15 David Bowie Songs That Showcase His True Genius

12. Five Years (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWm03wYBTbM The year after Hunky Dory marked the most infamous period in Bowie's chameleonic career. 1972 marked the "birth" of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's alien-messenger alter ego, and his band The Spiders From Mars. Bowie, as Ziggy, brought glam rock to the masses and his make-up, spandex and sexual ambiguity scandalised a nation. The loose eponymous concept album opens with Five Years, setting the scene for what's to come as it tells the story of an Earth with only five years left before destruction. It's a beguiling, intriguing opening track; how could you hear it and not want to hear the rest of the album? The Ziggy Stardust era is the point where Bowie became imprinted on every music fan's consciousness. To hear an androgynous man dressed as an alien wailing "you're not alone" at the end of the album's closing track "Rock N Roll Suicide" is to hear Bowie singing to every misfit, every awkward teenager, every outsider in his generation and every generation to follow. And all of that started with Five Years, the best opening track in Bowie's oeuvre.