Customer Reviews

Ziggy Stardust & Spider Mars (Std Pk) - Ost

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"Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Soundtrack" is a recording of the final live performance by David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' era band. Bowie had fully embraced the glam sound and his live performances carried an unnervingly high level of energy, and with a group more than capable of matching his intensity featuring guitarist Mick Ronson, this performance captured is enormously powerful.

Before I note anything else, it's important to mention that the sonic improvement of this reissue over all the other ones is staggering-- this has always been a great show that was not great to listen to, but through some arcane wizardry, it's been restored to really pristine sound-- it could have been recorded last month instead of over 30 years ago.

The music itself is about intensity and energy-- from the opening strains of a fierce and explosive "Watch that Man" to the closing "Rock n Roll Suicide". Along the way, Bowie manages distorted hard rock energy ("Ziggy Stardust", taken up in volume from the studio recording), sensitive and moody ("My Death"), and excitable ("Suffragette City") and a blazing take on "The Width of a Circle" with a seemingly endless bout of pyrotechnics from Ronson. This is an artist and a band in full flight, and it is an invaluable recording.

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Bowie's glam era, even if you've the previous issue of this recording. The sonic improvements are worth the cost alone. Highly recommended.

David Bowie was playing his last show ever; that's what the spellbound London audience heard from the man's own list at the end of his final night of his current British tour in July 1973. Of course Bowie was not retiring, but his latest alter ego `Ziggy Stardust' and the glam rock sound that David had help make supremely popular in the early seventies was being put to rest for all time. Luckily we fans have both a film and its soundtrack to celebrate the end of an era and for me personally, the best and most exciting music Bowie would ever make. Both the movie and its soundtrack had a long strange journey from the echo of the last guitar note to the premier/release of `Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'. In fact both were delayed by a decade as David initially shelved the project as he was truly moving forward and really had no interest in Ziggy and his final bow. In 1983, with Tony Visconti in tow, Bowie resurrected the project; however the sound quality of the shows for the LP left much to be desired. Twenty years later the soundtrack was again re-mastered and a more complete version of the final Spiders show has become available. I really don't have many qualms over this record and it is easily my favorite Bowie live album (compare it to the supremely lame `David Live'). All of the hits are here for the most part (no "Panic in Detroit" or "Jean Genie") as "Changes", "Ziggy Stardust", "Time", "Suffragette City" and "Space Oddity" all make vintage appearances. Favorites for me include "White Light White Heat" which is a Velvet Underground cover, "Moonage Daydream", "Changes" and without a doubt the best version Bowie ever did of this song, "All the Young Dudes". And while I love the studio version, "Width of a Circle" is, at almost 16 minutes; too long as Mick Ronson's guitar solo is painfully dull. The Ziggy soundtrack is worth it for glam Bowie fans and as it is the last act of his most famous band it truly is a serious artifact of a bygone era.