Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

theme of transformation from Lady Stardust to Ziggy
Stardust is cleverly acknowledged as well.
“Star” picks up the tempo. It’s a song about rock
’n’ roll ambition, autobiographical, given Bowie’s
pre-Defries struggles. “I could do with the money /
I’m so wiped out with things as they are.” It’s a great
example of those Instamatic Bowie numbers that
introduce peripheral characters, friends of his that
become friends of us as listeners (“All the Young
Dudes” is another one of these songs). As listeners,
we may feel we too know a “Bevan” who tried to
change the nation, or with regard to “Dudes,” a
“Lucy” who steals clothes from unlocked cars, for that
matter. He clearly picked this songwriting trick up
from his hero Lou Reed, who filled every post–John
Cale Velvet Underground album with a cache of
local characters. “Hang On to Yourself” invents the
Johnny Ramone riff four full years before the punk
legends’ 1976 debut. The Spiders are all together,
moving like tigers on the aforementioned Vaseline.
We (the blessed) can only gape as they instruct us
what to do if we’re gonna “make it.”
Speaking of riffs, the album’s title track rarely gets
mentioned anymore for just how great a riff it has,
one that’s instantly recognizable and primal but
complex. It’s not just an up-or downstroking slash but
resonates like one despite its three integrated
sections. Bowie uses three different voices to sing
the hell out of it. From verse one (“Ziggy played
guitar”) to verse two (“Ziggy really sang”) to the
chorus, he seems to the outside observer a