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Hang On To Yourself: 40th Anniversary Edition of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" Coming In June From EMI

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In 1972, you would have found David Bowie at the crossroads of music, fashion and theatre when he introduced Ziggy Stardust on his now-iconic breakthrough LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.  If the album hardly sounded like any other, “alien” might have been too much of an understatement for Ziggy himself.  The concept behind the album was light but the songs were heavy, and among the best Bowie had penned to date.  Hard rock riffs melded with evocative orchestrations on mini-rock operas like “Suffragette City,” “Moonage Daydream,” “Hang Onto Yourself” and “Five Years,” with The Spiders from Mars - Mick Ronson (guitar, pianos, string arrangements), Trevor Bolder (bass) and Mick Woodmansey (drums) - playing to perfection.  Fast-forward to 2012, and a 40th Anniversary Edition of the title seemed inevitable.  That release has just been announced by David Bowie’s Facebook team, and in this day and age of the Super Deluxe Edition, it seems positively modest, especially for the flamboyant Ziggy.

Despite gaining stature over the years as an iconic album of the glam era, Ziggy Stardust only reached No. 75 in the U.S. (it scored significantly better in the U.K., peaking at No. 5) upon its initial release.  Ziggy was eventually certified platinum and gold in the U.K. and U.S., respectively.  “Starman,” selected as the album’s single, reached No. 10 in the U.K., but echoing the album’s placement, it only managed to make it to No. 65 on the U.S. chart.  Still, Ziggy has been released numerous times in the compact disc age, making this new edition just one in a long line of Ziggy Stardust remasters.

Due on June 4 in the U.K. and June 5 in the U.S., the new Ziggy will be available in a variety of formats (CD, LP, and audio DVD with surround mixes).  Hit the jump for all of the details including track listings and discography!

A basic CD edition will feature a 2012 remaster from Ray Staff, the album’s original mastering engineer at Trident Studios, and Ken Scott, the album’s co-producer.  A 180-gram vinyl edition will also be freshly remastered by Staff.  A DVD will offer Staff’s 2012 remaster in 96/24 PCM Stereo plus the 5.1 surround mixes created in 2003 by Ken Scott for the now-out-of-print SACD edition.  The surround mixes will be available in DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital, and the disc will also contain a stereo fold-down (48/24 PCM) of the original album plus previously unreleased 5.1 mixes of “Moonage Daydream (Instrumental),” “The Supermen,” “Velvet Goldmine” and “Sweet Head.”

While the inclusion of previously unreleased 5.1 mixes will be enough to entice some surround fans, Bowie’s Facebook page also notes, “This is great news for those of you that have been after a copy of the 2003 Ziggy SACD which featured the 5.1 mixes, as you would be hard-pushed to get change from sixty quid for a copy these days. Somebody is even asking for £175 for a copy on a popular marketplace site right now!”

How does this edition compare with previous issues?  Ziggy had its domestic CD premiere from RCA in 1984 (PCD1-4702) in an edition still prized by audiophiles.  When Rykodisc acquired the Bowie catalogue, Ziggy was rolled out with five bonus tracks (RCD-90134) in 1990: demos of “Ziggy Stardust” and “Lady Stardust,” the outtakes “Velvet Goldmine” (also the B-side of the 1975 reissue of “Space Oddity”) and “Sweet Head,” plus an unreleased mix of “John, I’m Only Dancing.”  The Bowie catalogue changed hands again near the end of the decade, and the new remasters from Virgin/EMI deleted the bonus tracks from each title.  Hence, 1999’s EMI issue (7243 521900 0 3), as remastered by Peter Mew, contains only the original album sequence.  Three years later, EMI unveiled a deluxe 2-CD edition of the seminal album (7243 5 39826 2 1) for its 30th anniversary, but the remastering on this set proved controversial.  The left and right stereo channels were reversed on the original LP sequence, and some of the songs (“Hang On to Yourself,” the bridge between “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City”) were clipped.  Its second disc contains twelve tracks, many of which had been previously released by Rykodisc and spread among their 1990–92 reissues. Each of the five bonus tracks from the Rykodisc CD appears, albeit some in different form.  (“Sweet Head,” for instance, features extended studio chatter at its beginning.)  A stereo and multi-channel hybrid SACD (07243 521900 2 7) was released concurrently.  The newly-created remaster for the 40th anniversary will likely address the concerns raised about the 30th anniversary set.

It’s not completely clear how these formats will be sold; the fine U.K. retailer What Records is currently accepting pre-orders for a CD-only edition retailing at £9.99 and an LP+DVD combo at £16.99.  Rest assured we’ll report back as soon as pre-order links are active domestically and more information is revealed as to how each format will be sold!  The 40th Anniversary Edition of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars arrives from EMI on June 4 in the U.K. and June 5 in the U.S.!

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (RCA LSP-4702, 1972 – reissued EMI, 2012)

CD and LP Editions:

  1. Five Years (2012 - Remaster)
  2. Soul Love (2012 - Remaster)
  3. Moonage Daydream (2012 - Remaster)
  4. Starman (2012 - Remaster)
  5. It Ain't Easy (2012 - Remaster)
  6. Lady Stardust (2012 - Remaster)
  7. Star (2012 - Remaster)
  8. Hang On to Yourself (2012 - Remaster)
  9. Ziggy Stardust (2012 - Remaster)
  10. Suffragette City (2012 - Remaster)
  11. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (2012 - Remaster)

DVD:

  1. Five Years (2012 - Remaster)
  2. Soul Love (2012 - Remaster)
  3. Moonage Daydream (2012 - Remaster)
  4. Starman (2012 - Remaster)
  5. It Ain't Easy (2012 - Remaster)
  6. Lady Stardust (2012 - Remaster)
  7. Star (2012 - Remaster)
  8. Hang On to Yourself (2012 - Remaster)
  9. Ziggy Stardust (2012 - Remaster)
  10. Suffragette City (2012 - Remaster)
  11. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (2012 - Remaster)
  12. Five Years (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  13. Soul Love (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  14. Moonage Daydream (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  15. Starman (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  16. It Ain't Easy (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  17. Lady Stardust (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  18. Star (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  19. Hang On To Yourself (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  20. Ziggy Stardust (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  21. Suffragette City (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  22. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  23. Moonage Daydream (Instrumental) - Previously Unreleased 5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  24. The Supermen - Previously Unreleased 5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  25. Velvet Goldmine - Previously Unreleased 5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
  26. Sweet Head - Previously Unreleased 5.1 mixes: DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital / Stereo mixes: 48/24 LPCM stereo)
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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

    • I'm totally with you on this — of the pre-76 catalogue, only The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory have yet to get an anniversary edition. With the rare promo now bouncing around the Internet, and BBC sessions from the era, certainly there's enough for David to review it?

      Reply

  3. "The surround mixes will be available in DTS 48/24 and Dolby Digital"....is the 2003 SACD surround mix a higher resolution?

    Reply

    • Yes, the SACD is in true advanced resolution, while DTS and Dolby Digital are both "lossy" formats. I'm especially surprised that the DVD here isn't at least in DTS 96/24, which is of higher resolution than 48/24.

      Reply

      • "Yes, the SACD is in true advanced resolution, while DTS and Dolby Digital are both “lossy” formats. I’m especially surprised that the DVD here isn’t at least in DTS 96/24, which is of higher resolution than 48/24."

        So, if I have the Ryko AU20, the 30th anniversary issue and the SACD and I am not interested in vinyl what is new for me on this?

        Reply

        • The only "new" additions to the catalogue are the 5.1 mixes of the bonus material on the DVD, other than the fresh 2012 remastering across all formats.

          Reply

  4. I hope "Starman" will finally be the UK mix with the more prominent "telegraph" guitar in the verse/chorus break.

    Reply

    • There appears to be only one CD of audio content for Ziggy's 40th, i.e. no bonus material on CD. I'm still awaiting word on whether there will be a CD/DVD edition, however.

      Reply

  6. I'm shocked that this release is so modest, especially after last year's epic Station to Station blow-out. You would figure that if any title screamed out "excess", it would be Ziggy Stardust. But maybe there's little left to add, as pieces of that period of Bowie have been released piecemeal over the years.

    Reply

  7. This is a surprisingly modest and uninteresting deluxe edition, by David Bowie. After "StationToStation", I was expecting something colossal for "Ziggy", which is a much more popular album.
    Meanwhile, there's still no special treatment for the seminal "electrorock" album "Low"...

    Reply

    • Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy: The Motion Picture, Diamond Dogs, David Live, Station To Station. With the unexpected insertion of the Space Oddity release before Station To Station, I'd say the odds look good that Low will be the next album to get the deluxe treatment.

      Then again, a fan poll on the website indicated that A Reality Tour's now availability would be followed by a 1995 show…. :-/

      Reply

  8. One other thing occurred to me...I read somewhere else that the 2012 stereo mix was going to be hi-rez not 48/24 as stated here....if true, that would be new, I suppose.....

    Reply

  10. It is surprisingly modest indeed, considering the recent, great Station to Station-deluxe, or even just the Ziggy 30th anniversary edition, which featured a whole bonus disc.
    So this is rather disappointing IMO.... people are expected to buy for the mpteenth time the same record, and the only thing they're offering is the mpteenth remaster... I think fans/customer deserve something more.
    And come on, how many times can you remaster the same record?

    Reply

  11. I don,t care about all the frills - I just want that DVD. I bought that massive 'Station to Station' set almost only for the DVD. And it was WORTH it!

    Reply

  12. For crying out loud, another Ziggy release, come on give us something juicer, whay happened to Hunky Dory 40th, Pin Ups, Low (35th), Man Who Sold The World 40th, Scary Monsters 30th - all lost - lets hope Bowie will release a big set of the Berlin trilogy (all three lps)

    Reply

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