In the beginning there was Starman

For a lot of David Bowie fans, it all began with Starman. Bowie with his arm around Mike Ronson, crooning about a "Starman, waiting in the Sky" on Top of the Pops. Like a soothing sci-fi fairy tale for angst ridden seventies teenagers, Bowie sang about the hope that there was someone bigger than all of us, a benevolent alien who "would like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds".

Starman was the hit single from the "Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" album, a pop masterpeice that catapulted Bowie to fame after several years struggling as a niche artist. He had tried many styles before hitting on the Sci-Fi formula, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, pop star who would supernova in "Rock n Roll Suicide", at the end of the Ziggy album.

But is Starman just a simple pop ballad or is there more to it than that? In the context of the Ziggy album, which I believe only became a "concept" album in retrospect ( it was a collection of songs later rationalised to be a rock opera), Starman certainly has the immediate pop appeal, a catchy chorus with great "la las" from Mr Bowie in excellent voice. The lyrics are simple, but capture an intimate conversation between two teenagers, although it's not clear are they close friends or just that they have a lot in common: " I had to phone someone, so I picked on you" .

Starman is a song of hope: the hope that there is more to life than what we see on earth. In later years, Bowie reflected on death and religion in "Heathen", on Hunky Dory, he reflected his short infatuation with Buddism, and in the depths the worst period in his life he wrote the prayer that is "Word on a Wing". So, maybe Starman is a religious song of sorts, with Starman being the benevolent God. If so, it is his most optimistic one ....

What do you think?