Bauhaus sings Ziggy Stardust (1982)

OK, here’s what I know about the timeline:  Bowie released “Ziggy Stardust” in 1972.  The studio recording was never released as a single.   Goth rock band Bauhaus formed six years later— in 1978.  The year after that, the band released its debut single, which is probably its best known song, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”  It’s often considered to be the first goth rock song, or at least the first goth rock song released as a record.  Anyway, the band was influenced by Bowie and was open about that.  In 1982 they got the chance to meet Bowie, and in a way work with him on the set of the vampire movie, “The Hunger.”  The band performed “Bela Lugusi’s Dead,” in a nightclub scene in which Bowie appears.  The movie wasn’t released until the following year, but my understanding is that the Bauhaus version of “Ziggy” came about following the encounter with Bowie.

The single of the song, released in 1982, has a Brian Eno song (“Third Uncle”) as its B-side, and a 12” version included a version of the Velvet Underground’s, ‘I’m Waiting for the Man.”  Bowie is (obviously) associated with both Eno and Lou Reed, and has performed “Waiting for the Man” (I think he said somewhere along the way that he wished he had written the song).  

Although I have heard this cover many times, I never saw the video until now.  It looks new to me.  I’m not quite sure that to make off the singer performing in a cage, but it, along with the end scene of the fans seeming to pass along a shroud-covered corpse, seems to have something to do with the, “when the kids had killed the man” concept of the song.