Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture 1973

Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture

1          Hang On To Yourself, 2:58

2          Ziggy Stardust, 3:11

3          Watch That Man, 4:12

4          Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud, 3:19

5          All The Young Dudes /

           Oh You Pretty Things, 3:20

6          Moonage Daydream, 6:20

7          Space Oddity, 4:52

8          My Death, 5:44

9          Cracked Actor, 2:57

10        Time, 5:14

11        The Width Of A Circle, 9:38

12        Changes, 3:37

13        Let’s Spend The Night Together, 3:11

14        Suffragette City, 3:04

15        White Light White Heat, 3:57

16        Retirement Speech, 0:40

17        Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide, 4:20

Recorded:        Hammersmith Odeon, London

(3 July 1973)

Musicians:        David Bowie, vocals, guitar, saxophone, harmonica

                        Mick Ronson, guitar, backing vocals

                        Trevor Bolder, bass

                        Mick Woodmansey, drums

                        Mike Garson, piano, mellotron

                        Ken Fordman, alto, tenor and baritone

saxophone

                        John Hutchinson, guitar, backing vocals

                        Brian Wilshaw, tenor saxophone, flute

                        Geoffrey MacCormack, backing vocals,

                        percussion

Producers:       David Bowie, Mike Moran, Tony Visconti

Released:        October 1983

Label:              RCA PL-84862

ZIGGY STARDUST: THE MOTION PICTURE (EMI) Ziggy's last performance, at Hammersmith Odeon, 3 July 1973, sounds as exciting and as dramatic now as it did in then, even though-because Ziggy (or Aladdin Sane, as he'd metamorphosed into) was a very visual performer-important elements of the show's impact are lost without D.A. Pennebaker's pictures.

What's to be heard, however, if not seen, is one of the all-time great rock 'n' roll bands giving it one last hard, loud thrash. Mick Ronson was spectacularly good when given his head-his guitar grunging, wailing, wobbling or screaming magnificently throughout, with the costume-change opportunity of Width Of A Circle allowing him to weird out wonderfully-and bass Trevor Bolder and drummer Woody Woodmansey were tight and right. Melodrama (My Death, Wild-Eyed Boy From Freecloud, Time) met mayhem (Watch That Man, Let's Spend The Night Together, Width Of A Circle), all underpinned by Ziggy's rock 'n' roll rise and fall. Top that with the for-real drama of the last show we'll ever do announcement which precedes Rock 'n' Roll Suicide and you have a remarkable document of an unforgettable time.

John Bauldie

Q Magazine, 1992