| "Starman" | ||||||||||
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| Single by David Bowie | ||||||||||
| from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Suffragette City" | |||||||||
| Released | April 14, 1972 | |||||||||
| Format | 7" single | |||||||||
| Recorded | Trident Studios, London January 3, 1972 |
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| Genre | Glam rock | |||||||||
| Length | 4:16 | |||||||||
| Label | RCA 2199 |
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| Producer | David Bowie, Ken Scott | |||||||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Starman" is a single by David Bowie, released in April 1972. The song was a late addition to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, included at the insistence of RCA’s Dennis Katz, who heard a demo and loved the track, believing it would make a great single.[1] It replaced the Chuck Berry cover "Round and Round" on the album.[2]
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The lyrics describe Ziggy Stardust bringing a message of hope to Earth's youth through the radio, salvation by an alien 'Starman'. The story is told from the point of view of one of the youths who hears Ziggy. According to Bowie himself, speaking to William S. Burroughs for Rolling Stone magazine in 1973, Ziggy Stardust is not the Starman but merely his earthly messenger – contrary to received opinion which often paints Ziggy as an extraterrestrial.[2] The song has inspired interpretations ranging from an allusion to the Second Coming of Christ,[3] to an accurate prediction of the plot for the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).[4]
The music is in a gentle pop rock vein, featuring prominent acoustic guitar and a string arrangement by Mick Ronson, not dissimilar to the style of Bowie's previous album Hunky Dory (1971). The chorus is loosely based on Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz, alluding to the "Starman"'s extraterrestrial origins (over the rainbow). Other influences cited for the track are the T. Rex songs "Telegram Sam" and "Hot Love" (the "boogie" references and "la la la" chorus) and Holland–Dozier–Holland's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (the morse code-esque guitar and piano breaks).[1]
From a commercial point of view, "Starman" was a milestone in Bowie’s career, his first hit since 1969's "Space Oddity" three years before. NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray reported that "many thought it was his first record since 'Space Oddity'", and assumed that it was a sequel to the earlier single.[5]
The single initially sold steadily rather than spectacularly but earned many positive reviews, John Peel for example calling it "a classic, a gem".[6] Its turning point came when Bowie scored a place on Top of the Pops in July 1972 (although this performance is often cited as being the first UK TV performance of the song, this wasn't so, as it was performed on ITV's Lift Off With Ayshea three weeks earlier).[7] His performance with the Spiders became famous; according to author David Buckley, "Many fans date their conversion to all things Bowie to this Top of the Pops appearance".[3] It embedded Ziggy Stardust in the nation’s consciousness, helping push "Starman" to #10 and the album, released the previous month, to #5. The single remained in the UK charts for 11 weeks. In the US it peaked at #65.
In February 1999, Q magazine listed the single as one of the 100 greatest singles of all time, as voted by readers.
Writer James Robinson's acclaimed Starman series featured a story about an alien named Mikaal Tomas, who went by the alias of Starman while living on Earth. In the opening scene of the tale, Mikaal claims that the people of earth gave him the name due to the similarities between his own life and Bowie's song.[8]
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
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