"Starman" is the fifth song on THE RISE AND FALL
OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972). While issued as the album's very
first single, the song itself was a late entry to the Ziggy album having been written and
recorded at Trident Studios in January 1972 and only finally replacing Chuck Berry's
"Round and Round" in either February or March 1972.
"Someone, I do not know if it
was Bowie, DeFries or RCA decided that there was no single and so we went back into
Trident, my home away from home, to record the first single. All other songs on the album
except of course "It Ain't Easy" were recorded during the 2 weeks of sessions
[in November 1971]". - Ken Scott
"We'd finished recording the Ziggy
Stardust album at that time and it went into the record company.
They said: 'We can't release this. It doesn't have a single on it!'So we came out of the studio and in about a month he had
written 'Starman' and we were back in the studio by January. It was
an obvious single! I think Mick and I went out in the car after
David played it for us the first time, and we were already singing
it, having only heard it only once. At the time, we thought it might
be a bit too poppy, a bit too commercial. It might seem strange, but
we just hadn't done anything that commercial before. I always
thought Bowie had that ability, that any time he felt like it, he
could write a hit single. He just had that about him. I think he
chose not to right through his career. If he felt like it, he would
write one, and if he didn't, he wouldn't. That was just the
impression of working with him. It's not a fluke to be able to write
all those amazing tunes.Like with 'Starman', he didn't try
a few out, he just went bang, 'Alright, I'll write one'. But if it
wasn't for that song, the whole thing might not have taken off. It
pulled it all together."
- Woody Woodmansey
“Starman” was the
first Bowie song since “Space Oddity” that had mass appeal. It
spearheaded the whole Ziggy Stardust concept both musically and
visually. Appearing on Top Of The Pops was like reaching the summit
of Everest. I recall waiting to go on, standing in a corridor, and
Status Quo were opposite us. We were dressed in our clothes and they
had on their trademark denim. Francis Rossi looked at me and said:
“Shit, you make us feel old.” The success of ‘Starman’ really opened
it all up for us. Everything changed."
- Woody Woodmansey
According to some sources - it was RCA's Dennis Katz who
insisted strongly that Starman be added to the Ziggy Stardust album. "Starman"
was released on the 28th April 1972 (some have reported 14 April) with the US single
having a slightly different edit compared to the UK's and over 10 seconds removed from the
fade-out.
"Starman" was performed live on the 1st
UK, 1st US and the Japanese Ziggy Stardust Tours. It was also performed on a couple of
Sound + Vision tour dates in 1990 and on 23 June 2000 for Channel 4's TFI Friday show.
At the time Bowie also mentioned "Starman" as originally being
slated for a planned (but never completed) bridging album between HUNKY DORY (1971) and
THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972). This bridging album
was to include the songs "He's A Goldmine", "Bombers",
"Starman", "Round & Round" and "Something Happens."
Three of these five songs were considered for the Ziggy Stardust album, but only
"Starman" was to make it. However, Ken Scott states that no such album was
ever "in the can".
At the Rainbow Theatre concert of 19-20 August 1972 the Starman
character was played in mime by Lindsay Kemp. The character also figured in promotional
material including transferable skin tattoos.
In 1984, John
Carpenter's sci-fi movie was titled "Starman",
starring Jeff Bridges as an alien. The
song however, was not used in the movie.
In
2016 Audi used the song in a commercial at
the Super Bowl - two months after David
Bowie died. In the commercial an astronaut
regains his passion for life, after his
son presents him with
an Audi car. The ending pays
tribute to Bowie - "In memory of the
Starman."
Starman Original Lyrics
Analysis
The song "Starman" tells the story of an
extraterrestrial contacting the youth of the doomed earth through the medium of radio. The
extraterrestrial promises salvation but is weary of his impact on the planet.
"Starman" can be taken at
the immediate level of "There's a Starman in the Sky Saying Boogie Children",
but the theme of it is that the idea of things in the sky is really quite human and real
and we should be a bit happier about the prospect of meeting people" - Bowie
(1972)
"Starman" was the song that
Ziggy wrote which inspired people to follow him and it was all a pack of lies but he
continued and then he was crushed by his own ego" - Bowie (1974)
"Its a take on Judy
Garland....Star.....man" is in fact "Some......where over the Rainbow..."
and I just went from there and just took it somewhere else to be.....It became a blueprint
for that... Anything I touch always kind of gets perverted out of all recognisable form.
That's half the fun of it. Taking a system and throwing a spanner into it."
- Bowie
“Starman” was along the same lines as “Space Oddity” and “Life On
Mars”, two other favourites of mine. It’s the concept of hope that
the song communicates. That “we’re not alone” and “they” contact the
kids, not the adults, and kind of say “get on with it”. “Let the
children boogie”: it’s music and rock’n’roll! It made the future
look better." - Woody Woodmansey
"I
think David saw “Starman” as the ultimate follow-up to “Space
Oddity”, which had been a hit in ’69. But you can see all that
‘star’ stuff he was projecting like mad then: “Starman”; “Prettiest
Star”; “Moonage Daydream”. He wanted it bad, he really did. At one
point when I was interviewing him he said: “Y’know, I’m so focused
on what I’m doing, Mick, that if you were to come and tell me my
best friend had just died, I’d probably say, ‘Oh, that’s really
sad’, then go right back to work.” That was how he thought of
himself. It was important for him to be a star. People forget that
Ziggy Stardust was all projection, because he wasn’t a star at the
moment he recorded the single and the album. “Starman” was the
set-up. That song was the reason there were a thousand people at
Oxford Town Hall [June 1972]." - Mick Rock
According to the Ziggy cosmology created by Bowie for the
never-staged Ziggy Stardust theatrical show - "Starmen" were the invisible
infinites (black-hole jumpers) who, through a dream, tell the human Ziggy Stardust to
write of the imminent coming of a Starman to Earth. Ziggy Stardust subsequently writes "Starman"
which is the first hope that people have of salvation since the news that the Earth has
only five years left. Interestingly, "Starman" neatly predicts
the plot of the science fiction movie Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977).
Recording notes
On the RCA cassette release, "Starman" begins Side Two
swapping places with "Lady Stardust".
On the orginal album at 0:02 seconds there is a slight audio drop in the right channel and @
0:18 seconds there is missing reverb in the left channel.
"There are probably
two things worth mentioning about this. Firstyl, the really bad
edit where Woody comes in. I used a lot of reverb on the rythmn
acoustic guitar for the intro but I edited on the drum fill instead of
the downbeat and so the reverb cuts off early. I'm sure that
stoped it selling a lot of copies." - Ken Scott
"The other thing is a
mystery to me and it concerns the "morse code" sections leading into
each chorus. The overall sound was a piano and two guitars, an
octave apart and then all put through the Countryman phaser. There
are two different versions of this part, one much louder than the other.
I have no recollection of doing two different versions and so have no
idea why two versions were done nor which was the orginal!" - Ken
Scott
Didn't know what time it was, the
lights were low
I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was laying down some rock 'n' roll 'lotta soul, he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
That weren't no DJ that was hazy cosmic jive
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it's all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
I had to phone someone so I picked on you
Hey, that's far out so you heard him too
Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two
Look out your window, I can see his light
If we can sparkle he may land tonight
Don't tell your poppa or he'll get us locked up in fright
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it's all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
Starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He's told us not to blow it
Cause he knows it's all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
The
Companion
