Behind the Recording of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars!
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- Опубліковано 15 лют 2024
- Released in 1972, Ziggy was Davis Bowie’s big breakthrough album that truly brought him to the masses. Performing as an otherworldly rockstar, Bowie created a captivating character and an incredible album. Here is a look at how it was recorded, highlighting the methods and equipment used to make this classic record!
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#ziggystardust #davidbowie #recordproduction #mickronson #kenscott
Sure on of the top 5 albums ever. It's perfect in every way, songs, musicians, production.
Completely..Unlike anything anyone ever did before or since sadly..❤❤❤❤
It blew my mind. I was sixteeen and soon hoarded anything Bowie.
It's such a fantastic, high quality album.
Hunky Dory & Ziggy I now consider to be my faves, the lyrics blew my mind when I was 10 and 11 yrs old.
Ken Scott was is such a great engineer, one of the best of his generation. The combination of Bowie, Ronson and Scott was what made these albums great.
The entire band were great
I heard 'The man who sold the world' at 6th form and that was it, by the time Ziggy arrived I was well and truly hooked
Have you heard the 2020 Visconti remix of ‘the man who sold the world’ ‘Metrobolist’ which was album’s original name! I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised!
@@Tawny6702I preferred the original darker mix but the remix was interesting
The Man Who Sold The World album is another favourite that I put side by side with the Ziggy album along with the Hunky Dory album, I could go on...
❤
Ken Scott has always been one of the top record engineers and producers. He even got a character in the Brian Pern series modeled on him!
He’s great! I need to watch Brian Perm again, I forgot about that 😅
my 2nd LP, after Aladdin Sane, I was 13. Still listen to it regularly
One thing I will point out: When ZIGGY was recorded, Bowie still had his long blonde hair (like on the Hunky Dory album cover). I always pictured Bowie recording the ZIGGY album with RED HAIR, but nope. This detail is from KEN SCOTT's amazing book (which I highly recommend) called "Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust" - It wasn't until after the ZIGGY album was recorded and Bowie was about to play a big show to debut the Ziggy songs that his wife (Angie) convinced him to cut his hair and dye it red, etc. - LOVE this video! Great job!
Thank you and cheers for the info!
You are absolutely correct. Which, in addition, makes the pictures shown in the video even more confusing to people.
Cheers sweetie
Fascinating details. My older brother got it new, I was five years away from buying records yet. It's always struck me how it manages to be such a warm, atmospheric work, yet with a really sparse instrumentation. There's a lot of room between the instruments, yet it gives a memory of fulness. Thanks for the video, and for what I take to be a picture of David (with perm) in Beckenham, where the Free Festival happened and Life on Mars was written, down the road from where I grew up.
5:50 magic! Ronno the beast
At 4:34, that image is from a Peter Gabriel recording session. Gabriel is at the bottom left, David Rhodes bottom right, Tony Levin on Stick in the middle, and Jerry Marotta on drums hidden away.
It sure is! A good picture to show where the drum booth is at Trident.
Hard to imagine that this type of analog technology could be closely replicated digitally
I bought it when it first came out
I used to be in a band in the eighties and I played guitar. We played Hang On To Yourself and I could never quite get the tone that Ronson had. Now I know why.
Fascinating. Thank you. I've been a Bowie fan for 50 years and didn't know most of this.
Thank you! 😃
Same here - pre-internet these things weren't known, and it's fascinating to hear it after all these years.
Very nice! Good anecdotes to know about this classic Bowie album! Love many of the tracks on this! \m/
Thank you! It’s such a great album, I had to find out how they recorded it.
Great finally confirmation that a lot of 70s recordings at Trident were not done on a Trident desk but a Sound Techniques desk, Danny White in LA bought all the design rights and now makes the desks again. I have one of his 2 U mic amp eq units which is excellant - particularly making my old STC 4038s come alive
Nice video. Thanks.
Thank you!
A bio of Bowie - I forget which - describes him in the USA, at a party, where he encountered a "new age" guru type, and that man had a silver disc glued to his forehead. The disc had been micro-inscribed so that it was iridescent - an unfamiliar novelty in those days (he must have had access to a university's engineering faculty or a lab).
And so was born the silver circle on Ziggy's forehead - but Bowie's version was just paint.
It must be studio witchcraft. How many times have you heard that an artist needs one more song and they create a masterpiece in no time flat. Prince's when doves cry was fulfilling a last minute request for a single.
It does seem to happen a lot, maybe they're in the groove by this point and focused.
Fascinating and comprehensive review!
Thank you!
this is really great, you guys should do more of these, it's weird how few videos talk in detail about how gear was used on a classic recording. what's goin on, songs in the key of life, led zep 4, paranoid!
Thank you, I’m definitely going to be doing a lot more . Led Zep II coming this week!
DAVID BOWIE WAS AWESOME O! HE IS A TRUE ICON.
after stealing Marc Bolan's thunder
Oh this is great info !
Thank you’
Classic!!
Thanks for that video. Lot of studio pictures here came from Pin ups sessions in Hérouville, France.
Thank you! Yeah, very few photos available from the Ziggy sessions unfortunately.
What a fantastic video ❤️
Thank you! 🙏
Great videos sir. I see big things for you in the future!
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say 🙂
I'm sure I've got 'Round and Round' (that didn't make it on to the album) on the B side of a Bowie single.
Drive-in Saturday b-side..
All these decades later, and I did not know Davies wrote, It Ain't Easy!
"It aint Easy" didn't fit at all, now its confirmed why
Replace it with quicksand from hunky dory and you have the perfect album.
He also played a 12 string Harptone guitar, especially on tour.
Great work
I subscribed
Thank you! 🙏
GREATNESS!
A truly classic album, nice to know some more about how the sound was achieved. One thing I noticed even at he age of twelve is, it's not really a *fat*, hard rock sound - the sonic image feels light and near transparent, and there's much more separation between the instruments than on let's say a Zeppelin album, or even an Elton John album. Even the title track isn't overtly loud, it has a crisp feeling to it. Maybe that was why they added the note "To be Played at Maximum Volume"? ;)
‘Crisp’ is a great way to describe it. It does have really good dynamics and the drums and vocals sound great!
Ken Scott was the "clear line" of sound mixing (for compare with comics drawners like Hergé). Opposite of Glyn Johns "fluffy sound" (I love both).
It's interesting to compare 2nd and 3rd album of Procol Harum, "Shine on brighty" made by Johns in 1968 and "A Salty Dog" made by Scott in 1969. Just two years after Ziggy, Scott achieve his sound masterpiece with the 5 years ahaead of its time "Crime of the century" by Supertramp. And in between, there was the all aclaimed Lou (Bowie/Ronson) Reed's "Transformer".
A lot to do with the small amount of compression used in comparison to many other records of the time. One of the reasons that one can listen to these songs over and over is that they don’t induce the ear fatigue that modern stuff does with all the heavy compressors compressing compressors.
@@user-kj6nc4yg5q Yes, I completely agree that modern pop/rock records tend to be very heavy on compression (and on automated trap beats, too) which is grating on the ear after a while. Compare modern hit records with Steely Dan or classic soul wax! And one of the reasons, no doubt, is that the more recent tracks are produced for people who want to be able to listen to them on their walk-in phones or ipods, out in the street or in other buzzy situations...so the sound has to be able to penetrate past the background noise.
At 4:04 I am somewhat sure you have added a photo of Bob Daisley... bassist for Ozzy
You’re right. Right type of bass, wrong bassist! 😂
RCA demanded Bowie to make a rockier album who would sell more widely, Bowie had recently made his most
icon song from that decade Life On Mars with Rick Wakeman on the piano, which been voted many times as top 5 most influencial songs of the 70th among (Imagine, Hotel California, Bohemian Raphsody, Heart Of Glass, Anarchy in the UK, Yesterday Once More, Yellow Brick Road, Smoke on the Water, I´m not in Love, etc etc) Queen Bitch in Honky Dory who haven´t been released yet is actually the start for Ziggy Stardust.
Mick RONSON
Great video. Its madness that the view are too low.
Thank you ! 🙏
With given time, I think these videos will blow up. Keep up the good work !
@@alibugra1262 That's so kind of you to say. Thank's for the encouragement! 🙂
Mick, Trevor & "Woodsy" are God's of rock who never got their due. They should have gone solo together as "The Spiders From Mars", they'd have been more popular than Bowie. People would have been lining uo to work with them.
They did and the album failed . It's a shame because all three of them were excellent .
I agree the whole band were great
You REEALLY gotta trust a drummer to use U67s on toms!!! 🤑
Great vid and wonderful insight on one of my favorite albums, thank you.
Thank you! That’s the first thing I thought. If I had some U67’s then I’d be extremely reluctant to put them anywhere near toms! 😅.
The whole Ziggy Stardust persona came from Marc Bolan who pushed Bowie in that direction ensuring him that it would be his way to break thru.
In my humble opinion, Marc Bolan would have had the same longevity that Bowie had. Both superb musicians and both ahead of their time.
"Assuring him"
Ronnos LP languishing in a Hardrock Cafe 😱
I know, at least it’s out of there now. Hopefully being used for making music now.
Rick Wakeman eat your heart out! Here we go.
He was on tour with Yes at the time - 1972 was also their big breakthrough year in America. There's no way he could realistically have been a full part of Bowie's band for this album, but he felt absolutely thrilled when Bowie played him some of the early song drafts for Hunky Dory, just the two of them in the room with Bowie singing and playing his guitar.
Pull my strings and I’ll go far
Ken Scott is a wonderful person - and brilliant! Check his book, "From Abbey Road To Ziggy", the only music bio I know where the author interviews many of his past artists in the present.
Thanks for the tip! I want to do a video on Ken and some point.
@@mixingmasteringonline He would probably accept an interview, though I haven't kept up on what he's been doing lately
Funny, because Ken Scott’s drums are just the best sounding ever in my opinion. Obviously this is one persons taste, but I’m pretty sure lots agree too.
Absolutely, they sound great!
Why isn't there a Bowie movie
Good point! Got to be one soon.
Stardust
Those were the days, when songwriters, arrangers, producers, musicians and singers still had to be talented and capable!
At 4:35: Levin on Stick? Peter Gabriel's back to us?
Marshall 200* The “Major” was a 200w plexi and PA.
There were 3 version's it seems. Lead, Bass and PA, although the PA version had PA in its name by the looks of it.
Plexiglass amps came in the '60s, before the Major series was available. Like most Marshalls you could buy a PA version, bass, or "Lead" (guitar) version - not very different really.
@@briankehew579 What's your point?
I read somewhere that all takes were done on 'fresh tape', just as well or no wonder Bowie pushed for them to get it down in one or two takes if so.
Cool, I didn’t know that, thanks for sharing.
That’s not true. Ken said some were but some were ones he went over again.
It should be a regular movie...with a bit more exposition and a better ending.. Diamond Dogs as well.
Mate, pretty sure he used a Haptone L12n for Ziggy Stardust, not the Hagstrom 12
He used the Harptone for the Ziggy tour but the Hagstrom for the recording by all accounts.
Vince Taylor was English
Actually British/American . Born in England then moved to the states when he was 7. Went back to England in adulthood. I didn’t know much about him and presumed he was more American than British.
@@mixingmasteringonline I like your channel
Thank you!
Imagine sticking a U67 on Tom Toms now… aren’t they worth about the value of a house now?
Pretty much. Definitely something to only try if you’re recording in someone else’s studio!
My butt hurts... (David Bowie1973)
That is an AKG 414 and not a C12.
No it’s a AKG C12A. You’re likely confused by the body shape which is similar to the 414.
everyone got rid of the first 3 top bottoms of their shirts..it made the record sound more cocaine...
I have a remastered that was pressed in Germany, lacks depth and soundstage and wasn't impressed, need to give it another listen and compare to streaming to see if I just have a poor copy.
Vince Taylor was a Brit, not Amwrican
Wiki said English-American as he moved to America as a child. I presumed he was more American as I didn’t know much about him but it seems that’s because he was much bigger in Europe than the UK.
@@mixingmasteringonline Both wrong. Vince Taylor was an alien. And DB was loving the alien!
@@davidcopson5800 That explains it! 🙂
Vince Taylor was English, not American.
Actually English/American. Moved to the states when he was 7 and returned to England in adulthood.
Rick Wakeman didn't "leave", he was never part of the band
"Complement" (with an "LE") means to complete - as in "a full complement."
The phrase "to compliment" (with an "LI") has no proper meaning other than "to pay a compliment" (e.g., "He complimented the chef on a fine meal").
Confusion likely sets in upon hearing (but not Reading) a statement such as "The new goalkeeper complements the team." The error would then seem to stem from assuming that "compliment" can be interchanged with "flatter" (e.g., "The dress flatters her" - which is proper English) - and thus the mistaken switcheroo is made.
Misuse of "compliment" in this fashion is now rampant due to the UA-cam Feedback Loop - wherein video-makers parrot one another's errors.
I compliment you on that complete sentence. And we must be careful here because in America recently, a man who was convicted for speaking too slowly died in prison. He was halfway through his sentence. And let us be aware that, egregious as it to confuse compliment and complement, there are those on UA-cam busy telling us that, 'they could 'of' done better than that'; or responding to some round-shouldered pleb with, ' 'your' a complete asshole'. And of course there are many who cannot distinguish between 'there' and 'their', which is their fault, and for which they're to be blamed. And, lest it escape our attention for even a moment, in the land of the bald, the man with a single hair is not necessarily king.
The word is 'Complemented'. Which is widely understood to mean 'goes well with' as well as 'completed'. It does sound like I say 'Complimented' though.
The original pressing of this album sounds shitty, way overcompressed but that was the new thing at the time. That it was one of RCA's first releases pressed on the new thin flexible vinyl hurt it too.
I was hoping to find an original pressing. Maybe I won’t bother after hearing that. I just have it on CD from the 90’s.
Ahh you must have gotten the American pressing. The original British one were excellent quality vinyl.
?? Over compressed. No compression used 🤷🏻♀️
Good to know. Our American RCA had just introduced a new vinyl pressing format and I've always wondered if the compression was to accommodate that. I'll keep ears open for the Brit version.@@cherylscott6673
You'd probably do better sonically with a modern remastered 180gram reissue.@@mixingmasteringonline
@@cherylscott6673I have the US RCA Dynaflex copy from 72 . It just sounds too mechanical to me , nothing to do with the thinner vinyl in my opinion.
*The most well-known concept album without being one. How The Stooges and the VU factor into this album is beyond me, because there's really no comparison. A great album that is an important one for the Bowie story, but TMWSTW is far superior*