Brett Callwood
David Bowie
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (RCA)
Neil Leyton Jams Good With Weird and Gilly:Canadian garage rock singer and songwriter Neil Leyton told us about his love for a Bowie classic. Leyton’s Band The Conscience Pilate covered “Lady Stardust” on their Living in a Movie Scene EP release.
(RCA)
Neil Leyton: It is, of course, very hard to pick an all time fave album. Damn… ok here we go. If I had to pick a favourite album, this one would definitely be in my top 3… Exile on Main Street by the Stones comes close, and then there is the first Hanoi Rocks record and the Dogs d’Amour albums of course… but let’s go with Bowie.
You drop the needle on the vinyl. The drums fade IN. What? Yes, the album fades in and then ends with a bang. “Five Years” opens the album, announcing all the drama that is about to unfold like a harbinger of glitter and doom. This record fades IN! And then it takes you on a trip, where every song – every original song – is an absolute smash hit.
From “Five Years” to “Moonage Dream”, “Starman”, “Lady Stardust” (which by the way we covered back in ’96 on The Conscience Pilate’s debut record) all the way to “Suffragette City” and then of course…
No fade out – Rock n Roll Suicide is the perfect ending track on one of the best albums of all time, an interstellar rock n roll trip that could only have been made by someone truly soaking up all of her / her / their influences, from the Velvets to the Stooges to Dylan or the Stones, T. Rex, you name it: Ziggy Stardust is all of these things and more.
Furthermore, the production is timeless. This is a record that sounds as fresh today (ask Alex Turner) as it did when it was released – in 1972. Bowie’s vocal range, dynamics and sheer charisma has arguably never been captured better on a record than on Ziggy Stardust.
The highlight on a record of highlights? Perhaps “Hang on to Yourself,” a song so good that it works on electric as well as on acoustic guitar, and endures to this day as the epitome of rock & roll, onstage, backstage, on the road and in hotel rooms everywhere… “c’mon, you’ve really got a good thing going.”
Wow. What an understatement.
Neil Leyton Jams Good With Weird and Gilly: Neil Leyton’s “These Seeds” is out now.
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