ZIGGY IN ‘72! LIVE!
Ambisexually enigmatic, flamboyantly fearless, outrageously otherworldly…Ziggy Stardust dropped out of the sky and fell to American soil circa 1972 accompanied by a band called Spiders from Mars and armed with a spaceship full of the most brain-crackling songs on the planet.
Listening to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was like pouring a bag of Pop Rocks into your ear canal.
Ziggy’s Spiders — guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, pianist Mike Garson and drummer Michael “Woody” Woodmansey — backed the alien rock star (a.k.a. earthling David Bowie) during a theatrical tour de force of inter-planetary proportions that followed the release of the album.
But, from early 1972 until the fateful July 3, 1973 “retirement” gig, Ziggy’s life flashed across us like lightening; brilliant, wondrous, heart-rattling, shocking, then gone. To hear the music is one thing, but to experience that galactic glory live and on stage? Man, that must have been a wham-bam thank you ma’am to the main frame. Bassist Bolder’s green sideburns, Ziggy/Bowie’s unremitting costume changes and guitar wizard Ronson’s magical mojo and tight silver sequined knickers took glam rock to another dimension, a supersonic, visceral extravaganza that raised the bar for rock performance to outer space and influenced countless artists to come.
If you were lucky enough to catch Ziggy in his glory, well, good for you. But for those of us who might not have been there during those heady, hazy days of the mighty ‘72 when Ziggy ruled the stars (and stripes), we’ve got the upcoming release of David Bowie: Live Santa Monica ‘72 (due July 8 in the U.S. via Virgin/EMI).
Taken from an oft-bootlegged Oct. 2, 1972, KMET (The Might Met 94.7 FM) broadcast from the Santa Monica Civic Center that marked Bowie’s first live radio appearance in the States, the album is, to say the very least, nothing short of stellar.
Sonically, the recording is a clean and bright soundboard feed, while today’s digital remastering spruces up the sound quite nicely.
Opening with “Hang on to Yourself,” the performance is awesome, from Ronson’s restrained, driving riffs and the band’s tightness, to Bowie’s oh-so-rich vocal prowess. Even without a visual, you can feel the dripping sexuality and futuristic, space vibe. Just listen to this snippet of “The Width of a Circle” for a taste.
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“It’s no longer an act; I am him,” Bowie recalls in a statement regarding the recording. “This would be around the 10th American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We trainwreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn’t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us, but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best.”
And although it’s hard to celebrate major labels for much of anything these days, we’ve got to applaud Virgin for doing this one right. David Bowie: Live Santa Monica ‘72 will be released in a 180-gram double vinyl, numbered package that is sure to please collectors, purists and audiophiles; a limited-edition two-disc CD version for those who still (correctly) long for packaging and a tactile experience with their music; and a digital version of the album that will be available for download.
In his original review of the show (included in the album’s packaging, along with photos taken that night), Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn described the scene as having “the aura of Clockwork Orange, not so much in the sense of violence as in an incredible sense of ‘nowness’ and the wave of the future. Future shock had arrived.”
And, because we love you, check out this clip from D.A. Pennebaker’s film that captured the heartbreaking final Ziggy gig at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973.
