top 10 albums david bowie: ziggy stardust [1972]

I discovered David Bowie when I was about 16 or 17 years old. Sure, I had heard a few singles, it is kind of hard not to hear Bowie at some point. But it wasn't until I saw a rerun of the BBC Omnibus documentary 'Cracked Actor' that he suddenly came into focus for me. I know that it is a cliche to describe Bowie as 'other worldly' but that is exactly how he appeared to me at the time. He wasn't like anyone I had seen before. I don't think it was just his physical appearance, long and thin with different coloured eyes, it was probably more to do with his confidence in his own artistic vision. As I have grown older, and perhaps a bit wiser, I can now see some of the pompous pretension in what Bowie does, and his sometimes pathetic attempts to cover his own apparent feelings of inferiority by talking in solemn riddles. This doesn't stop me from still buying all of his albums. I think I am still trying to recreate the sense of wonder and belief in rock and roll that my first hearing of Ziggy Stardust raised in me. From the opening beats of Five Years to the pained wails of Rock 'N' Roll Suicide, all dressed up in glam rock clothes, music would never be the same again for me. I really didn't have any idea that music could be used to express feelings, other than the sickly sentimentality of some of the country music my parents listened to at the time. It really is a pointless excercise trying to analyse Bowie's lyrics, after all these were produced using cut and paste, rather our time is better spent 'wallowing in the mire' of emotions expressed through these songs. This is ART...I think Bowie has struggled ever since to articulate what he does.