Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture

Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture is a live album by English musician David Bowie, released in October 1983 in conjunction with the film of the same name. The music was recorded during the Ziggy Stardust Tour at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 3 July 1973 (1973-07-03), although the album was not issued by RCA Records until 1983. Prior to that it had existed in bootleg form, notably His Masters Voice – Bowie and the Spiders From Mars' Last Stand.^[6]

Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture
Live album by David Bowie
Released	October 1983 (1983-10)
Recorded	3 July 1973 (1973-07-03)
Venue	Hammersmith Odeon, London
Genre	Glam rock hard rock art rock proto punk
Length	69:31
Label	RCA
Producer	David Bowie Mike Moran Tony Visconti (2003 re-release only)
David Bowie chronology
Golden Years (1983) Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture (1983) Fame and Fashion (1984)
Singles from Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture
"White Light/White Heat" Released: October 1983^[1]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[3]
MusicHound	3/5^[4]
Pitchfork	7.6/10^[5]

The album documents the final show of the Ziggy Stardust tour and the last live-in-concert performance by Bowie as his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane persona/alter-ego (although it was not the final performance as Ziggy Stardust, which was three months later for the recording of the 1980 Floor Show). Before the final song, Bowie announced, "Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do. Thank you." Many in the audience believed that Bowie himself was retiring.^[7]

Production and release

D. A. Pennebaker filmed the concert and RCA recorded it with the intention of releasing a live album. However, the project was shelved for several reasons, rumoured to include Bowie's desire to leave Ziggy behind, and the poor quality of the recordings.^[8] Reasoning that RCA would most likely issue the material sooner or later regardless, Bowie and producer Tony Visconti mixed the recordings in 1981. This mix has been heavily criticised, although Visconti describes it as "more of a salvage job than an artistic endeavor" considering the state of the source material.^[9]

The album was eventually released in October 1983 as a double LP soundtrack to Pennebaker's documentary. Partly due to the limitations of the LP record format, the release omitted, shortened or reordered several items from the original tapes. "White Light/White Heat" was issued as a single in November.

Rereleases

Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture has been released on CD three times; the first time on 7 August 1992 (1992-08-07) by Rykodisc. In April 2003, the '30th Anniversary 2CD Set' was released by EMI/Virgin with copy control. Remixed by Visconti, it was considered a significant improvement on the original.^[10] It contains additional material, including introductions, spoken passages and the complete version of "The Width of a Circle"; "Changes" was also slotted into its correct position in the original concert's running order, following "Moonage Daydream". "The Jean Genie/Love Me Do" and "Round and Round" encore with Jeff Beck are still omitted. The continued absence of Beck's sequence has been variously attributed to an issue over royalties or to the guitarist feeling, in Tony Visconti's words, that "he didn't fit in the film".^[10] The two omissions are included as part of the 50th-anniversary edition, released in August 2023.^[11]

Track listing

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Original release (1983)

Disc one

1. "Hang On to Yourself" – 2:55
2. "Ziggy Stardust" – 3:09
3. "Watch That Man" – 4:10
4. "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud"/"All the Young Dudes"/"Oh! You Pretty Things" – 6:37
5. "Moonage Daydream" – 6:17
6. "Space Oddity" – 4:49
7. "My Death" (Jacques Brel, Mort Shuman) – 5:45

Disc two

1. "Cracked Actor" – 2:52
2. "Time" – 5:12
3. "Width of a Circle" – 9:35
4. "Changes" – 3:35
5. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 3:09
6. "Suffragette City" – 3:02
7. "White Light/White Heat" (Lou Reed) – 4:06
8. "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" – 4:20

30th anniversary edition (2003)

Disc one

1. "Intro" (incorporating: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, arranged and performed by Wendy Carlos) (Ludwig van Beethoven) – 1:05
2. "Hang on to Yourself" – 2:55
3. "Ziggy Stardust" – 3:19
4. "Watch That Man" – 4:14
5. "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" – 3:15
6. "All the Young Dudes" – 1:38
7. "Oh! You Pretty Things" – 1:46
8. "Moonage Daydream" – 6:25
9. "Changes" – 3:36
10. "Space Oddity" – 5:05
11. "My Death" (Brel, Shuman) – 7:20

Disc two

1. "Intro" (incorporating: William Tell Overture (Abridged), arranged and performed by Wendy Carlos) (Gioacchino Rossini) – 1:01
2. "Cracked Actor" – 3:03
3. "Time" – 5:31
4. "The Width of a Circle" – 15:45
5. "Let's Spend the Night Together" (Jagger, Richards) – 3:02
6. "Suffragette City" – 4:32
7. "White Light/White Heat" (Reed) – 4:01
8. "Farewell Speech" – 0:39
9. "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" – 5:17

Personnel

• David Bowie – guitar, vocals, saxophone, harmonica
• Mick Ronson – lead guitar, vocals
• Trevor Bolder – bass
• Mick Woodmansey – drums
• Mike Garson – piano, Mellotron, organ
• Ken Fordham – alto, tenor, baritone saxophone
• John Hutchinson – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Brian Wilshaw – tenor saxophone, flute
• Geoffrey MacCormack – backing vocals, percussion

Production

• David Bowie, Mike Moran – live recording production and mixing
• Ken Scott – recording engineer
• David Bowie, Tony Visconti, Bruce Tergeson – 2003 remixing

Charts

1983–1984 weekly chart performance for Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture

Chart (1983–1984)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)^[12]	67
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)^[13]	39
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[14]	42
UK Albums Chart^[15]	17
US Billboard Pop Albums^[16]	89

2022–2023 weekly chart performance for Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture

Chart (2022–2023)	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)^[17]	21
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)^[18]	42
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)^[19]	8
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)^[20]	14
Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)^[21]	8
Italian Albums (FIMI)^[22]	71
Japanese Albums (Oricon)^[23]	25
Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)^[24]	25
Portuguese Albums (AFP)^[25]	14
Scottish Albums (OCC)^[26]	3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[27]	34
UK Albums (OCC)^[28]	10

References

1. "Great Rock discography". p. 91.
2. https://www.allmusic.com/album/r2481
3. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press.
4. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Visible Ink Press. p. 151. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
5. "David Bowie: Five Years 1969-1973 Album Review - Pitchfork". Pitchfork. October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
6. Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.116
7. David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story: p.191
8. Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Op Cit: p.65
9. "FAQ: David Bowie" at TonyVisconti.com 24 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
10. Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.320
11. "David Bowie / Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture 50th anniversary edition – SuperDeluxeEdition". June 2023.
12. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 283. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
13. "Charts.nz – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
14. "Swedishcharts.com – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
15. . Archived from the original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2008.
16. "allmusic (((Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums)))".
17. "Austriancharts.at – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
18. "Ultratop.be – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
19. "Ultratop.be – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
20. "Dutchcharts.nl – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
21. "Album Top 40 slágerlista (fizikai hanghordozók) – 2023. 33. hét". MAHASZ. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
22. "Album – Classifica settimanale WK 33 (dal 11.08.2023 al 17.08.2023)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
23. "Oricon Top 50 Albums: 2023-08-21/p/3" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
24. "Billboard Japan Hot Albums – Week of August 16, 2023". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 August 2023.
25. "Portuguesecharts.com – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
26. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
27. "Swisscharts.com – Soundtrack / David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust". Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
28. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 August 2023.