10 Essential Glam Rock Albums
1. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
David Bowie imbued everything he did with equal parts art and showmanship, and in doing so he made the apocalypse fun.
Ziggy Stardust, the album, is conceptually based around Ziggy Stardust, the character, an alien rockstar who saves the doomed earth by playing guitar. More importantly, it’s one of the tightest collections of tracks ever put on wax.
Opener “Five Years” sets out the stall - Earth is really dying, and Bowie works himself into a frenzy as a string section swells. Things get even weirder on “Moonage Daydream”, on which the singer encourages us to freak out over a circus-like saxophone coda that serves as an early-70s Bowie high point.
The album builds in energy on side two, with the breakneck “Star”, magnificently silly “Suffragette City”, and the iconic title track, probably the definitive glam rock track in terms of sonics and its ability to make something evocative out of a song about a cool spaceman.
Bowie’s ‘70s run is a musical miracle, with the hard rock and folk behind him and the art stuff yet to come, but as far as glam Bowie - and glam rock in general - goes, this can’t be beaten. It’s a legendary album that genuinely lives up to its reputation.