THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

186-David Bowie-Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide.

1972-The song wasn’t released as a single until 1974 when reaching Number 22.

Best Bit-At 2.13. On the rear cover of the original vinyl LP sleeve, the words ‘TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME’ were written, this instruction was omitted from all future re-releases on all formats.

‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ was the fifth studio Album from David Bowie, (1947-2016) and with sales in excess of 7.5 million copies is his second best seller behind 1982’s ‘Let’s Dance,’ which has sold in excess of 10 million copies. There are many Bowie fans who consider ‘Ziggy’ to be his greatest work, and some music critics have cited the Album’s opening two tracks ‘Five Years,’ (see also best songs 31) and ‘Soul Love,’ (see also best songs 440) to be the greatest opening of any Album ever. I would personally like to put forward this song as a major contender as the best Album closing song ever.

‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ is in the main a concept Album, with Bowie (see also best songs 807-440-334-302-209-118-47-31 and 5) taking on the role of the alien Rock singer Ziggy Stardust who comes to earth just before an impending apocalyptic disaster, (Five Years) he wins the hearts of fans, but suffers a fall from grace after succumbing to his own ego. Bowie probably based the character of Ziggy Stardust on many musicians, including his good friend Iggy Pop, (see also best songs 701 and 219) and the English Rock ‘N’ Roll singer Vince Taylor (1939-1991.)
‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide was written by David Bowie, and produced by Bowie and Ken Scott. Scott who was born in South London, England, in 1947, had already a long exalted career as an engineer working on seven of the Beatles Albums between 1964-1968, he had also worked on three previous Bowie Albums, and would go on to also produce and engineer the Aladdin Sane Album in 1973. Impatient while waiting for new material Bowie’s record label ‘RCA Records’ decided to release ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’ as a single in 1974, and as it had been available on the Ziggy Album for around two years, it only reached Number 22 on the UK chart, with the music press coining it a ‘Dosh catching exercise’ by the record label.

David Bowie toured as the character Ziggy Stardust around the world for about 18 months, and became worried that the public were beginning to see him as one dimensional, so he decided to retire the character at his final Ziggy Stardust concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on July 3rd, 1973. Before singing the finale ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide,’ Bowie announced,’It’s the last show we’ll ever do.’ The audience thought Bowie was retiring, but it was Ziggy he was killing off. That Hammersmith Odeon recording was later used in the film ‘Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture,’ which was released in 1983. Bowie also recorded a ‘blue eyed soul’ version of the song, which appears on his 1974 Album ‘David Live,’ and in 1990 on his ‘Sound +Vision Tour’ he performed the song live for the very last time.

‘Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth, you pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette. The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget, Oh, how how how, you’re a Rock ‘N’ Roll suicide.’