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Lady Stardust

Side One: Five Years / Soul Love / Moonage Daydream / Starman / It Ain't Easy
Side Two: Lady Stardust / Star / Hang On To Yourself / Ziggy Stardust / Suffragette City / Rock n Roll Suicide

Albums: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars (1972) (edited version of demo issued as a bonus track on Rykodisc 1990 release).

Singles: None issued.

Time: 3:21

Background

 

Video credit: Mr Sussex
Rainbow Theatre 1972 and other 1972/73 concert venues.

First song on the second side of THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972) and recorded at Trident Studios in November 1971. The original working title was "He Was Alright (The Band Was Altogether)" and/or "A Song for Marc" for the demo recorded in April 1971.

A special recording of "Lady Stardust" was broadcast on the Sounds of the Seventies (Broadcast: 19 June 1972). On 8 January 1997 for his 50th birthday, Bowie also broadcast a new semi-acoustic version of Lady Stardust for the BBC's ChangesNowBowie radio show featuring Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals.

"This, I think, is a really lovely song.  It sounds really good even today.  I like this one - I think its a good bit of song-writing" - Bowie (1997)

It is believed that "Lady Stardust" was performed live only on the 19th and 20th August 1972 at the Rainbow Theatre shows.  At these concerts Bowie sang "Lady Stardust" as the shows opening number while projecting, amongst other images, a picture of Marc Bolan on a large screen, implying that the song was about him. However, some fans report remembering that it also opened some or all of the 1st-7th September 1972 UK concerts which immediately followed.

Lady Stardust Original Lyrics

"Laugh at his long blond black hair"
"Lady Stardust sang his songs of rebels, Kings & Queens"
"Oh how I lied when they asked if I knew his name"
"For he was So right"

A bonus for Bowie fans in the 1990's was the edited release of the acoustic demo on the Ryko/EMI 1990 re-issue, which, like seen above, featured slightly different lyrics to the final version. Prior to the re-issue series, the existence of this demo was unknown and reportedly was not played to either The Spiders nor producer Ken Scott before the recording of the Ziggy Stardust album.  Instead Bowie would introduce each song to the band members on his acoustic guitar and the structure was then worked on in the studio from this basic blueprint. Of note are the interesting lyric changes abovee to the final version and especially the last verse which mimics Christ's denial by Peter, his disciple.

Recording notes

"Bass, drums, acoustic guitar, the Trident piano and the vocal talents of David Bowie.  It doesn't get much simpler." - Ken Scott

* @ 0:16 seconds into the piano introduction you can hear some extra channels being opened up before Bowie's vocals start i.e.: you suddenly hear more 'tape hiss'.

* A slightly longer version of the demo "Lady Stardust" exists which shows that the official release faded-in the introduction to cover a studio mistake. See ALBUM OUTTAKES for more detail.

* Amusingly, Bowie added the softly spoken words "Get some pussy now" right at the end of the song - although you have to listen very hard to hear it.

---This page last modified: 03 Jan 2019---