Foi a 16 de junho de 1972 que surgiu The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, álbum em que David Bowie inventava a sua personagem mais mítica, redefinindo a carreira e, mais do que isso, abrindo um capítulo do rock consagrado às possibilidades de permanente discussão da identidade artística, pública e privada.
São 11 canções, aqui metodicamente recordadas — esta é a nona, Ziggy Stardust.
Jamming good with Weird and Gilly
And 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
They came on so loaded, man
Well-hung and snow-white tan
So where were the spiders
While the fly tried to break our bones?
With 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, ah
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed the man
I had to break up the band
>>> A canção tal como foi interpretada no espectáculo final de Ziggy Stardust, a 3 de julho de 1973, no Hammersmith Odeon (Londres). As imagens pertencem ao filme que regista esse espectáculo, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, de D. A. Pennebaker (lançado em 1979).