Ziggy Stardust — David Bowie

Ziggy Stardust comes from Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The song tells the story of a rock star who rises to glory, lets fame and ego take over, and is torn apart by the very crowd that made him. This video features footage from the Ziggy tour, filmed across the UK in 1972 and 1973.

Seen through a Christian lens, Ziggy is a parable about pride. He “played it left hand, but made it too far,” and the spotlight that lifted him up became the thing that destroyed him. Fame promises everything and can’t hold any of it. Bowie himself retired Ziggy on stage in 1973 before the character could swallow him. The lesson still stands: glory that rests on ourselves won’t last, but a life built on God can’t be taken away by the crowd.

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18