See David Bowie Sing ‘Starman’ in Mick Rock’s Previously Unseen Footage
Ahead of a reissue of Ziggy Stardust mixed in Atmos sound, a new music video for the album’s “Starman” pairs the song with previously unseen footage shot by Mick Rock.
The famed photographer shot the footage in 1972 and ’73 as Bowie toured in support of the album. The clip includes close-ups of the artists’ shiny red boots and fans’ hands reaching up toward the stage as guitarist Mick Ronson edged closer, as well as unusual perspectives of Bowie and his plume of hot-red hair singing the song in color and black and white.
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The Atmos edition of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, due out Sept. 6, will present the record in spatial audio. The Blu-ray audio version includes the Atmos mix, a new stereo mix, and the original mix, which has been remastered. Ken Scott, who co-produced the original album, made the Atmos mix with Emre Ramazanoglu at London’s RAK Studios.
“You’re in there with the act, with David,” Scott said in a statement of the new Atmos mix. “He was so theatrical I think being able to put him into an immersive place makes this a really good choice for an Atmos mix. My whole philosophy with this has been to make it more like a live experience. And I’ve even got him moving about the stage a little towards the end, the way he would have in real life. Hopefully it just feels as if you’re in the theatre with this amazing show going on.”
The reissue follows the release of a box set, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, which featured demos, live recordings, and outtakes from the Ziggy Stardust era. “The collection chronicles Bowie’s vision of the Ziggy Stardust album from a cracked concept album about what he called ‘the archetype messiah rock star,’ into an androgynous beacon for inclusivity,” Rolling Stone wrote in a positive review.
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