Is Ziggy Stardust really that good?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by LadyGrinningSoul, Oct 5, 2015.

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  1. LadyGrinningSoul

    LadyGrinningSoul Forum Resident Thread Starter

    What do you think? Does it deserve the title of one of the best albums of all time, or is it not even that great?

    I personally love it, but there are many of Bowie's albums i love more.
     
  2. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paradise
    IMO Overrated. It's not even in my top 5 Bowie albums.
     
  3. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Easily one of his best IMO. Only you can decide if it's "really that good" for you.
     
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  4. LadyGrinningSoul

    LadyGrinningSoul Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I don't think it's overrated, but i rank several of his albums higher.
     
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  5. jl151080

    jl151080 Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    One of his best, and far better than Hunky Dory as a whole.
     
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  6. Lightworker

    Lightworker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Deep Texas
    Ziggy is a very good "glam rock" LP. But not quite as good as The Slider or Aladdin Sane are.
     
    Steve B, oh1, mikaal and 3 others like this.
  7. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I go through phases where I play other albums more....right now I'm obsessed with Diamond Dogs....but that doesn't mean Ziggy isn't a great album.
     
  8. gkella

    gkella Glen Kellaway From The Basement

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    My favourite Bowie album.
    Probably in my top 100 album list.
     
  9. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Yes, it's that good. It doesn't have to be your favorite album or even your favorite Bowie album. It's a ****ing good album. It's the album that broke Bowie. It's one of the reasons you have 40+ years of great Bowie work to look back on. Silly question, really.
     
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  10. telepicker97

    telepicker97 Got Any Gum?

    Location:
    Midwest
  11. Terry

    Terry Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee
    A seminal album, right up there with Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road, Who's Next, and Beggar's Banquet.
     
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  12. greenman

    greenman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Any good? well. if you create an album that establishes you as a rock myth, you've at least done something right.

    That said, there's of course a lot more to Bowie than this insular jewel. His true greatness comes out in his varity and reach. Many albums to mine and love.
     
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  13. Curveboy

    Curveboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    It's like any classic album...some of us are just tired of hearing it. But does it deserve to be in the upper echelon of rock greatness? Yeah, for sure.
     
  14. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    IMO, it is easily his best and most consistent album. But he is about 5 different artists just by himself, so it is perfectly reasonable that someone might prefer one of his other albums and feel the same way about it as I do about Ziggy. David Bowie is really that good.
     
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  15. ampmods

    ampmods Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    I think as an album it is really pretty great. However I do have some issues with it personally. I think side 1 is relatively weak with "Five Years," "Soul Love" and "It Ain't Easy" being the tunes that I just find boring. "Moonage Daydream" and "Starman" are killer though.

    Side 2 is completely awesome though and a nice little 'conceptual suite' of tunes. Theatrical and beautiful.

    As an album I'd say it's one of Bowie's best (although to me there are at least 3 other albums I think are better). But as far as album sides go... side 2 is hard to beat.
     
    trumpet sounds likes this.
  16. Spiritual Architect

    Spiritual Architect Well-Known Member

    Not only Bowies Best, but one of the Best Ever.
     
  17. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    Coincidentally, I was drinking tea from my Ziggy mug while reading this thread :cheers:

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    Very good album with a weak opening track that feels like it takes Five Years for it to end. But the album improves significantly then...
     
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  19. sheffandy

    sheffandy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sheffield, UK
    I'm not a massive Bowie fan but love the Ziggy Stardust album
     
    Scope J likes this.
  20. chronic kebab

    chronic kebab Forum Resident

    Location:
    ireland
    Absolutely fantastic, as are most of his albums with the odd exception.
     
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  21. tmwlng

    tmwlng Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    It's a wonderful album, though not the one I play the most of Bowie's. I still think it's rock solid. All the songs fit perfectly together while also functioning outside the album. Truly a milestone of seventies rock.
     
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  22. Emilio

    Emilio Senior Member

    Second best. It has a few weak spots. "Aladdin Sane" is the best.
     
  23. hi_watt

    hi_watt The Road Warrior

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Yes, it is. Not my favorite Bowie album (Scary Monsters takes that) however. The song Ziggy Stardust is worth the price of admission (though Moonage Daydream was at the top of the list for me but the movie Guardians of the Galaxy association kind of messed it up for me).
     
    Rose River Bear likes this.
  24. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    IMO it deserves the praise it gets from all over the place. If not just for Mick Ronson's guitar tone which is one of a kind on the album. Folk, early rock and roll, punk, heavy metal, broadway, classical...... is there any genre that Bowie doesn't brilliantly meld into his songs on the album? And a couple weren't even invented yet.
    There is a reason why musicians, musicologists and so many fans think it is one of the best albums of all time but that conveniently makes it overrated doesn't it.
    When have you ever heard such a distinctive use of a sus 4 as he does on the song Ziggy Stardust's intro? I'll bet even Keith digs it.
     
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  25. C6H12O6

    C6H12O6 Senior Member

    Location:
    My lab
    It's excellent.

    Long answer, it's been overrated - I think it made Rolling Stone's top ten albums of all-time at some point in the late '80s or 90's, easily the highest of any Bowie album on that list - but it's also had plenty of naysayers over the years who are much more harsh about it.

    A lot of albums like Ziggy Stardust sort of have a similar issue where they seem overrated because most books and articles will shine a spotlight on them over anything else the artist has done, mainly because historically they are that important. For example, as much as I like Sgt. Pepper or Born in the USA, the Beatles and Springsteen have made much better albums that get far less attention - not a minority opinion - but the historical impact they had were unmatched by their other albums. When Pepper came out, Revolver was the lowest selling Beatles LP, and you didn't see the same avalanche of ink and paper dissecting Revolver the way Pepper was, nor did it get nearly the same amount of reverential airplay, but most people now generally peg Revolver as the better album.

    Back to Bowie, Aladdin Sane is a better album, and so is Hunky Dory (which is before the Ziggy Stardust persona really took hold, but dates from the same era). But I don't enjoy Ziggy Stardust any less for that, it just has excellent company.
     
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