Word: stardust
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Bowie has always made his best music when he assumes a persona--that's become one of the cliches of rock journalism, but it's true. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars defined a hard-hitting, loud, fast rock sound four years before the Ramones hit the road. To make that album in 1972, Bowie set himself up as the glittery, self-destructive androgyne Ziggy. More masks followed, dizzingly, along with more fine albums--Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Station to Station, and a popular if antiseptic excursion into Philadelphia funk, Young Americans. Then...
Ballroom. While it beats, the heart defies time. Dappled by the shimmering lights of the Stardust Ballroom, the couples whom Director-Choreographer Michael Bennett sends swirling across its floor are cradled in hopes and dreams unmocked by middle age. An entrancing musical with a rare grace note of affection...
...begins with his older stuff, "Ziggy Stardust" and songs from that album like "Five Years," leaving on the rock riffs and self-consciously-confused lyrics. The sound quality will strike fans of the vinyl Bowie as poor; his lushly-produced effects get stripped down to what a seven-man band can handle on stage. Bowie's vocal machinations, so clever and startling out of the studio, lose some of their sparkle when forced to follow one another in sequence. The side has a nightclub feel, like a good band at Jack's going through some of Bowie's old hits...
...goodly share of staggering bodies--between the bar and the sheer crush of it all--but something was definitely missing. The faithful had pitched camp, sweating in their polyester skins and listening to the too-slick band that played "Mack the Knife" too slow and then sprinted through "Stardust". But the scavengers--curious little fish that nose around a campaign for a few months and then, once the blood is spilled, turn around and feed off the winner, tearing off little scraps like state jobs and discreet kickbacks--they weren't there. It must be too long a drive from...
...solid seven minutes--good, lusty, raw-throated cheering. Then the man struggled into the tent and the blood frenzy began, an animal roar on the verge of losing control, the disbelief and delight and confusion all muddled together, losing all sense. The band switched from its 14th rendering of "Stardust," all of them bad, into a very passable rendition of the B.C. fight song. Reporters aside, everyone there knew all the words...