Ziggy Stardust 30th Anniversary

jonerik writes "Any short list of influential rock albums of the '70s is likely to include David Bowie's 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,' the story of a futuristic alien rock star and his demise during the Earth's final years. Originally released in June 1972, Ziggy is celebrating his 30th anniversary this year in fine style. First of all, the album is being reissued today in a limited edition 2-CD set. Secondly, the 1983 documentary, 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,' directed by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker ('Don't Look Back,' 'Monterey Pop') is being re-released this month and John Cameron Mitchell has an interesting interview with Pennebaker about the re-release in this week's Village Voice."

Comments

Re:Who?

[Anonvmous Coward]

Try this link:

http://www.google.com/search?q=who+the+fuck+is+zig gy+stardust&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

A good source of Bowie info

[putrescence]

Lots of lyrics and song info here:

www.teenagewildlife.com

It is NOT a porn link.

[putrescence]

What in God's name are you people talking about? I've been going there for over a year now and I can tell you that it is NOT a porn link.

If someone DOES, through some strange twist of reality, end up at a porn site through this link then please post the IP because that would mean that something is very wrong.

Re:Its great but...

[mikerackhabit]

>This generation is pathetic and lost. They are without a distinct identity, the the garbage that is made by them (Linkin Park for example) is base beyond measure.

Okay, I'll bite...

Are you living under a rock? Or perhaps (and the rest of your comment might indicate this) are you stuck in the past? There is at least as much - if not more - interesting and exciting music coming out today than at any time in the past. Just because it doesn't sound like the stuff you grew up with doesn't make it "base beyond measure" and the fact that the best band you can come up with to bash is Linkin Park suggests you might be the one who's "pathetic and lost".

Why don't you go listen to something on Blue Note? (Madeski Martin and Wood or DJ Logic to mention a few of the great new people on this label). There is all sorts of amazing experimental stuff coming out, check out Alien8 Recordings for some pointers. Punk rock has redefined itself and has a modern message and killer sound. Warped Tour (if you've ever heard of it) is one of the best (and cheapest) big shows around. I've had a great time at every show I've gone to.

The current music scene has fragmented and is moving in a thousand directions. I've mentioned only a few of those fragments and I'm sure that anyone who is at all "with it" could add many more references without even thinking about it. Get the hell out of your rut and start listing to stuff that doesn't play on MTV before you go bashing today's music.

Mick Ronson

[FrankDrebin]

Of course, the guitarist of the title track was not the fictional Ziggy, nor Bowie himself, but Mick Ronson, one of the greats of the era who sadly died in 1993.

Rather superfluous, though

[jwlidtnet]

I realize I'm coming in late in the game (and I don't know whether this has been mentioned yet), but this is some rather hideous marketing on EMI's part. To elaborate:

a) This album has been released countless times on CD. The RCA issue, the original Rykodisc, the Rykodisc "Collector's Edition," the gold Rykodisc edition, the "regular" Virgin version, and now this.

b) Apparently, the bonus tracks are mostly stuff that has been out before. On the above mentioned Rykodisc versions, most of David's albums came with bonus tracks that were cut for the recent Virgin reissues. Apparently, these "new" Ziggy bonuses are mostly comprised of those tracks, with a few things from the Sound and Vision boxed-set thrown in. There might be a few new items, but I doubt that they're many.

c) Another remastering? The regular Virgin issue isn't all that hot (no-noised, and subjected to the Prism noise-shaping system, which I've always felt adds an odd "texture" to the sound), so I can't imagine what they've done with this one. Possibly brutalized it and re-recorded the bass and drums (yeah, I'm talking to you, Ozzy).

-D

Re:Double CD versions of classics considered harmf

[Ma�djeurtam]

Actually, the mono versions of these discs are quite interesting, because they are in no way 'Left + Right speakers sticked together' versions.

Remember the LP's albums from the late 60's were the first to use the stereo technology. As many new technologies, this technology was at firtst misused and misunderstood: nobody knew how to use it well and often did an awful work with it (think: the drums left, all the other tracks right).

Take for instance Jefferson Airplane's masterpiece 'Surrealistic Pillow' (1967): the new, remastered edition comes with both mixes (on only one CD, though). You can hear that the mono mix is by far superior to the stereo mix, because, as stated in the sleeve notes, the sound engineer completely misunderstood what stereo was about. He added tons of flanger and 'cool' effects to the music, which just sounded awful in stereo. Errors he didn't make on the mono mix.

Another exemple is The Beatles's 'Sgt. Pepper's' (1967, too): the mono mix was made by the Beatles themselves and the stereo mix was left to some obscure sound engineer: so, the mono mix is really the way the artists intended it to be heard !