Moonage Daydream

As I’ve mentioned before (in my post on January 17, 2020, for example), David Bowie was a regular guest on the record player in my parents’ home, after a brother discovered his music. We listened to his early stuff, and I saw him in concert in both Liverpool, UK and again about ten years later in Winnipeg, Canada. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was and is a frequently-played favourite record.

As a kid seeing Bowie perform in Liverpool in 1973, I was amazed to see not only his trademark Japanese costumes and his band playing live but also to be among the massive pack of people congregated around the exterior of the Liverpool Empire Theatre before the show. (I was probably the youngest person there, and my parents were surely the oldest.) The fans’ clothes, hair and makeup were of an avant-garde style that I wouldn’t see on this side of the ocean until about ten years later when the Post-Punk/New Romantic/New Wave scene arrived here. I’m grateful my parents loved Bowie enough to go to his show, and that they took me along. It is an experience I remember, so clearly and fondly. 

The guitar solo in “Moonage Daydream,” which some say represents the ending of the world, is one of my favourites; I think it’s one of the better rock guitar solos. But lead guitarist (the now late) Mick Ronson must have been off his game the night this song was captured in documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture as he barely seemed to get into the solo and instead seemed to rely on his echo pedal to do the work for him. The film was shot in London about a month after we had seen the same show. Despite the missed solo, it’s a terrific DVD.

Now you know a little about why this is my song of the day for today. Thanks for joining me here. I hope you enjoy the song.

Here’s the official audio from David Bowie’s YouTube channel: