MB Classics: David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
 

Even though we still have a some time before we end Acid Bath's I'm going to start the next one early.

David Bowie's The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
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In order for your rating to count you must leave a couple of sentences about the album.

Rating average must be 7 or higher to be considered a classic.

Grrr. Can a mod fix the title. I was deleting the rise and fall part since it exceeded the character limit and accidently hit enter before I was done.

Rated it as a 9.

Arguably his best glam era record.

It's going to take forever to get through this list isn't it?

Why not post all five recs per poster at once. Five separate threads.

I prefer Hunky Dory, but this is a damn close second. Here's a second sentence for you so you count my vote.

I gave it a five. Cool enough to hear on the radio but I have a hard time getting into it. Cannot say that I dislike it at all, but I cannot say that I like it either. It's just there.

As much as I'd like to say this is not my favourite Bowie album, it's the one I keep coming back to. It never gets any airplay here, so thankfully the overplayed factor never sets in. Nothing I'd change about it.

great album with some of his most memorable tracks. it isn't without a few flaws though so i gave it an 8.

A perfect poprock album. I love every song.
Not as moving as Hunky Dory but still a ten.

Best tracks: Five Years, Moonage Daydream, Lady Stardust

I found my CD copy of it, 40th anniversary remaster so gonna play that later.

This album is special, and my personal favorite of the Bowie discography. You know that an album is good when every song is a contender for the best on the album, and to me at least that's the case with this album. I gave it a 10.

I think the first full Bowie album I ever listened to, and still among my top favourites. Great songs like "Five Years", "Suffragette City", "Starman" and "Rock and Roll Suicide", and of course the title track; a great (if weird) concept and of course the introduction of the title character as a literal character who would become one of the most iconic and easily recognised figures in rock music. The album suffers from a few not-quite-up-to-par tracks, for me, but it's still a solid 9 easily.

Great album.

Favorite songs:
"Moonage Daydream"
"Suffragette City"
"Starman"

Not my favorite Bowie album but it would make it into my top 5 by him. I deducted 1 point for the one cover song on the album and gave it a 9/10. Nothing wrong with his cover of "It Ain't Easy" by Ron Davies, I just prefer the original version and I think the Ziggy Stardust album would be slightly more cohesive without it.

Pretty much my reasoning :eek:

Sounds fantastic on this CD btw, forgot how much I love this album.

I have the same CD, bought it the day he died.

It sounds great. I like the packaging as well, it's exactly the same as the vinyl (other than down the side it says 40th anniversary remaster), the wallet inside with the artwork on it, it's pretty much a miniature version of the vinyl.

Today might be the first time I've played it btw

I wanted to but havent listened to it enough to cast :/

Its on my spotify previous stuff Ive listened to and I see that often and I plan to listen to it more in the next few days to vote.

I actually have the starman song on a mix cd in my car, amazing song. Made a music video for that song also.

Current rating is 8.5

10 from me, a perfect album from beginning to end. Five Years is my favorite opening track on any album, perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the album and brings everything to life. Not even my favorite Bowie album but untouchable imo.

i think it’s pretty much unanimously in

Ditto. Absolutely brilliant album in every single regard. Hearing this the first time was a total revelation. So unique and original.

One of Ken Scott's best works. The mix of Bowie's voice, acoustic guitar, and then Ronson's crunchy guitar is amazing.

Great read BTW:

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Suffragette City is a ****in' rocker.

This one is kind of difficult for me, since I'm not really into Bowie. I mean, I like some of his songs, but I've just never really gotten into the albums as such. My experience with Bowie so far has been that I prefer somewhat newer material, than what's on this album, as I think he matured into a more interesting artist later - kind of also a better singer.

There are some pretty well known tunes on this album and it's hard shake the feeling that the rock establishment puts some mental pressure on for me to bow down and kneel before this album but... This strikes me as a fairly innocent pop-rock album with a bunch of hooks and some personality, which is fine, but I'm not convinced that I would have identified this album as a classic if I didn't already know that it was supposed to be one.

I voted 6, which doesn't mean I think it sucks by any means.

Harsh.

The ubiquitous nature of this album gave me pause when I was figuring out my rating. It's been so present of my life in its own right and by way of influence that makes it difficult to gauge whether or not I genuinely feel that it's mediocre or if it's genuinely mediocre because maybe it built that standard that I've become tired of. Or maybe Bowie is actually overrated.

I feel let down by the majority of "classics", mostly because to a point, it's impossible for something to live up to that kind of hype. If people talk about something like it's mind-blowing and my mind is not blown, then I tend to rate it more poorly than if I had 0 expectation going in.

Lol. Fixed.


I really do think some of his songs are brilliant, but the dude put out a LOT of albums. Is almost all of it important and genius, or did he also make a lot of music that was merely servicable? It's very hard to judge the music on it's own merits when you know the whole cultural context around it. I feel like my gut reaction is that I'm not all that into this album, so... that's one thing. I don't think I have any way of making a credible argument for how Bowie's legacy might be orverrated, or not.

I have your address. I'm mailing you my gun. Once it arrives, stick it in your mouth and then pull the trigger.

I think that might be a factor for me as well, at least sometimes. Some of those immortal classics that everyone goes on and on about - they aren't necessarily all that obvious with why they're great (if they are at all), so I think it's very easy to come away unimpressed. I mean, it took me I don't know how many years before I realized that Joni Mitchell wasn't actually boring, but just very subtle and actually quite brilliant (to me, at least). But I'm not going to give every supposed classic hours and hours of time... so I don't think there's anyway to be sure that I'm not dismissing something I could have loved.

Didn't know you worked for Rollingstone?

Some other factors that result in disappointment with classics: Cultural context. Sometimes something is brilliant for what it dared to do in a particular timeframe, but that doesn't age with the album and becomes lost in time. Also, people seem to have a hard-on for artist who invented a thing, but are less impressed with artists that combined or refined a thing. For me, I don't really care that Blah Blah invented the time signature or whatever--I'm more interested in what can be done WITH that invention than the mere invention OF it. So again, a lot of classic albums or great artists are lost on me.

Hell ja! Once I stick your unloaded rifle into my mouth (I'm assuming rifle since it's illegal to mail a handgun) and pull the trigger I can sell it and I have another 3 years of Trump for gun prices to rise.

Thank you so much, Chula. I'm trying to save up right now and could really use a boost.

Mostly agreed but more in the sense that people being inspired by innovatuon make it so difficult to see how innovative the original work is in a world of those inspired by those inspired by those inspired by those inspired by pop music inspired by the innovative.

I can't stop laughing.

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Yeah I agree. I kinda feel the opposite of those people, since I care more about how the end result sounds to me now than what it meant back when it was new.

Haha what kind of loser would drop a pink album?

Dumbass.

You can mail a loaded gun? :eek: In California? :eek::eek:

I don’t know what this game is but Ziggy Stardust is obviously unassailable. 10/10 should be the only poll option so people can’t make fools of themselves.