Lyrics for Ziggy Stardust as interpreted by magicnudiesuit

Ziggy Stardust Lyrics
Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly
The spiders from Mars. He played it left hand
But made it too far
Became the special man, then we were Ziggy's band

Ziggy really sang, screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo
Like some cat from Japan, he could lick 'em by smiling
He could leave 'em to hang
Came on so loaded man, well hung and snow white tan.

So where were the spiders while the fly tried to break our balls
Just the beer light to guide us,
So we bitched about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands?

Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we were voodoo
The kids were just crass, he was the nazz
With God given ass
He took it all too far but boy could he play guitar

Making love with his ego Ziggy sucked up into his mind
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed the man I had to break up the band.

Oh yeah
Ooooooo
Ziggy played guitaarrrrrr

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  • 76 Comments
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fallenturtle
09-06-2002

Rated 0 
this is truely a classic bowie song!! Wonderful I must say.

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LoganNYC
09-14-2002

Rated -1 
i feel this song may have been about iggy pop, and before anyone responds to this as "ohh, just cuz iggy rhymes with ziggy doesn't mean it's about him", i know that. i thought about this, and many lines suggest characteristics of iggy pop, i.e. "spiders from mars" = "the stooges", however, i'm not sure whether iggy pop was a guitar player in the stooges, yet i'm fairly certain he wasn't the singer. anyway, that's that

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tieyourshoes
03-23-2003

Rated 0 
david bowie is truely amazing...

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SisterRay
03-26-2003

Rated 0 
jesus. first of iggy didnt play guitar and he sang. jesus jesus. and anyway, its partly about iggy but its probably generally about the decline of all of the 60s stars: janis joplin, jimi hendrix (he played it left hand), brian jones and all the rest. david bowie was particularly interested in a french rock star named vince taylor that eventually went completely insane after being moderately successful.

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aphekqs
05-08-2003

Rated 0 
Haha, Logan, you obviously know nothing about the Stooges if you thought that Iggy Pop wasn't their singer.

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shiznaz_kurtaz
06-05-2003

Rated 0 
I agree with SisterRay because it sounds like its about Jimi Hendrix. "He played it left hand, but he made it too far." Jimi Hendrix came from nothing to everything and made it too far. He got into drugs and overdosed. Ziggy Stardust can easily relate to Hendrix. "He took it all too far but boy could he play guitar" Same thing.

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paranoidandroid83
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
I've read that Bowie was also a huge Syd Barret fan, and anyone who knows his story would agree that it is very similar to Ziggy's. But yeah, it is in general about many of the 60's rock stars.

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Pabstdrinkin
05-05-2004

Rated -1 
ziggy star dust is the guy who originally wrote "brand new cadilac"

he was concidered the british elvis...

he was a big rockstar, and then we went crazy, one night he fired his band and walked on stage in nothing but a sheet and said he was jesus. and this was back in the late 1950's or early 60s so that was REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD. and so he was insane and died in sweden or switzerland or somethin, he was an airline mechanic!!!!

that is ziggy! a damn airline mechanic!!!!

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p3nguinpi3
05-26-2004

Rated +1 
I have no idea where you got that from Pabstdrinkin. 1) Vince Taylor wrote "Brand new Cadillac" 2) Ziggy Stardust is a fictional character.

Anyway: Ziggy Stardust, like Major Tom, is a autobiographical character. Ziggy = Bowie. Though Bowie wasn't a guitar player, the point of the Rise and Fall album is Bowie's ascension into the media spotlight following the success of Man who Sold the World. With Hunky Dory Bowie reinvented himself, going into a singer/songwriter mode rather than the harder songs of Man who Sold the World. The differences between "Changes" and "Life on Mars" are completly different than "Width of a Circle" or "Shook me Cold." Bowie came to the realization that he didn't really need the band for Hunky Dory, as Mick Ronson played such a small roll. Bowie thought he was god. He moved into his androdgenous male period, especially with "Oh! You Pretty Things." But he realized he was wrong, he needed the other guys, they were a part of him as older fans complained about the lack of the guitars on Hunky Dory.

Lady Stardust is about people questioning his choices with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Ziggy Stardust is about Bowie realizing that he may have really killed his older fan base, which was important to him. So he went back to what got him there in the first place. The "death" of Ziggy is Bowie's change BACK the Bowie of "Man Who Sold the World."

However, Bowie quickly turned Ziggy into another part of himself, as you can see from Aladdin Sane's cover art alone. That's the rise of Glam rock.

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WolfTickets
06-20-2004

Rated 0 
I'm pretty sure Pabstdrinkin meant that Ziggy Stardust was supposed to be Vince Taylor. I would agree to the extent that Ziggy is kind of a mashup of every died-too-young rockstar as well as Bowie himself: it's the rockstar story blown up to planetary proportions. Instead of coming from some small town or something, he's from Mars, etc.

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BunnyHatteShoppe
06-26-2004

Rated +1 
Hmm. All interesting. Maybe I'm wrong. I always just thought that Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie's glam alter-ego. Basically, like he was everything about him times a million. His own fears, inadequacies, ego, lust..etc just magnified.

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butterfingersbeck
10-07-2004

Rated 0 
I am reliably informed that the name "Ziggy Stardust" was an amalgam of Iggy Pop and a notoriously untalented country singer who called himself "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy". But (here's a thought) was Ziggy really played by Bowie? His band at the time was indeed the Spiders From Mars, but Bowie didn't play guitar with them - he was only the vocalist. Therefore Ziggy (although obviously based on Hendrix) must have been Mick Ronson. Weird and Gilly were the bassist and drummer. So who was Bowie meant to be if not Ziggy? The Starman, of course...

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vexingdragon
10-21-2004

Rated 0 
Though many people think this is a song about Bowie himself, this song is about Mark Bolan, a friend/rival of Bowie during his early years. Bowie took on the Ziggy "persona" as part of his performance act but it was inspired by Bolan.

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butterfingersbeck
10-25-2004

Rated 0 
So "Lady Stardust" and "Ziggy Stardust" are the same Bolan-inspired character? Makes sense, in that the Spiders "were all together". But it still makes Bowie an outside narrator.

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vexingdragon
11-06-2004

Rated 0 
hmmm I"m not sure butterfingers... maybe I got confused there because thinking about it I know lady stardust was about bolan but maybe i was just imposing that on this song as well? It makes sense to me that he's talking about the same person but maybe, maybe not.

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Mr. Badguy0077
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
i agree for jimi hendrix being ziggy stardust.

but from who's point of view is this sung from? the manager of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars, or one of the spiders themselves?

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Mr. Badguy0077
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
"When the kids had killed the man I had to break up the band." that quote seems alot like an actuall member of the band, so its either Weird or Gilly. although how could the narrator name himself?

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Mr. Badguy0077
12-03-2004

Rated 0 
ok but when David Bowie took in the persona of Ziggy Stardust, he claimed he was bisexual. so lets not compair Ziggy to Hendrix.

that means i take back what i sez

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jennerwiley
12-25-2004

Rated 0 
well all ive got to say.....WICKED SONG ....see ya space cowboys

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brycec3
12-28-2004

Rated -1 
im not a huge fan of this song, or bowie for that matter, but i always kinda thought these lyrics were great. everytime i hear/see the lyrics i think of kurt cobain. obviously im not saying it was written about him. anyone else see the cobain thing?

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beastieboy
01-02-2005

Rated 0 
This song was way before cobains time I am a big fan of David Bowie and Nirvana and I know Kurt Cobain liked David bowie

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brycec3
01-11-2005

Rated 0 
i know he didnt write it with cobain in mind, im just saying it sounds alot like cobain, out of coincidence.

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AlternativeMoth
01-25-2005

Rated 0 
I don't believe this has anything to do with Iggy Pop really 'cause Bowie didn't really go to the US and hang with Iggy until after this album was out. Aladdin Sane on the other hand makes several referrences to Adventures with and about Iggy Pop. "... Inspiration for Ziggy was Vince Taylor, the 'French Presly'. Taylor, whom Bowie briefly befriended, was the archetypal example of rock star turned nutty, and the blueprints for Bowie's own 'leper messiah'. 'He was an expartriate American who went to France and became a kind of Elvis. He was huge', recalled Bowie in 2000. 'And one night he decided - he'd done a lot of drugs! - to sack his band. He went on stage in a white robes and said, "I am Jesus Christ and I bring you the Loard's message!"' In so doing, Taylor effectly commited rock'n'roll suicide, and the incident lodged in Bowie's imagination powering his own writing of the archetypal dommed rock star whose superstardom grew too big for a mere mortal to handle." - David Buckley, From the Ziggy Stardust 30th Anniversary 2 cd edition album.

Maybe Ziggy Stardust is sung from the point of view of a double personality. Like Ziggy Stardust and Lady Stardust. "then we were Ziggy's band" it expains the we by saying he and himself were in Ziggy's band. "So where were the spiders while the fly tried to break our balls" This could be saying where's the rest of the band 'cause Ziggy/Lady is gettin' his balls broken.. heh.. funny line to write.. "Just the beer light to guide us," He is stating that his alternative ego and his just turn to alcohol and drugs. "So we bitched about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands? " And His ego and him just bitch about his fans. "Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we were voodoo" I wouldn't know how to really explain this line going along with this theory other than he starts going insane and question his own self awareness. "Making love with his ego" This line along helps my theory so much though. "When the kids had killed the man I had to break up the band." When they fans drove Ziggy insane, Lady stardust which is still himself broke up the band.. And rock'N'roll suicide finishes the tale of his death... Oh man. I'm thinking too abstract for my own little mind...

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AlternativeMoth
01-25-2005

Rated 0 
I do think Mark Bolan played a roll in Ziggy's creation too 'cause Mark Bolan did become wildly successful, and he "bitched about his fans" "Marc began complaining that he was already being forced into seclusion because he simply could not make a public appearance without being mauled." - members.cox.net/dregenold/marc/marc.html

So the combination of Vince Taylor and Mark Bolan and Bowie's own personal experiences helped create who Ziggy was.

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Cr4wford
02-28-2005

Rated 0 
anybody else notice one of the riffs in this song that kinda sounds like the end of "stairway to heaven" during "So where were the spiders while the fly tried to..."?

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