David Bowie’s creation of his famous character Ziggy Stardust is being explored in a new five-CD/Blu-ray audio box set, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, due out June 14.
The discs will feature 29 unreleased tracks that show Bowie’s journey from February 1971 to the release of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Those tracks include early songwriting demos, rehearsals from Bowie’s home, BBC sessions, live performances, outtakes and alternative versions. Examples include an alternate take on “Lady Stardust” and an up-tempo cover of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain.”
There’s also a previously unreleased demo of “Ziggy Stardust,” which you can listen to now via digital outlets and on YouTube.
The Blu-ray will include the 2012 remaster of the original Ziggy Stardust album plus additional mixes from 2003. There will also be an alternate version of the album, Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth), featuring recordings made at Trident Studios in December 1971. It features all the songs from the original album in an alternative running order along with four songs that were left off the record. This special album will also be available on vinyl for Record Store Day, April 20.
In addition to the music, the box set will come with two books: a 112-page book with detailed liner notes, rare photographs, memorabilia and more, as well as a 36-page reproduction of Bowie’s personal notebooks from the Ziggy Stardust era.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! is available for preorder now.
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