Artists
Peter Murphy – lead vocals
Daniel Ash – guitar, backing vocals
David J – bass guitar, backing vocals
Kevin Haskins – drums, percussion
Written by David Bowie. Produced by John Sparrow (BBC session producer), engineered by Mike Robinson; the members of Bauhaus are also credited as producers. Recorded for the BBC Radio 1 David Jensen Show, first broadcast on 22 July 1982, and released as a single on 5 October 1982 (Beggars Banquet), backed with “Third Uncle.”
A cover of the title track from David Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, taken from a live BBC radio session rather than a studio recording. The late John Peel was lukewarm about the cover, saying he never fully understood its appeal, yet it still reached No. 14 in his 1982 Festive Fifty listeners’ poll. The single later appeared on the compilations The Singles 1981-1983 and Bauhaus 1979-1983, and an earlier rough demo was included on the 1998 reissue of the album Mask.
Bauhaus – Ziggy Stardust Lyrics
Ziggy played guitar
Jamming good with Weird and Gilly
And the Spiders From Mars
He played it left hand
But made it too far
Became the special man
Then we were Ziggy’s band
Ziggy really sang
Screwed up eyes and screwed down hair-do
Like some cat from Japan
He could lick ’em by smiling
He could leave them to hang
Came on so loaded man
Well hung and snow-white tan
So where were the Spiders
While the flies tried to break our balls
Just the beer light to guide us
So we bitch about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands
Ziggy played for time
Jiving us that we were voodoo
But the kids were just crass
He was the nazz, with God-given ass
He took it all too far
But boy, could he play guitar
Making love with his ego
Ziggy sucked up into his mind
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed the man
We had to break up the band
Now Ziggy played guitar
To listen to other songs from the the Teleskop 23 program click here.