Our most enduring stars are those who have reinvented themselves over time. On the heels of hard rock (The Man Who Sold the World ) and pop (Hunky Dory) albums, Bowie changed his sound and created his most iconic persona, the bisexual androgyny glam rocker from another planet Ziggy Stardust.

Some time before, he’d started showing up at T Rex concerts and miming onstage, and his friend Marc Bolan of T Rex had worked on The Man Who Sold the World. Evidently influenced by T Rex’s glam rock image and the futuristic 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange, Bowie changed his sound and his look for the next album Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars

The riffs rock and the lyrics are infused with paranoia in this song cycle of an apocalyptic future. No dramatic turn was spared in the production which features Mick Ronson’s hard rocking guitar and a string section.

Playing the alien Ziggy Stardust with flaming red hair and flamboyant outfits that showed off his shapely legs, David Bowie embarked on his first large scale tour for the album in 1972, which ended in superstardom. Bowie abandoned the look by 1974 when he became enamored of soul music and started sporting the sophisticated stylish threads he still wears.