To me, David Bowie’s 1972 record “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, ” is one of the greatest records that I ever listened to in my whole entire life. But let me tell you that before I get into this, I just wanna say that, I still remember when Bowie passed away. January 11th, 2016, I remember waking up to the sound of my mother taking a big gasp, which made me run out of my room, and both of us standing there in shock, as if we couldn’t believe what just happened. Bowie, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke is dead. Now here’s the best part,to make it even more memorable, it was my very first day, first semester, and first year of University. You start a new chapter in your life, and the morning of that new beginning, one of your rock and roll heroes is dead. Great, what else is next! And from then on, in 2016, and 2017, I was just listening to Bowie, from his debut self-titled record, “David Bowie,” all the way towards “Let’s Dance.”But, I’m always finding myself going back to “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” I felt as if this record was the ‘soundtrack,’ of my life, paralleling what I was gradually witnessing, and experiencing these up and coming days. Slowly waking up to reality, and yet, I was keeping that rockstar persona in me, meeting interesting new people who come, and go, and of course, experiencing, and witnessing love.

But, let me just tell you that I know pretty much almost all of the songs by heart, that’s just to give you a heads up on how many times that I’ve looped this record over and over again. The album has one of the best openers of all time, “Five Years.” Bowie begins to describe different people out there in this odd world that we live in, but the song slowly, yet smoothly takes a turn towards the reminiscence of love, where he’s hanging onto the memory of his lost love. The best part is how the melody is organized and beautiful, where it starts off just simple, but then works its way gradually into this magical orchestral piece. AMAZING! Here then comes “Starman,” later in the record. I love this song for how beautiful it is. Bowie’s describing Ziggy Stardust making his appearance on planet earth, and people are getting that first glimpse. And what’s interesting is whenever I’m listening to this song, I’m always wondering if there’s really anything out there in our galaxy, or Bowie now as a shining star, beaming his rock and roll music out into this world… Who knows! The record then closes with, “Rock and Roll Suicide.” We’re now coming to the end of the Ziggy Stardust character. But, it’s a great way to close off this record because Bowie’s doing exactly what he has done with the title track, “Five Years.” The song starts off quietly, slowly building it up into this great momentum. All to say, just listening to this record tells you how great of a rockstar Bowie was, and his musical legacy will never fade away, but shine upon us. Cheers Bowie, this one’s for you!