In addition to being a fantastic song full of fantasy and melancholy, David Bowie's great song "Starman" also has a backstory and a reason for being included on the great 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders." From Mars". And it is that this album marked a before and after in terms of conceptual albums in the history of rock because it represented a fully developed concept that had possibly never been explored by an artist before.
Song after song on the album tells the story of the bizarre character Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous, bisexual, and supposedly extraterrestrial being who vows to save the earth after announcing that it will end in 5 years (the song "Five Years", which opens the album, is the one in charge of transmitting this terrible announcement to humanity).
Even though this character is actually going through a series of changes, it becomes clear as the story progresses that this being is far more human than any character on earth, relapsing into a pitiful lifestyle full of excesses, drugs and sex and getting depressed. the point of suicidal ideation due to the pressures of being a rock and roll star and all that comes with it.
The singer explained that he was nothing more than the terrestrial messenger of "Starman", who was actually the character who transmitted warnings for salvation from another planet, but that Ziggy processed as a bunch of lies to make young people believe. him. This was in an interview / conversation with the American writer William S. Boroughs for Rolling Stone magazine, really about the character of Ziggy Stardust-which David Bowie turned into his alter ego in those years.
In reality, the song is only a small part of the larger narrative that Bowie crafted, which also entailed a radical change in the aesthetics of live performances. Concerts and performances wearing these silver suits and trying to look like a sci-fi straight out of 1950s genre movies came along with this album.
This song was performed during Ziggy's cute days, and through the lyrics, he was able to understand the plot from the perspective of a kid tuning in to this "astronaut" radio frequencies.