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"Call Me Ziggy"
--David Bowie
"You rarely see albums like that. The Rolling Stones you could play
every track, maybe the Who, and it was unusual because he was so new.
But boy, when Ziggy Stardust came out, all of those songs were so
strong. Every track went on the air, and every track hit."
--Denny
Sanders
"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' is
already being hailed as a classic on its way to the top. Included is
the hit single "Starman".
--RCA Records and Tapes 1972
"I'm going to play a character called Ziggy Stardust. We're going to
do it as a stage show. We may even do it in the West End. When I'm
tired of playing Ziggy I can step out and someone else can take over
for me."
--Bowie (August 1971)
Petticoat Magazine wrote:
"When the spotlights came on the audience gives up a single gasp of
utter disbelief. Ziggy's hair is a solid bob of flaming Apricot Gold,
made even brighter by a deathly white made-up face. He is wearing a
blue Lurex jacket open to the navel and a pair of blue denims
tucked
into what appeared to be boxing boots. The Spiders...seem ill at ease
in their silver jump-suits. The exhibition that follows is of secondary
importance. David Bowie made his impact the second he stood
there under
the lamp, legs apart, hips gently swaying, guitar slung over his back
and a limp smile playing on his mouth. There's no getting away from
it, the boy is beautiful..."
"The idea was to hit a look somewhere between the Malcolm McDowell
thing with the one mascaraed eyelash and insects. It was the era of
"Wild Boys" by William S. Burroughs. That was a really heavy book that
had come out in about 1970, and it
was a cross between that and Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the
look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become. They were both
powerful pieces of work, especially the marauding boy gangs of
Burrough's Wild Boys with their Bowie knives. I got straight on to
that.
I read everything into everything. Everything had to be
infinitely symbolic."
--Bowie (1993)
According to Bowie, the name "Ziggy" came primarily from the title of
a London tailor's shop (called "Ziggy's") that Bowie observed from a
train one day. In an interview he said that it was his private joke
that because Ziggy Stardust was going to be largely about clothes, he
had named him "Ziggy".
--from http://www.5years.com/who.htm#A
"I got most of the look for Ziggy from A Clockwork Orange. The
jump-suits I thought were just wonderful, and I liked the malicious,
malevolent, vicious quality of those four guys, although aspects of
violence themselves didn't turn me on particularly. I wanted to put
another spin on that, so I picked out all these florid, bright,
quilted kind of materials. That took the edge off the violent look
of those suits, but still retained that terrorist, we're
ready-for-action kind of image"
--Bowie (1993)
"You know I never do anything by half. The costumes for the act are
outrageous. I've had twelve, fifteen, any number made up but not just
for myself - for the group too. I like to keep my band always well
dressed, not like some other people I could mention! They are rather
like astral "West Side Story" outfits, with sequins and short battle
dress jackets, and long patent leather boots. I've also had my hair
chopped off and I feel very butch now. I'm out all the time to
entertain, not just to get upon a stage and knock out a few songs. I
couldn't live with myself if I did that. I'm the last person to pretend
that I'm a radio. I'd rather go out and be a colour television set.
Actually I'm a bit worried about the way that the band have fallen into
it so easily! Remember they were into hard blues, but now they enjoy
the costume bit."
--Bowie (22 February 1972)
"I think what I do and the way I dress is me pandering to my own
eccentricities and imagination. Its a continual fantasy. Nowadays there
is really no difference between my personal life and anything I do on
stage. I'm very rarely David Jones anymore. I think I've forgotten who
David Jones is...."
--Bowie
"I refuse to be thought of as mediocre."
--David Bowie (1974)
