5 - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

And here it is. The thing that finally made David Bowie a superstar. Does anybody really care if Ziggy Stardust is Jimmy Hendrix? My question is why did it take 5 albums to figure out that actually BEING the character who the album is about would be what people needed to finally get it?

We're in David Bowie's version of Lord Sutch and Alice Cooper theatrics. His running joke during Hunky Dory was that he was "the actor" and all i can say is "duh?." Like any good Barthesian narrative, we get to say "hello saxophone, we look forward to where you'll take us next."

Aside: you've been reading your Barthes, right? This is mandatory narrative logic. His example is a book with a parrot i can't remember the name of at the moment (the book, not the parrot). His point was that there is no room for illogical occurrences in proper narrative. Introducing the existence of a parrot is mandatory if the parrot matters to the plot. If you didn't introduce the parrot, we'd call you a crappy writer.

Anywho, i said i couldn't tell if any of this is intentional or coincidental, and i can't anymore. Elaborate stage costumes and rock theatrics are the norm. Bowie's take on the subject just happens to be spectacular. Now he's a rock genius, and everybody's looking up his back catalogue and saying "holy micky mouse, he's been doing it the whole time." Graven image of a cow? Life On Mars? Bueller? Bueller?

Alien rock star with a message of love in the face of a doomed planet. The complete lack of subtext is driving me absolutely bonkers at this point. Every single thing is so on the nose it's like he just snorted us all up it.

Spoiler alert, he's going to go a little crazy, move to a foreign country for a while, sell out, rebel against that selling out, make weird crap that i personally don't like very much, finally make an album i do like very much, start planning his next project and die. It's like they gave him the script in 1967 and said the part is yours, have at it. Everyone else tried, but didn't have the determination to actually finish the movie.

He had to be making it up as he went, right? It's not logically possible to do all this stuff on purpose is it? Am i the only one who finds it this hard to reconcile? You can't possibly map out your entire 50 year career in advance, you have to just go step by step asking yourself "what's the next logical step?," then doing it.

I'm getting ahead of myself. This album is awesome, but you already knew that. Bowie's first 5 albums is enough work for one day (and yes, i've been doing it all day long with breaks for lunch and dinner and talking to my family, and running to town for grapes). We'll see how many i get through tomorrow....

6 - Aladdin Sane