Roxy Music’s Muse: Phil Manzanera’s favourite David Bowie album
Phil Manzanera is a globally recognised name in the rock and roll scene and beyond. Having been intermixed into the music industry and its many revolving parts for the last 50 years, he amassed a string of masterpieces to his name from Roxy Music and more. Manzanera, a man of many muses, notes that one of his favourite albums of all time happened to have been created by the great David Bowie, and it deeply inspires his sound.
Meeting those who shape our creative inspiration is one thing; working alongside them is another. For Manzanera, a career highlight was sharing a stage with Bowie, whose work remains among his key points of inspiration. During an interview with Spin, Manzanera explained that while with Roxy Music, he supported Bowie at a gig in Croydon. The two acts played together, as if by fate, with Roxy Music’s debut album released on the same day as Ziggy Stardust, on June 6th, 1972.
Originally crafted in the early stages of its conceptual development, the album followed the tumultuous journey of an androgynous, bisexual alien rock star. Rough edges were smoothed out after the initial recordings, refining the work into what is now loosely considered both a rock opera, a concept album, and the beginning of glam rock. Each track contributes to the narrative of Bowie’s alter ego, who arrives on Earth to stave off an impending apocalyptic disaster.
The album is multifaceted and details Ziggy’s experience as he wins over fans vying for his attention. In the midst of a soon-to-falter claim to fame, Ziggy becomes subsumed by his own ego as the album outlines the near-immediate fall from grace on a woeful planet Earth. It’s clear the record is much more than a lighthearted story of fiction, as it delves into long-standing issues within the rock ‘n’ roll industry.
Discussing the negative realities interwoven into the scene, political issues are highlighted, drug use noted, and the many ways all of these elements weave into social positionality, sexuality and what it takes to reach stardom. These were all topics that Manzanera knew well.
Speaking about why he figured he couldn’t live without the record, he summed it up to Spin as simply an exhibition of “brilliant songs, attitude, image, and great band”. Alongside the likes of Miles Davis, The Beatles and The Who, this classic record shaped not only Manzanera’s sound but his outlook on the potential of music.
The album remains socially relevant today for many reasons. The musical storyline was acknowledged as worthy of historical preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2016. Not only is the album chock-full of belter-worthy tracks, but it was deemed important enough to be permanently preserved due to it being confirmed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The hedonistic storyline is one of an iridescent gluttony for fame, a fixation the industry feeds and then, in equal measures, punishes.
