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David Bowie / Alternate Ziggy cover

By Paul Sinclair

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26

ziggy
Click to enlarge

This is the newly created cover to the ‘other’ version of David Bowie‘s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars that is included as part of the forthcoming Five Years 1969-1973 box set.

The classic album appears twice in both the CD and vinyl versions of Five Years. The first version is the 2012 remastered edition of the original mix which of course utilises the standard cover art. The second version is the 2003 Ken Scott mix which was included on the DVD that came with the 2012 vinyl reissue and also appeared on SACD.

The artwork is of course an outtake from the famous Brian Ward Ziggy sleeve session in London’s Heddon Street and it has been coloured in the style of Terry Pastor’s original colour scheme.

Five Years 1969-1973 is released on 25 September 2015. Loads more details, should you need them, here.

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CD box set – click to enlarge

Five Years / 12CD Box Set

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Vinyl box – click to enlarge

Five Years / 13LP Vinyl Box Set

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26 Comments

26 thoughts on “David Bowie / Alternate Ziggy cover”

  3. It’s a cool cover, and will fit very well alongside the original sleeve. Like others have said – despite it’s classic status – I prefer Hunky Dory, Station to Station and Scary Monsters to Ziggy but Ziggy is a fantastic record. The defining album of UK rock/pop music of 1972.

  5. When does an album sleeve become iconic?

    Three that spring to my mind in recent years that may be seen as ‘iconic’ in the future.

    Hard-Fi CCTV – Simple but effective use of two colours and image.
    Daft Punk Random Access Memory – The two helmets.
    Gorillaz Demon Days – The cartoon characters.

  7. don’t know if anyone’s mentioned yet – but i just got an email from the Parlophone store and if you order either the cd or vinyl box set from there you get a free cd/10″ of ‘Pinups’ live – an interview disc including track snippets that was previously only available on Spotify..

  8. Wow! This seems a bit odd, but if this were the image we’d known all these years, we’d now look at the original image as being a bit odd. I think the original is better composed and framed — this seems a bit messy, what with the cardboard box partly obscuring Ziggy’s leg, and too low an angle, and that car that looks too small. (And look how claustrophobic the alley is in this shot, compared to the original!) Maybe the original pose is better, too — this has too much swagger, the original shows a pop star who still hasn’t quite made it but is determined to get there. But if you look at them both with fresh eyes now (and this image makes you do that), what a weird cover it was. Glam and trash. There’s a message there somewhere.

  9. I liked that “beating a dead horse” comment..why not flogging??
    I like the new artwork,nice to see a different photo from the same session.
    would like to hear the updated version
    but it’s a case of do I really need it.
    It’s a shame really this music was made by an ordinary Joe for ordinary Joes…now it’s a top shelf product…

    1. I think that’s a good point. I’m trying to think of anything post-2000 that I can really think of as an iconic sleeve. Anyone have any suggestions? Has album art become a dying thing?

      1. Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
        Arcade Fire – Funeral
        Deltron 3030 – s/t
        Andrew WK – I Get Wet

        Just for starters. You do realize that shit doesn’t become “iconic” overnight?

        1. I’ve never seen an iconic shit, they get flushed away before they leave any lasting impression. There was a dog shit that stayed outside our local primary school for several months and that left an indelible mark however.

          Seriously though I get your point. I meant music was groundbreaking back then and the album art went hand in hand with it. I don’t see anything in the modern era, music or art, ever being classed as innovative or blazing a trail because it all seems to retread old ground. So in that sense it will never reach iconic status.

      2. I think one of the problems of more recent album art is the shift from CDs to downloads which essentially has reduced the amount of ‘real estate’ that designers have to play with (I say this as someone that has been in the industry since the days when we had to create artwork using paste-up techniques).

        In my experience – less work goes into album art these days as it’s just not as visible. When most of listeners are going to stream or download your album why not just stick an instantly recognisable image of the artist on the cover.

        Barney Bubbles, Peter Saville, Storm Thorgerson, Malcolm Garrett, Vaughn Olivier – those were the days!

        1. Memorable post-2000 album covers:

          ‘Is This It’ The Strokes (2001)
          ‘Elephant’ The White Stripes (2003)
          ‘Franz Ferdinand’ Franz Ferdinand (2004)
          ‘Back To Black’ Amy Winehouse (2006)
          ‘xx’ The xx (2009)
          ‘It’s Blitz!’ Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2009)
          ‘AM’ Arctic Monkeys (2013)
          ‘LP1’ FKA Twigs (2014)

  13. This issue of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is leading the pack of David Bowie reissues that should have been under the heading Beating A Dead Horse. There has to be plenty of unissued material that could be marketed instead of tweaking the EQ and inventing a new sleeve!!

  15. While the 2003 mix did technically appear on the SACD, it was in 5.1 surround only. The fold-down version of the same mix in stereo (which is apparently what we’re getting here) did not.

  16. I like it a lot. It’s interesting to see an alternative sleeve to something so familiar. In fact, I think this image is probably better. However, it’s hard to be objective when you’ve known the original image for so many years and that familiarity becomes comfortable.

    1. Entirely agree with everything you wrote.
      There is something about this image that I prefer but it is hard to be objective.
      Having said that, Ziggy is not one of my favourite Bowie albums by any stretch (music or cover art).

      1. It’s a nice alternative, but the original with that phone box still does it for me :) I totally agree with you about Ziggy. Bowie himself has often complained about how relatively ‘thin’ the production is. If you were there at the time then it must be an undeniably powerful record but gimme The Thin White Duke over Ziggy any day!

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