FIVE Years is the blistering opener on this ground-breaker – now it’s 40 years since the original was unleashed from the bewildering mind of David Bowie.
Bizarrely for such an anniversary, there’s nothing new – no extra tracks, no unearthed versions, no exploitative titillation. It’s a sort of “wham bam thank-you mam” take it or leave it. Natch, you are going to take it because this is a landmark epic in rock and pop’s canon.
TRAFOZSATSFM exploded Bowie on to the world scene, cracking open an entire new dimension in pop music. His appearance on Top Of The Pops singing Starman was one of those “Did you see that?” moments. Yet a year later alien lead character Ziggy Stardust was killed off as Bowie shed another skin ahead of several guises over the next three decades.
Some tracks have not aged well, but classics abound and arouse, backed by Mick Ronson’s brilliantly skanky guitar riffs, and closing with the power-packed trio of Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City and Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide.
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