'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide', recorded on 4 February 1972, was one of the last songs recorded for Ziggy Stardust, along with ' Suffragette City', which would immediately precede it in the album tracklisting, and ' Starman', soon to be issued as a single. In 2003 Bowie described the James Brown songs 'Try Me' and 'Lost Someone' as 'loose inspiration' for the song.

Bowie performed Brel's 'My Death' during some Ziggy Stardust live shows, and performed 'Amsterdam' live on the BBC. The exhortation 'Oh no, love, you're not alone' references the Jacques Brel song 'You're Not Alone' ('Jef') that appeared in the musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Īlthough Bowie has suggested Baudelaire as his source, the lyrics 'Time takes a cigarette.' are somewhat similar to the poem 'Chants Andalous' by Manuel Machado: 'Life is a cigarette / Cinder, ash and fire / Some smoke it in a hurry / Others savour it'. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine similarly found it to have 'a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll'. In April 1974 RCA issued it as a single.īowie saw the song in terms of the French chanson tradition, while biographer David Buckley has described both 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' and the album's opening track ' Five Years' as 'more like avant-garde show songs than actual rock songs'. It detailed Ziggy's final collapse like an old, washed-up rock star and, as such, was also the closing number of the Ziggy Stardust live show. Co-produced by Ken Scott, Bowie recorded it with his backing band the Spiders from Mars – comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. ' Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally released as the closing track on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on 16 June 1972. 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' (2012 Remaster) on YouTube From the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Suicide by Rusty Hodgdon