{"id":831685,"date":"2026-11-11T23:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T23:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/831685\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T23:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T23:46:16","slug":"55-years-of-david-bowies-ziggy-stardust-and-the-real-life-figures-who-inspired-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/831685\/","title":{"rendered":"55 years of David Bowie\u2019s \u2018Ziggy Stardust\u2019, and the real-life figures who inspired him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/55-years-of-David-Bowies-\u2018Ziggy-Stardust-and-the-real-life-figures-who-inspired-him-Far-Out-Magazine.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"55 years of David Bowie's \u2018Ziggy Stardust\u2019, and the real-life figures who inspired him\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n<p> November 11th, 2026 \u00b7 4:57pm GMT <\/p>\n<p>Few fictional beings have been able to boast the same command over the airwaves as Ziggy Stardust; the glam rock extraterrestrial brought to life by <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/david-bowie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">David Bowie<\/a> at the beginning of his soon-to-be extensive career as a shapeshifting songwriter. Even a mind as expansive as Bowie\u2019s couldn\u2019t pluck such a character entirely from thin air, however.<\/p>\n<p>With his own theme, \u2018Ziggy Stardust\u2019 \u2013 recorded 55 years ago within the hallowed recording booths of London\u2019s Trident Studios \u2013 Bowie\u2019s alien alter-ego immediately identified himself as a musical revolutionary. Switching the kitsch novelty atmosphere of the Brixton-born songwriter\u2019s earlier work for a far more cutting-edge, right-on streak of glam rock immediacy, that landmark track might not have been the biggest hit to come from <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/david-bowies-the-rise-and-fall-of-ziggy-stardust-and-the-spiders-from-mars-the-greatest-album-50-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars<\/a>, but it did encircle all the influences that went into its titular character. <\/p>\n<p>Going right back to his early outings in the mid-1960s, Bowie had always been a theatrical performer, but for Ziggy Stardust\u2019s glam rock revolution, the songwriter drew more from the world of rock and roll than stage and screen \u2013 or, indeed, outer space.<\/p>\n<p>Primarily, the inspiration for the sight and sound of \u2018Ziggy Stardust\u2019 came from two often-overlooked, relatively obscure figures within the musical realm: Vince Taylor and Norman Carl Odam \u2013 better known as Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the name of whom immediately reveals a core part of Ziggy\u2019s inspiration. <\/p>\n<p>The artists behind David Bowie\u2019s rock collage  <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"\"> ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy November 11th, 2026 \u00b7 4:57pm GMT Few fictional beings have been able to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[273021,162942,18702,16845,96,83587,596,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-831685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ziggy-stardust-david-bowie","tag-162942","tag-anniversary","tag-david-bowie","tag-entertainment","tag-glam-rock","tag-homepage","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}