ZIGGY STARDUST AT HAMMERSMITH 4K UPGRADE

I posted the 4K upgrade of the “Life on Mars” video a few days ago, and now here’s a similar upgrade to Bowie singing “Ziggy Stardust” from Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture. I’m still not sure how this is different than the version that’s been available since 1983, but if it’s an excuse to post this clip, its a good clip!

The Motion Picture is a concert film as well as a soundtrack album, which is essentially a live album of Bowie’s infamous last concert as Ziggy (except for the 1980 Floor Show). It has been re-released in theaters this year for the 50th anniversary of the concert. It’s not the 50th anniversary of the film— the movie was originally released in 1983 amidst a wave of attention Bowie was receiving for Let’s Dance. I think the re-release comes at yet another moment of renewed interest in Bowie, perhaps following the success of the documentary, Moonage Daydream, or perhaps simply because with each passing year since his death, Bowie has become more of a fixture in popular culture than he was in life. He has not yet achieved the status of, say Marylin Monroe, but we’re at the point that a considerable amount of art is being made of his image, his iconography, his story— things other than his own music.

Bowie performed “Ziggy” for most of his career, but this is the only video I know of featuring him singing the song as Ziggy (which is not what he looked like when he originally recorded the song). Note too the lighting bolt motif used in the barebones stage design— that’s because the concert took place in 1973, the year Aladdin Sane was released, two albums after The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. There’s a good chance that when you think of Ziggy Stardust, this is what you’re thinking of.