This past Thursday - June 16th, 2022 - was the 50th anniversary of the release of (at least in Ricki C.’s humble opinion) David Bowie’s finest musical moment, the Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars album. By our calculations, at that time Colin and Jeremy were 3 years old; Ricki C. was 20. In honor of that muisical milestone Pencil Storm has decided to revisit our coverage of Bowie’s death. This blog originally appeared January 12th, 2016.

Truth be told, I was never really that big a fan of David Bowie: I only ever bought one record by him (The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars, but Jesus, what an album) and I never saw him perform live.  But, further truth be told, I have to admit, when I heard on CD102.5 yesterday that he died, it did bring a little tear to my jaded rocker's eye.

David Bowie was one of those rockers who I liked the idea of more than I actually liked his music.  He would join U2 and Ani DiFranco in those ranks for me.  I like the things those artists do, I like what they stand for, but they don't really get on my turntable or CD player nearly as often as Richard & Linda Thompson or The Pop! do, ya know?  

And Bowie absolutely had the proper rocker credentials: he wrote a fuckload of great songs ("Suffragette City," "Ziggy Stardust," "The Jean Genie," "Panic In Detroit," and "Heroes," to name only five), he did a lot of drugs, he married a model, he almost certainly had sex with Mick Jagger, he recorded new material to the very end; who am I to argue with those stats?

Most of all, let's face facts: if David Bowie hadn't broken BIG in 1972, The New York Dolls would never have gotten signed to a major label, and without Bowie's production skills & patronage Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Mott The Hoople would NEVER have broken through to mainstream rock & roll as much as they did.  That's four of my ten favorite rock acts on the planet that I would still be trying to explain to people WHO THEY WERE if not for David Bowie.  

I don't really drink anymore, but my lovely wife Debbie & I have some champagne left over from New Year's Eve.  Will I be uncorking some of that tonight and drinking a toast to David Bowie?  Yeah, I will.  Thank you David, for the music.  Thank you for the rock & roll.  - Ricki C. / January 12th, 2016. (Click here to read Scott Carr's thoughts on Bowie)

(David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars performing in 1972 on Top of the Pops, in the midst of heavy-metal, singer/songwriters and prog-rock.  At the !:03 mark of this video - when Bowie puts his arm around lead guitarist Mick Ronson - the 1970's started there, cats & kittens, RIGHT THERE.)

 (And while we're at it, raise a toast to Mick Ronson, 1946-1993.) 

By the way, I love it when rockers forget the lyrics to their own songs. This was when live rock & roll was REAL LIVE rock & roll. No teleprompters or I-pads.

Closing thought; I have a very specific memory of hearing “Starman” for the first time in my first wife Pat’s Chevy Vega on AM radio and saying dismissively to Pat, “This is that David Bowie guy who thinks he’s an alien or something.” We were still hippies then, but that all changed. - Ricki C. / June 18th, 2022.