Get Low and Hunky Dory. If you like those you might like Diamond Dogs and Heroes, too.

As I mentioned yesterday, Ziggy Stardust is a "concept album" -- an album in which each song adds to a unified whole.

While researching concept albums, I ran across three articles discussing the first modern concept album. One claimed that the title belonged to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, because the songs all described Brian Wilson's emotions at the time. Bollocks. Every album describes the songwriter's or songwriters' emotions. The only "concept" in Pet Sounds is in making "Wouldn't It Be Nice" the opening track and "Caroline No" the closer, which, if read into, could describe the loss of innocence and a failed romance, both common themes in Wilson's work. Another claimed that The Beatles were first, with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album chronicles a fictitious concert, complete with applause. Quite frankly, the "concept" only applies to the opener and title track, "With a Little Help From My Friends", and the title track's reprise. Once again, it's not a concept album, it's a couple of concept songs. The third article cited The Who's The Who Sell Out, which is supposedly a broadcast from a fictitious pirate radio station. That I'll buy. The band members even recorded commercials and jingles. While the idea was conceived much earlier, perhaps in the 1940s, The Who Sell Out was the first "true" rock concept album.

Back to Bowie. The "concept", or story, of Ziggy Stardust, is rather… unusual. Humanity has five years left to survive. Ziggy Stardust is an alien rock star who is sent to Earth on a mission to spread news and hope through his songs. He discovers that the world can be saved through alien "infinites", who are actually black holes. However, the infinites have no interest in saving the world, partially because they're kind of… formless. In the closer, "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", they tear Ziggy to pieces and thus take shape in human form.

Got it?

Tomorrow, I'll be messing with the concept slightly -- rewriting the story, so to speak.

Both you and Urban recommended Hunky Dory, so that will be my next purchase.

I’m going to rewrite The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Simply by using the random button on my CD player.

First up is Moonage Daydream.

Ziggy comes down to Earth and begins playing concerts. This is an alien love song, perhaps to catch our attention and tell us that he’s something... unusual.

My CD player whirs again, and the acoustic guitar of Starman can be heard.

More about Ziggy’s concerts – perhaps from an audience member hearing his message of hope.

Track #2, Soul Love, begins playing.

We seem to have uncovered a side plot. A romance seems to be unfolding. Perhaps Ziggy has fallen in love with an Earthling?

And Hang Onto Yourself starts up.

The romance unfolds further. Sounds like Ziggy might have made it with his girl.

Five Years’ “Take Five”-esque drum intro begins.

And now the catch. We only have five years left to exist.

And the distinctive riff of Ziggy Stardust floats into my headphones.

The “Spiders From Mars” seem to bitching about Ziggy’s ego. He’s a great guitar player – but when he starts to think he’s a Messiah, that’s when they draw the line.

Here’s Star.

This is Ziggy’s comeback to the previous track. “I can make a transformation as a rock and roll star.” I can save the world from its imminent destruction!

Bowie’s frail vocals of It Ain’t Easy continue the shuffle.

More of Ziggy’s message of hope to the world. “We can all pull on through.”

The piano of Lady Stardust begins.

Seems to be a commentary on bisexuality. Is this Ziggy’s message of hope for the world?

That famous Suffragette City riff kicks in.

Ziggy’s getting tired of saving the world. Nobody believes in his message.

And the closer coincidentally aligns; here’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.

Ziggy, depressed, takes his own life.






The concept holds up, albeit shakily, when shuffled. Probably helped that the last two tracks were the same. Anyway, thank-you to Urban for initiating the whole "Bowie Week in Journal Land". It's prompted the start of a couple new journals, which I'll be following. And it's made me a David Bowie fan.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence….

During my absence, I had a dream. One which involved my parents. It left me devastated.

This Christmas will be the first I've spent with a broken family. As soon as the calendar turned to December, depression kicked in. I've stated that this journal is structureless, but for the rest of the month, I'm going to be looking at some of the songs that are helping me cope.

Note to Plankton and Frownland: I've listened to your albums, and will have reviews up at some point, probably in the New Year. Now, however, I'll be using this as an outlet for my emotions, and I don't have the time to give your works the attention they deserve.

I joined Music Banter on February 17th, 2014. Looking back in my diary, I can see it was about then that I confronted my family's disentigration as an inevitability. MB was an outlet for exactly six weeks. Then I decided it was too distracting from real life, and changed my password to some gobbledygook that would be impossible to remember. The next few months were rough. After life had settled down, I reappeared here in August, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

One of the places I have always been able to find comfort in is music. And what better place to begin than my favourite group of all time? Especially when that group has a remarkable breakup story of their own. Yes, it's the Beatles. And what better song than this, from their fragmented penultimate album?



The original had a much grander mood. Phil Spector added horns, string, a choir, a harp…. But some songs are best sung personally. This is one of them.

I don't show emotion very much. People have told me I have a pokerface. And my pain threshold is seemingly higher than others. I had my nose broken by a baseball when I was twelve, and the coaches were shocked by my lack of tears. Anybody else on the team would have been bawling. I don't cry easily, but I listened to Let It Be… Naked in its entirety this morning, and when that song came up, it devastated me.

Many times I've been alone, and many times I've cried
Anyway, you've always known the many ways I've tried
But still they lead me back
To the long, winding road
You left me standing here
A long, long time ago
Don't keep me waiting here
Lead me to your door….

So we beat on, boats against the current, drawn back ceaselessly into the past.

Glad to see you're back in the saddle! I just listened to Let it Be the other day and wondered what it would be like without the Phil Spector treatment. I had no idea there was a "naked" version of the album. I definitely have to check it out.

And I'm really glad that music is helping you to get through tough times. I think we've all had a point in our lives where a song (sometimes one that we don't even think much of) just hits you hard, and makes you examine yourself and your situation.

Nice. Let it Be Naked is vastly superior to the bloated Spector version. Long and Winding road is my moms fave Beatles song.

He's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody…

Ever looked closely at the word "nowhere"? Give it a good look. At first, it looks like "no where". After a while, it looks like "now here". Think about that for a bit. "Now here"… "no where"… is there a relation?

Either way, it's Rudy's destination.



This song's been affecting me pretty deeply lately. Especially the airport bit in the middle. I'm on a train to nowhere right now. I don't know where I'm going, or who's going with me. But I just found a lot of comfort by looking at the word "nowhere" and discovering another meaning. Maybe you can too.

Hmm. Deep man. But here's another one. Throw in a question mark and one at the end in the middle and you have "No? Where?" Or even "Now? Here?" ;)

You're both ignoring the obvious one: "N. Ow! Here!"