Review Revue: David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Welcome to Review Revue, where every Thursday I dig through the KEXP stacks to share DJ reviews and comments written on the covers of LPs (and occasionally CDs) in the ’80s and ’90s, when the station was called KCMU, the DJs were volunteers, and people shared their opinions on little white labels instead of the internet.

Most of the items in the KEXP vinyl library are records that came into the station around when they were released, and of course part of the joy of these posts is to see what people thought of albums when they were brand new – whether they're now iconic and ubiquitous, or nearly forgotten. But every once in a while someone would add a back catalog item to the library that had already achieved classic status. In the case of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, of course, it's obvious that the KCMU gang already revered this then-twelve-year-old album as a classic. But could they have known it would stand the test of time and be so celebrated another 34 years later? Judging by their comments, they probably wouldn't have been surprised. Anyway, I have no doubt they were thrilled to have a reason to play this album rather than Tonight, which would have been his new album at the moment.