhaven't already.
If you have any recommendations for other classic albums that we
may not have listened to, we probably haven't listened to
them. Probably not.
Sorry, not sorry. Yeah, 'cause it makes for great
content. But we will.
Yeah, for you. For you with the extended
family. That's right.
All right, like and subscribe. Smash the bell, you know.
(21:54):
Drink Shanky's whip, Yeah? And that's that on that folks,
we'll. See you next time.
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